My husband and I don't see eye to eye on wood heating mostly because he says we don't have the room for a wood stove. I say let's make room but we both live here and have to compromise. My question is: Have any of you used a Kerosun for supplemental heat and how would I best use it to my advantage? I've turned the heat down to 60 and the kerosene keeps it at 65. Should I turn the furnace down lower still? I don't want the pipes to freeze by lowering it too much as the Kerosun won't heat the outside walls sufficiently if it's real cold. All of our pipes are on the north wall of the house. Any strategies would be appreciated. Thanks!

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 15, 2001

Answers

Denise, when living in town and wood heater was not an option we used a Kerosun as a heat supplement. We had ours in the basement. It kept the floors warm on the main floor and gave us all a feeling of greater warmth and I think it lowered our heat bills.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 15, 2001.

If only we had a basement! That would be a great idea. We have 3 rooms, kitchen and bathroom on the first floor and 2 bedrooms upstairs. I have the heater located in the central room downstairs and close the doors to the bath and 3 bedrooms during the day. At night I leave the furnace at 60 and turn off the Kerosun for safety reasons and open the bedroom doors.

I think I'm adjusting to cooler temps in the house because I have been outside on a regular basis taking care of animals. Last year I would have frozen keeping the thermostat this low. I wonder if we could get accustomed to keeping it even lower?

I apologize if I sound wimpy. I just started trying out alot of homesteader type things last year just before Spring. I'm still hoping my husband will change his mind about a wood stove by next winter.

How low would you set your thermostat?

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 15, 2001.

We only have woodstoves so some times it drops low in the house50-55 at night. All the main pipes{well and water supply for the washing machine }are in the same room,so we put a small electric heater in there and keep it at 55. We have not had a problem w/ them freezing. I think the little heat travels along the pipes and helps keep them "warm".All the plumbing in the mudroom is copper and on the northside of the house.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 15, 2001.

Denise, you don't sound whimpy at all to me 60 degrees, all the time?? that sounds like a spartan kind of living I hope I never have to do. Let's see, water freezes at 32 degrees. You could always heat tape the pipes and just turn the heat off!! hahaha - I don't know about how low anyone else would turn it, but my thermostat only goes down to 50.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 15, 2001.

I'm tempted to turn it off completely after the electric bill we just received. That is why I am trying to think of a way to conserve even more. I'm glad I didn't sound wimpy. I figured you all were able to tough it out alot more than I could.

Oh when I said I turn it down to 60 I have the kerosun on and that keeps it at about 65. It's only 60 at night when we're all under the covers and asleep. Now it sounds like Renee's house gets a bit cool at 55.

Renee, do you mean it gets that cool at night when the fire gets low? What's your temp. during the day with a good fire? I might be able to convince my husband about a stove if I can give him info from someone who uses one on a regular basis.

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 15, 2001.

Denise,The house gets cold only when we forget to stuff the woodstoves {fall asleep on the sofa},I would say get a woodstove,we have 2 one in the livingroom one in the kitchen. The big one in the livingroom is a Fisher Grand Papa Bear,the smaller one is a Fisher Baby bear,the big one when fully open and going will heat the livingroom and most of upstairs to 80. Yes that hot,to hot for me. The little one takes care of the kitchen and "diningroom" and if not to cold out the mudroom.I try to keep the whole house around 70-75 because the kids are always running around and they get cold faster. When we first moved in I almost froze to death,no woodstove a furnace that sucked oil and windows that would get ice on the inside,I vote you get a woodstove. The small one we have is only about 16 in.wide by about 2ft long.Also check my post above about the fans that fit in the pipe of a woodstove. If you have any ?'s feel free to write. Where are you from? woodstoves around here are going real cheap,out little one was only $25 the bid one was $125 3 years ago.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 15, 2001.

Denise: We heat with wood and have propane for backup. At times when the temperature outside is over 32 degrees I have to watch it or I get the house too warm. Wood heat works well if you get a decent wood burner and decent wood. I usually am able to keep my house at 75 degrees or more when I am tending the fire. At night we bank it up and turn it way back (the damper) and turn the thermostat to 60 degrees. It seldom goes on (the furnace) unless the wind is blowing and the temp outside is below freezing.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 15, 2001.

We heat with a woodburner and have a fuel oil/wood hot water baseboard furnace as a backup. So far this winter we haven't needed the furnace at all and it was bitter cold for most of December. We have a 1600 sq foot log cabin and I never realized how well the log insulates. When I get up in the morning it's never been below 62 degrees and the stove is usually just glowing embers. If I'm not careful the house will get to 80 degrees in a hurry! We have a separately zoned sun room (that we don't heat) off the living room and we use that as a temperature regulater, we just open the sliding glass door.

Stacy Rohan in Windsor NY where the January thaw is coming to an abrupt end.

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), January 15, 2001.

Having had neighbors die of carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly maintained natural gas furnace and a couple of teenage friends in high school die sitting in a car with a bad exhaust system, which ever you decide, get a carbon monoxide monitor. They aren't any more expensive than a smoke alarm. I get headaches from even minor exposure to kerosene heaters and was adamant when my husband suggested one for emergencies. We opted for a wood stove instead but still got 2 CO detectors: one by the furnace and another outside the bedrooms. My husband also found and installed a gas detector by the furnace. I hope that's what you meant by safety reasons.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), January 16, 2001.

Marilyn, you are absolutely right and that is one of the concerns I had in mind when I spoke about safety reasons. The other I was thinking about was fire. Thanks for the warning!

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 16, 2001.

Denise, it's possible that this is going to be off the subject and if so, I apologize. But I assume that you're using the kerosene heater because you're electric bills are so high. I don't know about your area but here, at the service station, I'm paying over $1.50 for kerosene. If I buy it in the gallon jugs at the feed store, it's almost $4.00 a gallon. Needless to say, I can't afford to operate kerosene heaters for very long. My second point is that if you have to use the heat inside the house to heat the walls of the house to keep pipes from freezing, you don't have enough insulation in the walls and are loosing a lot of heat through them. The pipes in the walls shouldn't freeze even with the heat off. There are exceptions. Even keeping the house at 70 degrees I get cold at times. A clamp on reflector light with a 100 or 150 watt heat lamp warms me up immediately and doesn't cost anymore to operate than the same wattage light bulb. I also use one in the bathroom while sitting in the tub or getting out of the shower. We don't have room for a stove either but as soon as I find the stove, something will have to go to make room for it. Just this week, three houses in our area burnt down. Two from people using kerosene heaters as supplemental heat. Hope this helps.

JackD

-- JackD (jdenterprises@centurytel.net), January 17, 2001.

If your homeowner's insurance policy company finds out you use kerosene heaters, they are likely to cancel your policy. Even if they don't, and the cause of a fire is determined to be from one, they can refuse to pay the claim depending on the policy.

Kerosene is $1.99 gallon locally.

It doesn't bother me much, but some people are very sensitive to the slight kerosene smell when first lit and when put out.

When checking out heaters, also look at pellet or whole kernel corn ones. They are simplier and cleaner to use. If you would have to buy in your wood, they may be competitively priced.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 22, 2001.

Ken, I hadn't thought of that. But I think we'll still take our chances using it during the time we are awake. Kerosene is about 1.69 a gallon right now and I know that has to beat the bill we received not too long ago. It was 469.00. And I thought I was conserving!

The good news is that my husband has agreed to a wood stove if we can find a good deal. My guess is that we wont have one ready until next winter. We have access to wood but my husband isn't too pleased with the idea of cutting it. If he'll just show me how to do it I could make it a summer project.

If I get all the wood that's down first and cut it, can that wood th be used right away? If I cut down any trees, how long does it have to age before it will burn well?

In order to conserve the little space we have, he said he would bump the wall out like he does in new construction for fireplaces. I thought that was a good idea!

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 22, 2001.

Denise in regards to using wood that is down..It needs to season a bit because it will have picked up moisture from the ground.Look for standing deadwood for immediate use.I use it all the time. I don't stockpile a lot of wood just cut it as I need it.Live felled trees or storm knockdowns need about a year to season after it is cut and split.A hot summer and dry ventilated storage area can shorten that drying time.Regarding the kerosun heater you may be able to shut your heater down to almost nil.whenever we switch over to one for back up or visit friends that use them for the sole heat source the heat just about chases us out of the house.take the advice of the above posts and do install CO alarms,smoke detectors,extinquishers,as well as provide ventilation.ventilation is important as the new kerosun type heaters will actually use up your usable 02 before putting out enough CO to kill you.

-- Greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), February 01, 2001.