Help needed from northerners on staying warm

[bobbieguyette]

I live in a very old no insulation farm house also. and we put plastic on the windows wear layers up to 7 now tights are a great help too! heating pad a ton of blankets on the bed shut down most of the rooms during the winter and use a woodstove from sept till june im not happy till the stove is cranking and its at least 80 in here What I wouldnt give to move down further south so I could warm up a bit

 

[ruth]

Quote:
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[Buster]

Quote:
You can freeze even with a fireplace going. Something you might want to look into is putting a wood stove in your home on the lowest level. You would not believe the difference it makes heating your home versus a regular fireplace. Also the suggestion of plastic over the windows is a great one. I just moved out of an old farmhouse and doing these 2 things made a big difference in heating our home there.

 

[suenrob]

Thanks, I'll try again...Sorry for being so Pc illiterate!!!!

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
I echo this 100%. I promise, Ruth, you will looking to find a place to get cool once you add a wood brning fireplace insert. Without insulation in your old house!

We bought a quadra fire. The 7100i model they have out now? Talk about blasting some heat! Wood stoves are the way to go. You'll be opening doors to let the heat out!

Open fireplaces lose more heat than they generate alone.

 

[birdnutz]

I agree with miss prissy on using wood fireplace inserts. That way you can preserve the historical aspect as much as possible. But I do think that your 14 foot ceilings are doing exactly what they were meant to do. Carry the heat away from you. To keep the ceilings I would think that ceiling fans would be the only option. I have 10 foot vaulted ceilings and use mine all the time. Without a wood stove,I guess I would find it drafty. They also help shift the heat to other rooms.
I don't know what you have financely,but I think I'd have a contractor come in right away and blow in insulation and caulk the windows. It'll help with the cooling bill in summer also. I live in Wyoming where the wind blows all winter,so I'm fighting drafts even in this brand new house. 21 R walls,40 R ceilings. I guess we share that with our chickens. Can stand cooler weather if you can stop the drafts.
One plus for you is that spring has to be right around the corner. I have to wait until MAY! The coldest part of winter is just getting here.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I echo this 100%. I promise, Ruth, you will looking to find a place to get cool once you add a wood brning fireplace insert. Without insulation in your old house!

We bought a quadra fire. The 7100i model they have out now? Talk about blasting some heat! Wood stoves are the way to go. You'll be opening doors to let the heat out!

Open fireplaces lose more heat than they generate alone.

Thanks. I had already started looking into pellet stoves and wood stoves. I didn't like the idea of a free-standing wood stove for the reason that it is really hot to the touch and our kids are just starting to have kids (our grandkids) and the idea of a stove in middle of room or near one of these 100 year old wood walls scared me on many levels. However, I did show my husband the ones that were fireplace inserts and we debated on whether or not they put out much heat because we had already discoverd that the fireplaces did NOT. Plus, there are 9 fireplaces and I think most were built for coal - the opening is very small. Thanks to all who gave the rave reviews for wood stove inserts. We have to check with our insurance company. They sent an appraiser out when we bought the home last month but he hasn't sent back his findings yet. As it was, they initially told us we had to insure the home for double what we paid for it. Then when he came out he said it would probably double or trible again because "you just can't replace a home like this - it would cost millions". They may even cancel us.

He wanted to know if interior walls were steel construction (yeah right); where nearest hydrant is (not sure there is one anywhere in county); how close is the fire department (volunteers only - sleep at their homes); was there a backup system for the fire alarm like a wireless/satellite call system (yeah right) and said we would have to fill our pond and put a paved road to it.

I told my husband, if this home catches fire everyone in town including local volunteer fire dept. will know that the only thing they can do is bring weenies and marshmallows and watch a giant bon-fire.

 

[MissPrissy]

Don't let them get ridiculous with you. If the house has fireplaces have them checked, cleaned and repaired by a licensed chimney sweep. They can also install the pipes for venting and put the insert in place for you. The insurance company should have already noted the fireplaces when they insured you when you closed on the house. Do not let them jerk your chain!

edited to add - our house is insured for what it would cost to rebuild exactly as it stands now. When we bought the house the insurance company was pushing only to insure it for the current value of a same sized house. Our mortgage company told them to get their head out of their rearend because no house made today is built like ours was in 1909.

 

[Buster]

A wood stove insert is just what you need- my insert in my upstairs living room puts out more heat than my freestanding woodstove in the basement family room because it has a fan. A fan on a woodstove or insert is the way to go. By the way, my children are very small- 3 and 1 and they have always been around woodstoves. I don't have a problem with them touching the hot stove. The older one, one time, when he was about 18 months, touched the woodstove at our old house. It's never happened again. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. They know it's hot and they don't touch. Also, a woodstove insert will be no where near as hot as a freestanding stove and still give off A LOT of heat- besides you could do that and not mess up the look of your house too much.

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

well I live in mass and it gets down to the 20s and i go out with a t-shirt and long pants.

(note: LONG pants) I've had an internal body heater since i was born... i don't really feel the cold... oh and a weird thing about my skin that might be making a difference is that my skin has eternal goosebumps, but i don't have smooth skin at all, like denticles on a shark, it's bumpy and not smooth.