Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 10:56:00 GMT -5
My house is chilly and there is no getting anything more out of the radiator system, it was set at a comfortable level the past few months and unchanged, it just can't do anymore. Have 3 space heaters helping out the radiator system but it is still chilly. Probably 4, I suspect DD turned one on in her room last night too.
Worried if the boiler or pump might fail! This would not a good time for it to go out!
Even in kitchen with cooking breakfast, multiple coffee productions, and all that still a bit too chilly....
How are your indoor temps doing? Do you worry about your system failing at this inopportune time?
Am thinking next year to add a fireplace into the mix just in case. One that could work off the gas or wood.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:03:08 GMT -5
I've had the fireplace going since last night to take the pressure off the furnace. I also had a space heater going in one of our rooms that is just kind of hanging out there with no basement...although now the sun is out and it's a south facing room, so I turned that off. My place is fairly new and well insulated, so it seems to be doing fine keeping up. Right now my house is warmer than I normally keep it just because I want to ensure the pipes stay warm and anything else that might not enjoy the -60 windchills going on out there.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jan 30, 2019 11:03:14 GMT -5
It's 73, out is -5 and dewpoint -16. We are on the way to doc. I am very nauseus again, hope she will give me something for it.
Checked in with renters to see if any had frozen pipes, nope. Hubs went to check on MIL and see if I need to take her any warm clothing. We think its warm enough, he also went to check at the truck drivers house on his heat and water. The guy keeps PMing more worrying about the pipes freezing. I don't think any of them have to worry about that in our houses, hubs tore that whole wall out and insulated it when we redid the house. It was always cold there for his mom, new window, etc.
Nope we are toasty warm, dog is warm, I'm warming the truck and about ready to leave. Stay warm, its brutal today. Have on Silks and an Irish wool sweater and DD is dressed warm so we are good to go. Scarves and gloves too.
Hope you are able to warm up, ours is running though and I don't even want to think of the energy bill, hubs said quit bitchin' and just pay it, LOL! later.
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Jan 30, 2019 11:10:03 GMT -5
Good luck staying warm, my Midwest friends!
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ners
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Post by ners on Jan 30, 2019 11:12:55 GMT -5
My house is comfortable. I set the heat a little higher than normal and to remain at a steady temperature (no going lower at night).
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jan 30, 2019 11:16:20 GMT -5
Pretty good now that we have a layer of ice rimming every window. That keeps the drafts down.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Jan 30, 2019 11:16:51 GMT -5
Tonight is supposed to be below zero with windchill. House is fine so far. We have a brand new HVAC and we zoned it when they installed the new unit.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:17:06 GMT -5
My house is comfortable. I set the heat a little higher than normal and to remain at a steady temperature (no going lower at night).I did that too. I shut the programmable part off and set it on hold at 67. Normally it goes down a lot at night. I also opened doors to closets and the utility room that normally get much colder.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 11:22:47 GMT -5
My house is comfortable. I set the heat a little higher than normal and to remain at a steady temperature (no going lower at night).I did that too. I shut the programmable part off and set it on hold at 67. Normally it goes down a lot at night. I also opened doors to closets and the utility room that normally get much colder. why the closets? I was trying to keep them closed to remove square footage being heated?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:29:16 GMT -5
It's cold outside (20s), but warm in the house. Our hvac system is only a few years old.
Space heaters are scary. They are a major cause of house fires around here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:32:50 GMT -5
I did that too. I shut the programmable part off and set it on hold at 67. Normally it goes down a lot at night. I also opened doors to closets and the utility room that normally get much colder. why the closets? I was trying to keep them closed to remove square footage being heated? No real reason except trying to keep the place as warm as possible throughout. Last night we were getting the occasional "gun shots". The loud bangs that shake the house. They say it's from the nails in the studs shifting. Plus, the back wall to my bedroom closet contains pipes to the master bath.
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flamingo
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Post by flamingo on Jan 30, 2019 11:33:24 GMT -5
We keep our house at a constant temp (no going down at night) all the time. My DH is works from home and he hates being cold, so I'm sure the house is toasty. It did get a little cooler in our bedroom as it sits over an unheated garage and has an outside 2 outside walls. But overall, it's been fine. I don't think any of our pipes are on outside walls, but we live in an apartment, so I really don't know for sure. But everything was working when I left this AM.
I'm sure I'll get home tonight to the fireplace on, the heat turned up and every light on, haha.
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on Jan 30, 2019 11:43:41 GMT -5
How are your indoor temps doing? Do you worry about your system failing at this inopportune time? Am thinking next year to add a fireplace into the mix just in case. One that could work off the gas or wood. Sounds like a good plan, when a system fails, the space can drop to pipe freezing temps in just a few hours, especially when there is high winds pulling the heat from the external walls. And when you have a failure, the local repair people will probably have a waiting list. And the electricity could go out - that could shut down some systems. Many fireplaces don't do much, not only does the heat flow up the chimney, that flow pattern actually pulls other heat out the chimney. You can have a heatilator installed that captures the heat and circulates within the room - but it has an electric fan. Your space heaters should protect the plumbing.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 11:47:37 GMT -5
How are your indoor temps doing? Do you worry about your system failing at this inopportune time? Am thinking next year to add a fireplace into the mix just in case. One that could work off the gas or wood. Sounds like a good plan, when a system fails, the space can drop to pipe freezing temps in just a few hours, especially when there is high winds pulling the heat from the external walls. And when you have a failure, the local repair people will probably have a waiting list. And the electricity could go out - that could shut down some systems. Many fireplaces don't do much, not only does the heat flow up the chimney, that flow pattern actually pulls other heat out the chimney. You can have a heatilator installed that captures the heat and circulates within the room - but it has an electric fan. Your space heaters should protect the plumbing.
thanks, will think about this more, and try to get something that would really be a boon to the heat and not a plus and minus.
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buystoys
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Post by buystoys on Jan 30, 2019 11:47:46 GMT -5
We leave the thermostat at 68 in the winter. Burning in the wood stove can get the hallway and bedroom temps above 70 pretty easily. I don't know what the temp in the living room is when that happens. Maybe 76-80? Either way, the living room is very warm and the rest of the house is toasty.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 11:50:12 GMT -5
why the closets? I was trying to keep them closed to remove square footage being heated? No real reason except trying to keep the place as warm as possible throughout. Last night we were getting the occasional "gun shots". The loud bangs that shake the house. They say it's from the nails in the studs shifting. Plus, the back wall to my bedroom closet contains pipes to the master bath. thanks - was pretty sure that keeping the closets closed was best - but just realized that the downstairs hall closet has the bathroom pipes to upstairs bathroom. Opened up that door. We are up to -16 and very sunny right now. Hope we can at least gain a little heat before nightfall..........
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:58:43 GMT -5
I keep the house at 65 during the day, 55 at night. I hate it but I hate high utility bills more. I keep a space heater in the bedroom at night and now have it next to me in the kitchen. I know about the fire risks; I never have one running in a room I'm not occupying and when they're not operating I unplug them. The one I use also emits a loud buzz even if I pick it up and move it, so I'd know if it fell over.
What impresses me is that the house seems pretty well-insulated. The thermostat goes down to 55 at 8 PM and typically the furnace doesn't run till it starts up the next morning when the thermostat jumps to 65. (My Nest thermostat app shows a graph of when the furnace is operating each day.) So, very little heat loss when the furnace is off.
I dodged a bullet last week; furnace quit on a Friday morning. I called the place that installed it 3 years ago. Some orifices were partly blocked; it was fixed by noon and within warranty. VERY glad that it happened on a Friday AM and not a weekend, and that it wasn't this week, when I bet they're getting a ton of service requests.
I do have a gas fireplace; I'm afraid to operate it. DH always did that. I just got over my fear that the gas grill would blow up in my face (had a friend patiently walk me through the process).
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jan 30, 2019 12:00:55 GMT -5
The sun is out so Lucy Cat is following the sunshine.
I normally keep the house at 64. It is now set at 67 and has been for a few days. So far, so good. I did have the furnace serviced in the fall and a motor was repaired. I'm so glad I did that before it became an emergency when it's -25
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 12:02:19 GMT -5
My gas fireplace does a really good job heating up the lower level of the house. When the thermostat was broken on the furnace it was a good enough for a back up for the day we were without the main heat source. Probably not on a day like today, but a normal winter day. It's not real reliable to stay lit though. I just went down this morning and noticed it had gone out at some point. I don't know if I have some settings wrong or if it's getting a breeze from outside or what.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Jan 30, 2019 12:05:28 GMT -5
We have a wood burner in the basement, and our house is usually 72-74 and it feels warm since it radiates from the basement.
Today, with how cold it is (3, real feel of -18), the temperature is sitting at 71 but I do have the electric heat on in other rooms just to keep everything warm.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 12:09:49 GMT -5
We are up to -16 and very sunny right now. Hope we can at least gain a little heat before nightfall.......... The sun is nice. The sun porch I had the space heater running in last night is now very warm from just all the windows on three sides. I get so mad at DS because he's always pulling the blinds so they don't glare on his computer. There's a pheasant outside my window looking in bad shape.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 12:27:14 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 12:35:38 GMT -5
Yeah. I have to go out there and at least try to feed him.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 12:56:45 GMT -5
Damn. In the time it took me to get bundled up, go to the barn for feed, and trudge through the snow to our pine trees where he had been sitting, he left. He had been in a deer hole (where they dig to get to grass) and he had scratched the area bare looking for food, but now he's gone. I put out a few pounds of cracked corn and there's one sparrow acting like he hit the lottery, but no sign of the pheasant.
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MN-Investor
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Post by MN-Investor on Jan 30, 2019 13:00:13 GMT -5
It got down to -27° last night. It's now up to -21°. Yay! I normally set my thermostat at 66°, but I've turned it down to 64° so it wouldn't have to work so hard. My furnace is 40 years old, so I do worry, but the fan was replaced three years ago and I had a furnace person do a checkup on it a couple of months ago. It just has to last to the end of this season. I'm going to replace it this spring along with getting a new air conditioner. Three years ago, on 12/13/2015, the furnace fan went out. My husband knew is was on its last legs so had a replacement fan on hand. Because of his work schedule, my husband could not replace the fan right away, but he had two space heaters - Lasko 675919 Stanley Pro-Ceramic Utility Heater - which we used for more than two weeks until he could replace the fan. Fortunately it was a fairly mild December, highs mostly around 30°, the coldest about 7°. I was surprised at how well those space heaters did.
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garion2003
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Post by garion2003 on Jan 30, 2019 13:25:28 GMT -5
I have a small apartment on the first floor of an old house. The heat is a gas fired on demand tankless modern boiler system (it does baseboard heat and domestic hot water). Generally it's fine, but the front room of my apartment is adjacent to the entrance hall to the house. There's no heat source out there, and while I just had the hall insulated and new door (snow would blow in through cracks in the old door) it's still never warm out there. My thermostat is on the interior wall that is adjacent to the hall and so I feel like it keeps calling for heat but never gets warm enough. Luckily that's only when it gets extremely cold. Most of the time it's been fine. But I have run a space heater in that room to take the chill off when it's super cold out.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Jan 30, 2019 13:29:13 GMT -5
68 degrees. Still no heater on. I am going to make it to February without turning the heat on or being cold → first time since I moved here in 1996
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 30, 2019 14:48:21 GMT -5
still strong sun, up to -13, house feels a bit warmer. I put an electric blanket over the couch. Sitting on a little warmth for 10 or so minutes from time to time helps.
Need to finish up on a deliverable for work, deliver it, and then will get under that blanket.
We get up to 0 at 6 p.m. tomorrow evening. I am calling us safe at that point. Until then, on tenterhooks.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jan 30, 2019 15:34:02 GMT -5
Can we talk about the outside a bit? There's almost nobody on the roads! I'm used to hearing the rumble of cars passing our place and the roar of the expressway two hundred yards away. It's eerily quiet today.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 15:50:36 GMT -5
Pheasant is back and eating! He looks a little perkier with the sun warming him up. It's only 15 below now... One more bad night for him to make it through then it warms up.
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