AtticaFlinch Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Been living in the bedroom for most of the past month because our heater isn't strong enough to push heat all the way to the front of the house.It doesn't matter what we set it on.. 72 at night..76 when we wake up.. doesn't matter. It has to constantly be on to even keep the bedroom in the mid to high 60s. Living room.. We get home, it's in the 40s. We have a space heater... but we'll run it for hours at max and it's still hovering in the high 50s. It's also fun when we start the microwave, forgetting the space heater is on, and trip the circuit for half our unit.Just got my Dec elec bill... I'll be so glad when winter is behind us.. I've about had it up to here ( my nose ) with living in an older place.My wife and i wanted a rental with character.. with hardwood floors.. Well, we got what we wanted, a place that is half uninhabitable for 2 months. Go Away Winter.Same thing with me. My wife and I are sleeping on our couches in the living room curled up next to the space heater since the place is drafty and the central heater is a pile of antique garbage. We don't have hardwood floors, but we do have a big sliding glass window that's an energy sieve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fringe Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Made it through the weekend with no busted pipes and my two palms intact. The philodendron, however, is not a fan of the cold.Not a problem, though. I've been meaning to take a machete to that thing, and heavy trash day is this coming Monday. Worked out perfectly.Yeah my philodendron isn't looking to great either. Although it's considerably smaller than yours. I tried to cover it along with a couple other tropicals but the dang covers blew off. Something tells me garden centers are going to be busy come spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Yeah my philodendron isn't looking to great either. Although it's considerably smaller than yours. I tried to cover it along with a couple other tropicals but the dang covers blew off. Something tells me garden centers are going to be busy come spring. Something tells me that the philodendron will come back with a vengeance. You can't kill that stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanS Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Same thing with me. My wife and I are sleeping on our couches in the living room curled up next to the space heater since the place is drafty and the central heater is a pile of antique garbage. We don't have hardwood floors, but we do have a big sliding glass window that's an energy sieve. Kerosene! Kerosene! Christ! There's no reason to be cold... other than you secretly like it... but other than that... http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200316420_200316420 23,000 BTU. $119. I guarantee, you put this thing in the middle of a 1/1, an efficiency, or any small apartment - built in any decade, drafts and all - you'll be toasty in no time. Those little fans with electric heating elements are no better than cheap hair dryers. Real heaters burn fuel... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 I'm pretty sure I have a duct issue of some sort, as the airflow out of the vent in our guest bedroom feels like it's about half of what it is in the master bedroom right next door. Since the guest room also has twice the number of original 60+ year old windows as the master, I'm glad that my mother-in-law was here over Christmas instead of the past week.We had our HVAC system completely replaced several years ago (new condenser, compressor, gas furnace, mostly new ductwork and insulation) after I got tired of repairing the previous near-antique system every year. Plumbing's a different story, as there are at least some original pipes under the crawlspace. I was concerned that we might have some problems this weekend, but fortunately nothing happened despite the subfreezing temps for extended periods of time. It did make me realize that I was lacking a meter key if I needed to shut off the water at the meter, something I've since rectified after a trip to Home Despot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtticaFlinch Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Kerosene! Kerosene! Christ! There's no reason to be cold... other than you secretly like it... but other than that... http://www.northernt...16420_200316420 23,000 BTU. $119. I guarantee, you put this thing in the middle of a 1/1, an efficiency, or any small apartment - built in any decade, drafts and all - you'll be toasty in no time. Those little fans with electric heating elements are no better than cheap hair dryers. Real heaters burn fuel... I'd actually gone to the Target on San Felipe on Friday night to pick something up (and yes, I looked through the camping supplies too), and they had been picked clean. I could have built a fire, but considering I don't have a fireplace, the smoke probably would have made the living room more unbearable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Kerosene! Kerosene! Christ! There's no reason to be cold... other than you secretly like it... but other than that... http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200316420_200316420 23,000 BTU. $119. I guarantee, you put this thing in the middle of a 1/1, an efficiency, or any small apartment - built in any decade, drafts and all - you'll be toasty in no time. Those little fans with electric heating elements are no better than cheap hair dryers. Real heaters burn fuel... That's a pretty wimpy little getup at only 23,000 Btus. How about a REAL heater? Mr. Heater. 175,000 Btus of toasty goodness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 (edited) i have really dumb cats.. not sure if i'd be comfortable with them running around an open flame.Plus.. i read some of the reviews.. looks like you're still talking about $100-150 in fuel per month to run the thing.I may just duct tape those foam eggcrates into all my windows and enjoy ghetto cave living for the next month. Edited January 11, 2010 by Highway6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelguy_73 Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 After reading y'alls tales of woe with inadeate heat, I'm feeling a lot better about the POS units we have in our 70 y/o house (package unit for the first floor, split system for the second). We usually keep the heat around 69-70 during the day, and at 67 at night, and the units didn't seem to have to work hard to maintain those temps. I did curse the out-of-square front door framing for letting in frigid air, but then blessed the eastern and southern windows for letting in so much of the warm sun (open the shades while the sun was out, then close them to trap the warm air in the house). At times I actually had to turn the heat down! We just installed a Rinai tankless water heater, mounted on a wall outside, and worried about it getting too cold for the unit to operate properly, but it did just fine. The pipes did fine (dripped the front and rear spigots and kitchen sink), though the first night we forgot to drip the front and it was frozen the next morning. Now I won't get into all the plants we probably lost...gingers, cannas, and heathers galore. My spring annuals money is going to replacement plants for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtticaFlinch Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 That's a pretty wimpy little getup at only 23,000 Btus. How about a REAL heater? Mr. Heater. 175,000 Btus of toasty goodness!To be fair, those are British Thermal Units. Had they been American Thermal Units, 23,000 would feel like the surface of Mercury during the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20thStDad Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Our hibiscus ate it pretty hard from the freeze, no more leaves and I can't tell if they're going to make it or not. Should I cut them down a bunch? Call it quits? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelguy_73 Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Our hibiscus ate it pretty hard from the freeze, no more leaves and I can't tell if they're going to make it or not. Should I cut them down a bunch? Call it quits?I cut back our lantana, but ripped out the ginger and cannas. As I was digging them up this morning, I could tell they are definitely still alive, but I'm not patient enough to cut them back hard and wait...I'll just buy new ones. If take a knife and scrape the base and it's green, then it is alive and it's a personal preference whether or not you keep the hibiscus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fringe Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 I liked the article in todays Chronicle about how we have been in "zone denial". So true. Can't tell you how many overgrown house plants and even a Norfolk Pine I have planted outdoors over the last few years that have thrived up until now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 my underground bulbs/tubers seemed to have survived. peppermint is returning. lemongrass still in limbo but a few leaves are green. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahiki Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 Watch out, we may be getting another freeze tonight or tomorrow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 Not good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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