turn lower when not home and when sleeping. then get the people upstairs to chip in some money b/c theres is prolly really low.
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$350 heating bill! what to do?
- Thread starter shecky
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Having lived in an old drafty place in MA for 4 years I have to say the wrap around the windows will help as will thick curtains over them. I used to walk around my apt in layers and turned down the thermostat every time I left the apartment. It helped lower the cost but it was still so terrible I finally had to move. The extra rent I pay for the newer, nicer place is offset by the amount I save in utilities.
Especially if it's an American-style washing machine and uses water pre-heated by the water heater.
And it is fun to play with.
Not a good idea on those cold days, pipes will freeze and then more problems.
I might want to point out the people heating and cooling bills on the lower floors is going to be lower than the ones on the top floor.
Reason for it is because there is no roof for the heat to escape. The floors about help keep the heat trapped on below.
It is all about external walls.
if some one is on the top floor the have an extra external surfaces (aka the roof)
some on on the first floor only has the walls. About them is heated so it is helping keep their place warm.
Not true. The heating bill will be MUCH lower if you keep the heater set at a lower level, but not all the way off. If you turn the heater off while you're gone, it will run continuously until the air reaches the desired temperature. This can take several hours with baseboard heat, so you would be running the heater for several hours at a time every night, and never really get the place warm. I keep my heaters set at about fifty-five degrees when I'm gone and about sixty-five to sixty-eight when I'm here. Make absolutely certain that nothing can fall onto the heater, and make absolutely certain that you haven't got furniture set up such that it would trap any hot air with only a smallish area to escape. Either of these situations can cause a fire; the latter also kills efficiency.
Forced-air heat is different and should be turned off when you are gone, for both safety and efficiency reasons.
I live in a winterized cottage on the shore of a lake in Canada, and it does get c-c-cold here. I'm probably paying about that much for the winter months here, keeping the place at 70-degrees, between electricity and propane. Yes the heat-shrink window film will help cut down on the drafts. You should also try foam insulation on all your outlets and light switches. And if you work a predictable schedule, a programmable thermostat is a good investment. Drop the temperature to 60-degrees when you leave, bring it back up just before you get home.
I've also had apartments in New England. And suffered through enormous heating bills. Many in older apartments. The single most effective way to reduce the cost is plastic over the windows. When you look at the windows, you really don't notice where the drafts would be coming from, if at all. But when I taped a sheet of plastic to one triple window frame, I had the top and the sides secured - the bottom was pushed out almost 10 inches by the draft! The downside...we never got all the tape residue off when we moved out! Small price to pay for 5 years of warmth.
