Our house is old too (about 85yrs) but it actually holds heat/cold very well. We did put plastic over the windows in the winter last winter, and will most likely be doing a few more this year. With fuel oil being so high, I am thinking I will be making everyone a blanket for christmas to wrap up in

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we have been in our house a little over a year now ... Last winter we replaced the back sliding glass door, the gasket under the front door (since I could see out). This summer we have replaced the roof. ( it was prob a 20 yr shingle on a house built in 78 and we wer the first to redo it). I can't wait to see how that is going ot help this winter. We have a very large window in the livingroom that I wanto put plastic on but I have to talk dh into it. Also in the bed rooms. We have a split level home and we spend about 90% of the time up stairs so we close almost all the vents off downstairs. We vent the dryer into the main room down stairs (we bought a kit that you attach to the line to switch it from in room to the out side line). We also bought a mattress warmer and are going to be buying on for dd this year since she is no longer in the crib.

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I think this winter we'll finally break down and purchase some blinds (the kind that block the heat in the summer & help hold the heat in winter) for the upstairs windows, and the large window in our foyer. We were going to do it before summer, and never got around to it. We also just installed a storm door for the front door; even I am amazed at how efficient that door is (it's a Larson w/ a retractable screen)! Our home is newer (we built and moved in Dec. 2001), so it's fairly energy efficient already. We supplement our propane furnance with a wood burning stove we have in our basement, so we have the chimney cleaned to help the wood burner work more efficiently and to also avoid a chimney fire. We keep our thermostats in the winter set at 67*, both on the 1st & 2nd floors, but with the woodburner going, there have been times when I've had to crack a window, especially in the kitchen, if it gets too warm!! lol

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~*~ Angie~*~
Wife to Brian
SAHM to Sarah & Andy 2/11/2000

Happymom's thread about winterizing your home was so informative I thought we should sticky a thread with tips on saving money on our heating bills.

Feel free to post your tips for winterizing as well as how you keep your heating costs down in general.

-Plan ahead and participate in your winter pre-buy programs if you heat with propane, or heating oil. It costs more on the front end, but you will save money over the course of the winter.

-Run heat producing appliances during the day. Use the oven, dishwasher, and dryer every little bit of heat helps.

-Keep your thermostat lower and wear layers of clothing instead of turning up the heat. Lower it a few degrees more at night when you are snuggled in your bed. We keep ours at 64 degrees during the day and 59 degrees at night.

-Use an electric blanket to cut the nightime chill. You don't even have to leave it on all night...we just use ours to heat up the bed and turn it off when we go to sleep. We can turn the furnace down much lower at night because of it.

-Invest in a programmable thermostat...and actually program it. We noticed a difference in our bill when we installed ours 6 years ago. It paid for itself very quickly.

-Invest in an insulated water heater blanket if your water heater is in a cold location like a basement or crawl space. We spend a lot of money heating water and this investment will pay for itself quickly.

-Make sure your house is insulated well.

-Check your weather stripping for wear and replace if necessary.


Anyone else have any tips to add?

When we installed our electric water heater, our power company installed a "regulator" (I don't know what it's actually called) on it, and basically it's a timer that heats the water at night, during off peak hours. It cycles every 12 hours, heating from 7pm-7am. We got a rebate from the power company towards the purchase of the water heater, and we get a $4 credit every month on our bill every month. I know $4 doesn't sound like much, but that's $48 a year, times 6 years (so far): $288.00 so far! You might check with your electric company and see if they have any programs to help to defer your energy costs.

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~*~ Angie~*~
Wife to Brian
SAHM to Sarah & Andy 2/11/2000

-dh calked around the windows
-switch ceiling fans to turn the other way
-programmable thermostats are great---drop the temp when no one is home
-craft places have those heavy things you can place in front on the doors. I've also just used a towel (our front door can be drafty)

These are SOOOOOOO nice! I slept over at my Mom's last year one night in a snow storm and her spare room had a heated matress pad and it was like heaven on earth! We have a king size bed though and they are pretty pricey for that size, and I haven't seen them on clearance yet!

We just moved to a new place that has electric base board heating, which I've never had before. My fiance says it will be cold, but he and I have very different ideas of cold! From what I hear though, it should be nicer to us on the pocket book than gas heat.

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If it wasn't on a clearance rack, it's not in my house!

We had to replace all our windows, skylight and sliding glass door a few years ago, and our house if 40 years old. The aluminum windows were drafty and would get moldy.

I have a question for you . . . our front doors have a small gap at the bottom, so I keep putting a towel down, but would like more of a permanent fix. We tried the weather stripping that sticks on, but it fell off almost immediately. And, we "think" a metal strip would get hung up on the large rug that's just inside the door. Any ideas?

You need a Door Sweep- you can get them at HD or Lowes. Measure your door width before you go, they come in several sizes.
Then, when ready take the door off,lay it on a blanket and fasten the sweep to the botom and re-hang the door. With two people it should be done in less than 30 minutes. It took me about 90 minutes- I had to get the old one on the bottom off and thought it would be easy...it wasn't. Putting the new one on took a couple of small nails and done! Now, re-hanging the sucker was another matter.