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Thread: My house is cold as fuck
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12-11-2018, 10:36 AM #1Skiing powder worldwide
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My house is cold as fuck
I have a 2600 square foot home, built in 1993. The downstairs is all windows, double pane but i am sure they are super inefficient. 15-18 foot ceilings as well. Hard wood floors. There is a crawl space below the entire bottom floor.
I put in a new boiler 7 years ago, much more efficient.
I have nest thermostats.
I have a Vermont Cast iron stove that works great, just get tired of starting fires.
This am i woke up to 61 degrees downstairs. Tired of having such a cold house.
Mid day the temps get up to 69 degrees but once the sun drops, it is freezing again.
Any suggestions for getting this place warmer. I am thinking it is the windows that are the problem.
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12-11-2018, 11:05 AM #2
What part of the country do you live in?
What are the insulation levels in the floor, walls, and most importantly ceiling?
Is boiler adequately sized?
What is nighttime setback temp?
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12-11-2018, 11:12 AM #3Skiing powder worldwide
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12-11-2018, 11:13 AM #4Registered User
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2600 on all floors or one floor, can you close doors and turn off heat in some rooms ?
I turn off heat in the 2 bed rooms which lets my high efficiency forced air system heat the space I actualy hang out in faster
I upgraded my attic to R50 and that was 18" of blown celluloseLee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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12-11-2018, 11:15 AM #5Skiing powder worldwide
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12-11-2018, 11:16 AM #6Skiing powder worldwide
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12-11-2018, 11:31 AM #7
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12-11-2018, 11:33 AM #8
Turn the heat up.
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12-11-2018, 11:38 AM #9
Don’t be lazy and keep the wood stove cranking. Also drink more beer and eat more CO edibles. You can’t feel the cold if you’re comfortably numb
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12-11-2018, 11:38 AM #10Skiing powder worldwide
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12-11-2018, 11:47 AM #11Registered User
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yeah I set my programmable thermostat to 61 for over night and mid day but with only 1000 sq ft on one floor and HE forced air the temp gets up to 70 real quick
I kinda doubt you got R110 but the obvious thing to check for is LOTS of insulation in the floor
15-18 ft ceilings would be hard to heat, is it warmer at the 18 ft ceiling (put a thermometer on a stick to check) I wonder if ceiling fans could drive the warm air down ?
it sounds like a part of your rather chi chi sounding design IS you need to run the wood stove, a fire first thing in the am and one at 5 pm the minimum just to keep the temp up a little, in any case it sounds like you have ... a 1st world problemLee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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12-11-2018, 11:53 AM #12
Part of our little taking responsibility for global warming is to not heat our house at night, so waking to 61 F has become de rigeur.
The living room has 16 foot ceilings with a wood stove and pipe going up the whole way.
I love building fires though and that's how I start every day in the winter.Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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12-11-2018, 11:55 AM #13Skiing powder worldwide
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12-11-2018, 12:06 PM #14
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12-11-2018, 12:06 PM #15
When I used to live in PA in an old single pane window home we used these with great results. Just sucks you can't open the windows.
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Indoor-Win.../dp/B00002NCJI
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12-11-2018, 12:14 PM #16Registered User
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12-11-2018, 12:19 PM #17Registered User
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Have you tried masturbating in a sock? They will usually stay warm for a few minutes after iirc
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12-11-2018, 12:30 PM #18
Maybe look at a different wood stove that'll stay warm longer and won't need to be relit as often? Still have to feed it though.
We primarily heated our old house with wood, and it was about the same size (2500 ish feet, high ceilings). Stove would easily keep it as warm as we wanted.
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12-11-2018, 12:37 PM #19User
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12-11-2018, 12:42 PM #20
https://youtu.be/unkIVvjZc9Y" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://<a href="https://youtu.be/unk...nkIVvjZc9Y</a>
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12-11-2018, 12:51 PM #21
If you are a Black Hills Energy customer which you may be based on my quick googling you should check this out:
https://www.blackhillsenergy.com/sav...-comprehensive
Sounds like you can get a detailed energy audit for $150 (which is heavily subsidized by utility) generally for this kind of service you talking about $400-500. Blower door test will let you know where air is leaking out and they will notify you where your insulation weaknesses and any mechanical system problems are located.
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12-11-2018, 12:52 PM #22
Heat rises, cold sinks. We heated our house primarily w/ a wood stove growing up, but ran the furnace blower to circulate the heat. Do that or run ceiling fans.
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12-11-2018, 12:55 PM #23
I don't believe you have R-110
Basalt, CO is climate zone 6 and currently requires
celiing: R-49
ext wall: R-20 or 13+5
exposed underfloor: R-30
basement wall: R15/19
underslab: R-10
crawl: R-10
my guess is the old criteria were slightly less in 1993
so, for each system in your house: what insulation type & how thick?
then, what are the performance criteria of the installed windows? or, what window brand/type?
or do the energy audit mentioned above...
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12-11-2018, 01:01 PM #24
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12-11-2018, 01:14 PM #25Registered User
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