Electricity and heating

I just left a similar post, but I will add it here too: we have nailed quilts to the wall before. In older homes where there is not a lot of insulation because maybe it used to be a fishing cabin that was only used in the wintertime (like we used to rent), then you can do something like this to keep the heat inside. Also, you can wear a hat on your head and put a ton of blankets on the bed. There is one other trick I never tried: you can bake potatoes or sand bags and place them in the covers. The heat will radiate for quite awhile warming up the bed. There are also people who have slept in their sleeping bags because some are designed to keep in the warmth. No one has to know the things you do to stay warm and keep your bills down - its far better to save money than throw it out the window (literally) with high electrical bills.

 

A friend of mine installed a standalone black metal fire place in her living room and ran the pipes from it into her regular air ducts. What she did was actually illegal and dangerous, and you should definitely hire a professional to handle something like this, but that fire place heats her whole house really well. It's a small 2 floor 2 bedroom house, but I was really amazed how well that fire place worked.

She buys about $100 worth of fire wood in November, and it typically lasts her through the winter months, into like Feb/March. She runs her regular heater too once in a while, but she uses the fire place a lot. The only down side is that it gets super hot, so you need to be extra careful if you've got kids or pets around. But even her cats like to sleep near it to stay warm.

Otherwise I would just carry a small electric heater from room to room with you instead of turning the heat on high throughout your whole place.

 

We just purchased an infrared heater that is supposed to be able to heat 1000 square feet. It was only $120 and is pretty energy efficient. We haven't used it yet a it isn't cold here yet, but we are pretty sure it will keep our bill much lower this year. Out apartment isn't more than 1000 square feet so we hope to be able to turn off our baseboards entirely and use just this heater. Last winter out electric bill was more than twice what it is in the summer when we aren't using heat.

You might want to invest in one of those heaters. There are also small heaters that use very little electricity that can heat up one room pretty well.

 

I have heard of infra-red heaters but didn't know how efficient they were. I have also tried the quilts thing too. You could use tea lights too actually, there is a video somewhere on youtube of a man who made this DIY tea light heater, using 2 pots and 4 tea lights.

 

Be careful with infrared heaters though, they give my brother nosebleeds. So if you can, try before you buy. It would be a shame if you shell out 120 bucks and you can't use them.

 

I usually end up keeping the heater on forever as it really is very cold over here. I have heard quite a few alternative to heating but that seems more expensive than what I usually use hence I decided never to change from heating. Also I end up supporting all the extra costs of heating.