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Originally Posted by Argie's Wife
"...I'm running scared about how we're going to get through the heating season without losing our shirt..."
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It doesn't sound like you're prepared to spend more on a more-efficient heating system, so I'll add a few more ideas—saying again that conserving heat is still your best bet.
Adding moisture to the interior air makes the house
feel warmer at reduced temperatures. I keep a water kettle on "simmer"
and one on the wood stove.
If you have evergreens blocking the north wind, that's good: if you have evergreens shading your house from any winter sun, I'd remove them or do some selective trimming.
There is always some heat loss from a water heater. If it's outside of your living areas, consider installing its eventual replacement indoors, making the house gain some heat at no cost. (And a toasty place to store articles away from moisture.)
While not technically a heater, judicious use of a water distiller will throw off 800 watts of heat AND give the family a gallon of distilled water for about 25 cents. Set on timers, one or two distillers could warm the rooms they're in for about five hours. Distilled water stores well without treatment, so many gallons can be stored for use in warmer times.
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Originally Posted by fatlazyless
 "...Let me remind everyone that Acres lives in FLORIDA in the winter..." |
We get sub-freezes in Florida—
you probably don't get "rolling electric blackouts" when it freezes.
Typically, our blackouts will last four hours.
Under such emergencies, consider running a tub of hot water to capture the heat from an electric water heater that would normally go unused and lost. A local radio program suggested plugging the tub during showers to "gain" that warmth inside the house instead of being lost underground. (Drain the tub after it's cooled).
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Originally Posted by fatlazyless
"...Wood stoves are terrific, but for most people, they are just a form of recreational heat..."
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"Recreational heat" is a fire in a fireplace: woodstoves are pretty efficient.
Either way, wood is a
solar energy resource.
It's probably too late in the game to buy a good used one this season. If you do happen to find one, check for weak spots in the cast iron or steel plates—they do get thin. If it disassembles for transport, reassemble it using a special high-temperature caulk. That caulk doesn't store well, so use it liberally.
I'd forego colored exteriors, and go with the basic cast iron finish. Locate it far from any refrigerator or freezer, use dry wood, store the wood where it gets some sun and be creative with stovepipe. Some early settlers used two or three "up" pipes to the ceiling. I use one pipe but use a small fan in a duct to return heat to floor level. Long runs of pipe will more transfer more heat indoors but require some minimum angle to properly duct the smoke.
Counter-intuititively, pipe has to be assembled with the creased end down and pointing towards the wood heat source. (To keep condensing moisture in the pipe.) In the last ten years, I've bought three cast iron wood stoves, and rigged the stove pipes myself, so I know ALL the mistakes...I mean,
angles to this heat source.
One antique woodstove—bought in Ossipee—burns wood and coal. Bituminous coal, I found, burns 'way too hot for Florida's occasional sub-freezing temps. The difference between where the stove was located and the furthest part of the house could be 60° in temperature! LOL.
Because my Winnipesaukee place is not insulated, the woodstove can only manage about 30° above the outside temperature and has to be augmented with electric heat between Halloween and Thanksgiving. (After which time, the pipes would freeze anyway—so
this Yankee goes to Florida).
