OMGMYGFHEATINGBILLISTHRUTHEROOF! Help

[lobadobadingdong]

I live in a house built in 1900, (~1700 square feet w/12ft. ceilings) area rugs help immensly with cold floors (blankets spread around will do in a pinch) there is some plastic that can go over the glass of your windows that doesn't look as tacky as stapleing plastic over the whole window outside. Get a caulking gun and several tubes of clear silicon (the cheap stuff is fine) and use it anyplace visible that has drafts around the window frames (and the glass itself) in here garage/basement, there is some expanding foam called Great Stuff that works wonders in cracks, but it leaves a yellow foam behind that's not really pleasant to look at. get some foam tape to seal around the door jams, and if the door sweep is also letting in cold air she can use a towel to help block the wind from coming underneath the doors.

go to the kitchen and take out all the drawers and seal up those cracks with either Great Stuff (if there will be enough room for it to expand) or silicon.

check all the electrical plugs in the house, if you feel any breaze coming from them, take the cover off and use expanding foam (make sure it's the non-conductive kind) to fill in the box....be careful not to overfill the boxes!!!.

if she can afford it (doubt it after a 600 bill) get one of the $40 electronic thermistats and set it to automatically adjust the tempereature in her house (I saw a 15% drop in both my gas and electric bills using this thing) make sure her intake filters are clean (restrictive air flow will kill your furnace performance)

if she has no insulation, she should really thing about every pay check going to lowes/home depot and buying one roll at a time and slowly insulate the house. (don't put it on a credit card as that defeats the purpose)

I feel for you, but I've never had a gas bill over $300. currently after all the work to my house, it's around $200 durning the peak cold months.

 

[FoBoT]

i just got my electric bill for last month (ground source heat pump is our heating/cooling system) and it was the lowest since we moved into the house last year

i guess we had some warm days or something

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones

Originally posted by: lancestorm


She kept it around 70 degrees which made me think that heater much have been running nearly all the time to run up a bill like that! I suggested that since she does not have a heat efficient house (like a new house does), then she should allow turn down the heat to around 60 when she leaves for work and then back up to 65 - 68 when she is at home.

Bingo! I would simpley start off by dropping that heat down. Buy a programable themostat, it should turn on the heat when she wakes up, turn it down when she leaves, turn back on at 5 pm, and go down to 60 again at like 10 pm.

Also buy her some sweaters for her birthday! I live in an old house, and I have the thermostat staying at between 60 and 65, and I have a baby in the house.

yeah. Start with a programmable thermostat and lowing the ambient temperature to something reasonable.... like 62-65 range for when she is there, and 58 for when she is asleep or at work.

Installying thermostats are easy. When you go to buy one, look for one with weekday/weekend program feature, and one where you can set the swing point. Larger swing points are more efficient.

Since you are half way through winter, paying for plastic sheets for the window may not be worth it.

You can also pop off the trim around a window and see if there are gaps between the window frame and the wall. You can fill these gaps with a compination of insulation material and the goopy stuff that expands into foam (carefully, don't overfill!).

 

[no0b]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: lancestorm
My girlfriend (does that make me maybe the 5th person on this forum with one?)

Lame.

No need to be a fscking dick about it.

 

[conjur]

Get some electric space heaters. Natural gas is just insanely expensive.

 

[lancestorm]

Thank you guys, good suggestions. It is gas heat. And I was just joking about being only the 5th person on this forum with a website. Funny joke emter must be off. But I DO recall reading threads where people make mention to the fact that this is a rarety. I was chiming in on that joke, don't take it as an insult as none was meant.

 

[radioouman]

I'd look into a gas leak at that cost. Utilities in Ohio are not outrageous, so I can't even imagine a $600 heating bill.

 

[lancestorm]

Originally posted by: radioouman
I'd look into a gas leak at that cost. Utilities in Ohio are not outrageous, so I can't even imagine a $600 heating bill.

Is this something the utility company comes out and checks?

 

[kranky]

They will check it, but be aware that if they find a leak, they will turn off your gas and wish you a nice day if the leak is in the section of pipe that you're responsible for fixing. They'll come back when the leak has been repaired, verify the leak is fixed, and turn the gas back on.

Just be prepared with a plan of action if they do find a leak.

 

[dullard]

Other people have had good recommendations. So I don't have anything to add. This is the problem with old houses. Most of them are like that. No insulation, too many fancy parts jutting out of the house and doubling the exposed surface area, single pain windows, large gaps with drafts, old furnace that was inefficient to begin with and now is even less efficient as it has aged.

I see people all the time fall into that trap - usually the poor or college students who think an old house is better than an apartment. First time winter hits, they are in a shitload of trouble. Repairs to truely fix the problem will run into the tens of thousands and still won't make the old house as efficient as a newer one. A warning to everyone else here: never consider buying or renting an old house without first finding out exactly what the previous owner spent in utilities and whether they used heating/AC much.

The only thing you GF can do is to put bandaids over the gaping wounds and hope to cut the bill down to $400/month next winter.

 

[Kelemvor]

Is she renting or is that her actual house that she'll be living in for a while? If she's renting, I'd seriously look at moving as that's insane. If she's staying, the furnace should be replaced if it's older and not high efficiency. Insulation in older homes usually sucks. You can call people in to take infra red picture of the walls to see wher eheat is leaking out. You can also get foam insulation that can be added to the walls by drilling little holes and filling it up but that's something for a contractor to do.

Can always replace the windows if they are old and crappy and leaking.

ALl in all there are TONS of different things that can help. Might want to call the local electric /gas company or the Energy Star type place and see if they can recommend anyone to come out and do a whole look at your house and see what they'd recommend.

 

[CRXican]

tell that bitch to put some more clothes on

 

[lobadobadingdong]

if there is a leak, you should be able to smell it, even a very slight leak will smell fairly strong of sulpher in the general area. to isolate the leak use soapy water in a spray bottle on all the pipe connections.

 

[DeMeo]

Duct tape!

 

[asm0deus]

my $180 heating bill does not hurt so bad now im going to be trying some of these suggestions though. my room gets so hot and i have two 19" CRT's to keep me warm, so i close my vents but i think we could do alot more to lower the bill. nice tips guys. :thumbsup:

edit: i'm in NC though so maybe mine is still a little high.

 

[Gooose]

cliff notes?

 

[Lenine]

You can lower your heating bill substantially if you wear sweaters and have many layers of blankets then turn the heat down.

 

[Oger]

Insulate attic with peanuts or fiberglass batting.

This and this will both raise body heat, thus you can turn down the thermostat.

 

[Fingers]

those window covers you were talking about. Shoving a towel under the crack in the bottom of a door. Caulking for any cracks and yes turning the thermastat down when it's not needed woul be fine ad low as 55 won't hurt anything, just need to keep it warm enough to not freeze any pipes. She might consider keeping it at 68 when she is home, it's not much colder and pretty easy to get used too. Warm clothes are also a key ingrediant here and lots of blankets.

 

[shortylickens]

Like someone else already pointed out, you dont pay for heat. You pay for electricity, gas, water and such.

Whatever your situation please keep in mind that just about everyone raises gas prices a little in the winter. Thats because they know you'll pay it.

I just set the temp down and use a space heater in my bedroom at night. My electricity bills went up a little, gas bills went down a lot. Net gain for me.

My mom had to do the same thing. In Northern Virginia they have quintupled gas prices over the past 6 years. (At least in her area). She just uses space heaters and has seriously considered moving to central electric heating. Her bills decrease slightly if she uses more than a certain amount each month.
My bills increase slightly if I use more than a certain amount.

The plastic for the windows really does help. But then of course you cant open the window. Which is bad if you burn something in the oven.

 

[spacejamz]

Installying thermostats are easy. When you go to buy one, look for one with weekday/weekend program feature, and one where you can set the swing point. Larger swing points are more efficient.

Make sure you look for one that is compatible with your heating/cooling system...there are several different kinds and you need to get the one that works with your system.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Wear more clothing and turn the thermostat down.

Also, if you're not using a room, don't heat it. Close the vents.