So, when do you turn your heat on? Just wondering.

[kanewtz]

It's been on for the past 2 weeks.

Wife complains when it drops below 70 in the house.

[Kyriakos]

Ours has been on for about a month with a break for a week when the temp went up. We have birds & older dogs in the house that can't live in the cold - not to mention our son and ourselves!! lol

Our house is also quite large, very large windows everywhere, and they're a bit old so they don't keep the cold out (or the heat in)

I was thinking about buying the plastic coverings for the windows over the winter, but I think it would cost a fortune with all the windows we have and am not sure if it would make a big enough difference (never used them before). This year we're going to close off the downstairs and turn off the thermostats. BRRRRR doing laundry will be cold!! lol, but $6000 in heating was not in the budget for last year!!!!

[iggysbabysitter]

I have electric baseboard heat.. in a huge house. I say sweaters and blankets until it's 17 in the house... but hubby turned the heat on in the livingroom at the begining of Oct. I turned the heat up high in my bathroom because my iguana needs a hot room, and who doesn't like a hot bath in a warm room?
I've bought my woodstove, I just need to hire the team to install everything! I can't wait!

[opus]

Were had our fire place on for over a month now. It's always 25 degrees in our house. It's nice and warm.

[DaveP]

Were had our fire place on for over a month now. It's always 25 degrees in our house. It's nice and warm.

I'd melt.

[kanewtz]

I'd melt.

You made of sugar?

[bargain_hunter_lola]

We've had the woodstove going quite a bit. It's too chilly for the little ones! brrrrrrr

[Natalka]

I'd melt.

Me, too! Husband would be happy with 25+++, though! We are total temperature opposites! I'm in shorts and a t-shirt, he's in fleece-lined jeans with a shirt, sweater, and sometimes a bunnyhug over that. My son is more similar to me, so it's the two-against-one rule! That said, we never freeze him out! It's got to be that hot Eastern European blood; when members of his family come over, we always have to crank up the heat - a lot.

[ninna]

I was thinking about buying the plastic coverings for the windows over the winter, but I think it would cost a fortune with all the windows we have and am not sure if it would make a big enough difference (never used them before). This year we're going to close off the downstairs and turn off the thermostats. BRRRRR doing laundry will be cold!! lol, but $6000 in heating was not in the budget for last year!!!!

We live in an older house and before we replaced the windows, we used the plastic because there was a terrible draft coming through this old joint. It IS worth the trouble, I assure you. You would be amazed at how much heat disappears through old windows! And--it doesn't need to cost much. Really, the biggest issue with plastic on windows is the ugliness and inconvenience factors.

You have two options: a) the heavy rolls of thick plastic which look ugly and are more cumbersome to put up, but are also more durable or b) the shrinking plastic that you put up on the inside of the windows using tape and a hair dryer to suck it tight. Looks much nicer than the thick plastic on the outside of a house, but it is easier to tear so you have to be a little more careful. And the icky part about the shrink wrap type is the unsightly strip of tape around your window frames when you pull the plastic off in the springtime.

The one thing I really hated about the plastic on the window was never having the option to open the window til spring. For that reason, we always kept the kitchen windows free of plastic in case we burned supper and needed some fresh air. LOL.

It does make a difference on the heat bill though. It takes a little time and maybe looks a little ugly--but at the cost to heat these days-- time and ugly are things I can live with.

[Kyriakos]

You have two options: a) the heavy rolls of thick plastic which look ugly and are more cumbersome to put up, but are also more durable or b) the shrinking plastic that you put up on the inside of the windows using tape and a hair dryer to suck it tight. Looks much nicer than the thick plastic on the outside of a house, but it is easier to tear so you have to be a little more careful. And the icky part about the shrink wrap type is the unsightly strip of tape around your window frames when you pull the plastic off in the springtime.

Thank you so much for the info!! I didn't realise that there was more than one option. I just looked quickly at a department store and I remember the price being around $8.00 for a window or two! (and I'm sure those are regular sized, not the large ones) I'll take a better look into it, because it sounds like it will save a lot of money.

We just had our foyer door installed this summer and I've already noticed a huge difference in the cold air that is prevented from coming in the house through our front door (glass as well of course). And that's with the winter not having even started yet!

Thanks again!!

[abbasgirl]

Plastic does make a huge difference - even if you only decide to put it in one or two rooms, you'll notice a difference. When you take the plastic off the windows again in the spring, use your hairdryer again to heat up the tape so that you can take it off a lot easier.

[lindsbeth112984]

I live in a basement apartment, in a house. I've turned mine on for 15-30 minute periods a few times now in the past two weeks. And it's usually late at night or when we had a cool period. I am not a person who likes heat & seem to get warm very easily, actually the windows are usually open during the day. This will be my first winter in this place, so we will see how the temps are.

[vibrantflame]

Haven't turned it on yet. We live about an hour away from Ottawa. But we live in a townhouse unit with another unit on one side and two units on the other, so we get a lot of heat from their places. We'll turn it on soon, as it's starting to get chilly in here, just waiting to buy a new filter for the furnace.

[julyprincess]

I turn it up, then it gets too hot, so I turn on the ac and then it gets cold, and I am back to turning up the heat. It's a vicious cycle!

[Shwa Girl]

Refreshing this old thread. Is your heat on yet?