Recession Proof GLP...heating/air conditioning

In cold weather, think extra layers!

Don't just crank up the heat, add an extra layer of clothing instead.... especially a hat!

90% of body heat is lost through your head, so wearing a hat helps keep you warmer, longer.

A simple scarf around your neck also keeps you warmer, try it!

Wear fingerless gloves and warm socks in the house too.

And do not forget the golden rule, VENTILATE your rooms; carbon monoxide kills.

You can purchase a carbon monoxide detector. Good thing if you use an unvented gas heater.

thanks alzaya....for getting this started...

we are about to start summer and the great buys are here for heating items

In the Winter here in the Southern California desert, we only turn on our propane heat when it gets really cold.

We use our big old fireplace... burn trash in it, chop wood (carry water). Only drawback is that we can't burn in the fireplace when it's really windy.

Like suggested, we close doors between rooms. Often during the Winter, we have been happy to live mainly in one room... the livingroom. In the Summer, we close doors between rooms so the swamp cooler will work better (remembering to keep a window open for outlet).

My husband Magi, now 81, was raised during the Great Depression, so that's "how we think", lol.

In the Winter... we do NOT run the heater at night. Magi sez it's a waste of heat. When we're sleeping, we just pile on the covers, lol.

But, I realize that in this kind of desert climate, it's much easier than in the Midwest or New England states.

Our power bills come "in reverse"... higher in the Summer. Today we're just warming up (first day) ~ thermometer is 106 F.


Wasayo

By law, I have to keep my thermostat at a steady 68 degrees from September to June. This is because I own a duplex and one unit is a rental.

But we put in a hi-efficiency last fall and it cut the big months (Dec,Jan,Feb) in half cost-wise.

The upside of a duplex is that my tenants basically pay my mortgage and taxes!!

that's exactly what I do. only I kept the temp at 56....

Be careful about heating just one room. When it gets cold enough your pipes will freeze on the cold side of the house. I suggest plastic on the inside of the windows. I had some custom plexiglass panels cut for my back room. Made a huge difference. Insulation will be well worth investing in. Ceilings and walls. This will more than pay for itself next winter.

it may seem simple but get insulation for your outlet covers.
heat can be lost through them.

it's spring here and 45 degrees is f***n cold

keeps the nipples at attention

if you want to get warm...

visit a neighbor

Mr. Rogers said it's 'OK!"

Do you mean to get the loose pink kind and stick it all around the actual electrical unit...when you take the cover off?

Thanks

If you own a house that has a finished basement, you can sleep there in the summer months. (If finances get tight enough).

Our basement (with two large windows) stays about 73 - 76 degrees.

I can't sleep when it's hot, so air conditioner goes on. But if I was watching my pennies, I would not have any problem sleeping in the basement family room!

They are premade, just ask someone at Home Depot, they will show you what you are looking for.

My "warm room" is the kitchen.

I have a good wood stove in there and I keep it nice and warm.

the rest of the house is heated with a furnace in the basement.
and I like to burn wood and coal down there.

I only get that going when it's real cold.
I like to keep that part of the house around 55 degrees.

I don't heat the bedroom at all.
I like to sleep in the room cold enough to see your breath.

My dog will sleep under the blanket some nights,
and a hundred and thirty pound pit bull/mastiff
can heat better than an electric blanket.

Last winter I used about three cord of wood and roughly
500 pounds of coal.

A little over 500 bucks.

In the summer, there are a few hot weeks,
but, my house is shaded from the east by gigantic maple trees.
Never gets hot.

I just spent the morning looking over a home that is to be removed and a new home built in its place..

my freinds asked me to look at the heating/air conditioning system that was 3 years old....


the owners spent $8000.00 three years ago...I saw the paper work....on a lennox 15 SEER system..

we got it for $1200.00


now you will say it is used...

12 years ago I installed a 5 year old system (used) in the home they are in now...


so after 17 years ...it is still running....LOL...LOL...LOL

I bought a Jotul woodstove on ebay 3 years ago for $800. Works great. I get all my wood for free. I will start splitting for next winter this week.

I have two huge oak trees, and our house still gets hot.
We have three hot months and some days and nights are three digit temps.

:-(

My house is over two hundred years old,
with a dirt floor basement,
and I believe that also helps with keeping it cool.
I think it helps keep the house warm also,
the ground below frost level, I understand,
is 50 degrees,
and I don't worry about heat in the winter until it reaches
+10 degrees, then I fire up the furnace.

Alzaya..

do you mind if the title of your thread be changed to ..

Recession Proof GLP...heating/air conditioning


paladin

I live on a hill top and I get blasted with the wind.Four years ago I changed every window in the house,
and installed siding with insulation under it,
and it made a huge difference.

See what you can learn about methane gas. There are ways to make it and it can be used just like the bought gas.
I know it can be done, because I know people who have used it. You might need a natural gas hook up I don't know.

i usually only run heat when it gets down in the 30s or 20's..otherwise you dont need it..40's is t shirt weather

What no solar heat?

25,000 watts of sun shines on your roof.

25kw x $.1/hr = $2.50/hour x 6 hours = $15 per day

= @ $2,000 of free heat each winter

Of course not...My bad! Can you do it, or do you want me to?

Thanks!

In the summer time, I don't use my central Air. I open the house up at night and before the sun comes up, I close it all up and it stays cool.

EXCEPT I have two sky lights and they let lots of heat in.
Sometimes I put something over the one in the kitchen.

I have trees on both sides of my house and they help to keep it cool.

I like cold bedrooms and sleep best under a load of good blankets in a cold room. I wear a kerchief to bed, and Hubby wears a cap.

I'm working on getting a radiant barrier up in my attic. A friend has it in hers, and it's the most amazing thing! It can be 100F outside, 130F in my own attic, and 90F in hers. Her electric bill is greatly reduced in summer with that radiant barrier. Winter is comfy, too. It's amazing!!!

We installed the insulation around the outlets and switches. It makes a difference!

Two years ago Hubby constructed an emergency heater. I posted it in a couple of GLP threads last year. It's VERY helpful when the power goes out and the room gets chilly. This past winter, my natural gas bill kicked my ass, so I used the "emergency heater" exclusively for keeping my family room comfy.

Clay pots are available right now, so this would be a great time to stock up. They aren't so easy to find come winter.

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EMERGENCY HEATER IDEA with photos:

Hubby constructed an emergency heater out of clay pots and some hardware he had laying around. We got the idea from some guy on the Internet who was selling something similar for about $29. We didn't spend a dime, but that's because we had the materials on hand. We modified the other guy's idea to suit what we already had.

After Hubby built it, we dried out the cleaned clay pot by burning a candle in it for about 8 hours. You could probably use the oven. It did stink! We've since used the heater quite a bit. The room where we use it is large (19x22), and it didn't heat the space well enough to make it cozy, but it broke the chill. I'd like to have two of these for the large room. Anyway, we did use this one in a smaller room (11x12) and it kept the interior temp around 65F when the outdoor temps were below freezing.

The completed unit is resting on a single saltillo tile (12in x 12in). This prevents catching the furniture on fire. LOL! The unit uses a single candle. The candle MUST be in either a glass container or something like a large old tuna can because the reflected heat will melt the candle and make a huge mess. You can use this as a general idea and modify it to suit yourself...but do NOT use any heat source except encased candles.

[link to i116.photobucket.com]
1. We used a clay pot dish for the interior base. This prevents melted wax from pouring off the candle and onto the furniture. The $29 heater had more interior clay pots than we used, but this is what we had.

You can get NEW pots at a home decor center, or Hobby Lobby, or Garden Ridge, or those kinds of places...or you can scrub up some old ones as we did. The smaller interior pot is held in place using standard nuts and bolts, with washers as spacers. There are extra nuts and washers that increase the radiant heat factor...just space a washer and a nut and another washer...etc. It's also a good idea to stagger the washer sizes from small to large.

[link to i116.photobucket.com]
2. We used 3 old metal shelf L-brackets for the supports and leg assembly. These old brackets came pre-drilled. Hubby threaded the 3 brackets together (as shown in photo), and stabilized this joint with a nut on top and one on the bottom. The large top clay pot assembly rests on the threaded bolts at the top of each bracket. Do NOT use plastic or wood brackets.

[link to s116.photobucket.com]
3. Here, you can see the center assembly. Each nut set can be adjusted to make the unit level.

[link to s116.photobucket.com]
4. Here, you can see the interior of the clay pot heater top. You can almost see the staggered nut/washer "radiator." So far, the metal hasn't gotten hot enough to cause burns, but I guess that would depend on your own assembly.

[link to s116.photobucket.com]
5. The "radiator" core is threaded into the top of the exterior clay pot assembly and a washer stabilizes it.

[link to i116.photobucket.com]
6. The finished clay pot emergency heater. In this photo, we are using an old glass candle holder with a votive. Use a glass container that will easily slide under the lip of the clay pot top, if possible. Or be prepared to lift off the top each time you need to light the thing. Ugh.

You can modify this in several different ways, but the main ideas are to use the bolt-washer-nut-washer-nut internal "radiator," the stacked clean clay pots and clay dish, brackets of some type that are fire-proof, a fire-proof tile or such under the base, and a pillar candle that is either in a glass container or that will fit in a BIG tuna (or chicken) can -- big enough to contain melted wax. I recommend the former.

We did NOT use any other heat source except a candle. Hubby (the old Army Safety Geek) does NOT recommend using oil lamps or sterno cans or any such because the reflected heat could cause spontaneous combustion....KA-BOOM!

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Added note as of 2008: We started using tea-lights in a big tuna can, and it worked GREAT!!! The large tuna can will hold 4 tea-lights, and they generally burn for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. BIG LOTS had large bags of tealights the other day for $4.00. I picked up a couple of bags.

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As it warms up, we open our windows at night, and close them during the day. I can't afford to run my air-conditioners (yes, this house was built with two of them), so we use fans.

We also have awnings on the windows.

And we take COLD showers. I love it. My hair shines like crazy when I rinse with cold water.

We have a drafty old house that would cost a small fortune to properly winterize. Natural gas was eating us alive so I got mad, had it shut off and implemented lessons taught by my grandmother who survived the Depression while raising 5 small children.

The first thing was to buy a large roll of heavy duty plastic drop cloth at the local hardware for under $20. You can put it on windows from the outside by laying it in, replacing the screen over it and trimming the excess. If you are careful, you can do a nice looking job and the plastic still lets in a substantial amount of light. No screens? Staple gun it to the inside or duct tape to windows... looks funky, but works.

Next, I scoured the yard sales and thrift shops for heavy material or suitable blankets. One room's window received a wool blanket with a pleasing design. It had been washed and shrunk to a tightly woven, half-stiff thing that worked perfectly for keeping out the cold. Huge old lined velvet drapes were found, dyed and patterned into a full new set of toasty pull curtains.

Hung an attractive blanket over each metal exterior door, which cut down on heat transfer noticeably. Sewed a ring to one side for easy open and close... tacked the other side straight to the edge of the wooden door frame.

Two small propane tanks... one for the kitchen stove and one for a small, old Dearborn and we were all set. From November through March, we used $150 of propane as compared to $150 - $180 a month of NG. Turned the heater down very low at night and kept the bedroom window cracked for ventilation and safety. Did have to run a small electric heater in the bathroom during the worst freezes, but the electric only increased by $20 a month. The extra daytime lighting needed added another $10 or so a month.

Layered the clothing a little more, but nothing extreme so the temp must have stayed around 55 to 6o at least.

Next year I am going to have a couple of those flower pot heaters that Redheaded Stepchild spoke of to offset some of the propane costs. That or one of the other heaters linked below.

[link to www.motherearthnews.com]
[link to journeytoforever.org]
[link to journeytoforever.org]
[link to video.google.com]

User ID: 383623
6/1/2008 8:23 PM


SOLAR CURTAINS REDUCE SUMMERTIME HEAT IN YOUR HOUSE


[link to www.carolwrightgifts.com]

I ordered 8 solar curtains for the windows that receive sun in the hottest part of the day. This is not a gimmick. They really do cut down on the heat coming thru your windows and keep things quite cool. Now the hottest it's been so far this year has been 80 deg., havn't reached the 90-100 deg. heat that will be coming. It works nice if you have a window on the shade side of your house open for fresh air and a fan to keep the air moving. Hey I'm for anything that keeps me from cutting on the AC as long as possible.

I was just reading the thread about the guy who made his own ac using a fan and a garbage can of water and it made me think what else I could do to keep cool and save $$$$

[link to www.reddawn.com]

Geothermal heating/cooling!

Redheaded stepchild....I made 7 of these by looking at your photos.

Thanks!

Another thing...I came across a site with insulating additive for paint. I'm going to purchase some of them.

Also, I'm looking for the link that had the solar curtain panels...anyone know which thread it was on?

Alzaya