Home Heating Options

This weekend we did some work toward getting the heating in our house redone. When we bought the house the only heating system was a furnace that uses (expensive) diesel oil. We've been using some Edenpure space heaters to try to keep from burning quite as much of the diesel fuel, but with the crazy cold temps this Winter, it's not working as well as we had hoped and we are nearly out of oil. Again. And also, this furnace takes up an awful lot of our basement!

So, it was time to move forward with our plans to update the heating. We decided to first put in some in-wall electric heaters, which we had in our old house, and were happy with. Our house was built in 1890 so, of course, our walls are plaster and lathe. Which I kind of love. I know most people prefer drywall, but plaster walls just feel so...substantial. So the first thing to do was just to cut out the square where the heater would fit in.

(oops, we're going to need  a little filler right there!)

 And then cut out a place for the thermostat. We put each heater (one per room) on it's own thermostat so we can heat each room only as much as we need. 

 Running the wiring was the most difficult part because it was a little tricky to pull through the wall from the basement, but even that wasn't too bad and really only took a few minutes. Then it was just popping in the heaters and thermostats and hooking up the wiring to our breaker box.

 

Looking at these pics, I can't wait to be able to fix and paint these walls! As soon as it's warm enough to open windows! Of course then I'll be busy with the yard and garden. Well anyway...maybe someday!

We still have more of these heaters to install and then this Summer we'll add a woodstove, which will be our main source of heat, with these electric heaters for backup. We will also be adding another backup in the form of a propane heater (the Fireside stove from Woodstock Soapstone-we love that company!) so that in the event that our power is out (we do have the whole farm hooked up to a generator, but still!) we will still have a backup to the woodstove. Overkill? Maybe, but we like to be warm!

How do you heat your home? Do you have a backup?

This post was shared over at:

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http://www.heritagehomesteaders.com/

http://www.weliketolearnaswego.com/

http://www.tillysnest.com/

http://www.handymancraftywoman.com/

http://www.stonecottageadventures.com/

http://homegrownonthehill.blogspot.com/

http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/

http://frugallysustainable.com/