Forums | MacLife

Plastic over the windows, held down with molding screwed into the window frame.

You can't see outside very well, it's ugly, but it's cheap and effective.

Electric or down blankets for the bed, and go to Costco and get one of those giant dish like heaters. They're about $50 iirc.

jeff-o wrote:

justine wrote:

Electric or down blankets for the bed, and go to Costco and get one of those giant dish like heaters. They're about $50 iirc.

$50 + extra money for the electricity to run the heaters.

Or, spend $100 on insulation and save $50 on heating.  Then keep saving money on heating AND cooling for as long as you live in the house.

Hmmmm....

" We just moved into this house last May, so there isn't a lot of money left over to fix the one thing that sucks heat more than anything and that is our windows."

user wrote:

Plastic over the windows, held down with molding screwed into the window frame.

You can't see outside very well, it's ugly, but it's cheap and effective.

Agreed.
Cheap, fast, and easy.
They make kits that have peel 'n stick adhesive on the plastic. A staple gun will work, too. And you can put the plastic on the inside, so you dont need to be out in the cold.
I'd get to WalMart ASAP, before they are sold out.

Kerosene heaters have been popular around here for a long time. Emergency and supplemental heat. They are cheap, and they really put out the heat. The trick is finding good kerosene, not diesel or home heating oil being sold as kerosene. Dealers will tell you there is no difference, and the oil does burn ok in the heater, but it has a bit of an odor and it gums up the wick more than real kerosene will. Sometimes you can find K-1 kerosene at the store where you bought the heater. BTW, if you go this route, do not cover a window in the room with the heater. You will need to open it just a crack for ventilation.
I got rid of mine when I bought gas logs for the fireplace.

Don't use kerosene or other fuel heater inside your home.  The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is too great.  I'll third or fourth the plastic over the windows recommendation.  You might also buy a couple cannisters of urethane foam and go looking for cracks in need of foaming.  How's the weather striping around doorways?  Replacing those with tigher fitting edging could potentially save a lot of cash for modest effort.

Kirk wrote:

Don't use kerosene or other fuel heater inside your home.  The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is too great.  I'll third or fourth the plastic over the windows recommendation.  You might also buy a couple cannisters of urethane foam and go looking for cracks in need of foaming.  How's the weather striping around doorways?  Replacing those with tigher fitting edging could potentially save a lot of cash for modest effort.

DukeofNuke wrote:

BTW, if you go this route, do not cover a window in the room with the heater. You will need to open it just a crack for ventilation.

A few years ago, a jobber put gasoline in the kerosene tank at a local dealer. Three houses burned down before they figured it out.

I've been thinking about getting a pellet stove installed in my fireplace.  They are about $3,000.00 but a ton of pellets is only around $200.00.

DukeofNuke wrote:

Get on the power co.s budget plan. you pay the same every month, so months use use little make up for months you use more.

I have to agree with this one o help with the bills. our bill would go from 50 in the summer to almost 200 in the middle of winter
We got on the budget plan and basically too the extra cost from the winter months and paid them during the summer months . also made it easier to budget knowing what the bill would be in advance

user wrote:

That reminds me of the episode in "All In The Family" where a heating consultant hoodwinks Archie Bunker by holding a photographic light meter up to the window and saying "You're really losing a lot of heat through here - look at that needle jump!"

I remember that one!

Another suggestion here -- keep the doors to your basement open, so as to let the air circulate to the rest of the house.

mac-compliant wrote:

Kirk wrote:

Don't use kerosene or other fuel heater inside your home.  The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is too great.

I agree that kerosene is not the best way to heat a home in terms of efficiency and health/safety.  However, it is fairly cheap...and the only option I have over here in Japan.

How common is it in the States?  I had only heard of heating with kerosene when I moved to Japan.  Before that all I knew was wood, fuel oil, and LP gas.

Kerosene is cleaner than a coal stove, but it is more exppensive and harder to store.

Just to throw in something...

I've heard that if you take a large black pot, fill it with water, put a lid on it, and stick in in direct sunlight in your home, it'll absorb the heat from the sun and release it to the interior of the home.

Last winter I lived in a house that leaked like a sieve, so we tried to seal up the doors as best we could, but still ended up buying an electric oil filled space heater.  It worked well, but for only one room in the house. It was a lot cheaper than paying the gas bill and luckily it was on wheels so I pulled it around the house with me.

DukeofNuke wrote:

I think it's good to have a backup heat source that doesn't depend on electricty.

I have a kerosene heater for that - it's still in the box, never opened.