Do you have forced air heating? Costly and inefficient are two of the many disadvantages of forced air.

Once lived in a 1 bedroom apartment in a 100 year old house. Heating was $300 / month with it only on a few hours a day. We were freezing most of the time!

check with pepco-- you should be able to get a high quality audit for $100 or less. And PP is right-- usually windows are the last thing they recommend because the payback on other things is much better.

We keep our heat at 63 at night and sleep soooooo well, burrowed down in the blankets. Hate waking up hot and sweaty.

We have an old (1870s) single family home with lots of areas and we had really high bills after moving in that were driving us crazy. We had the home energy audit thing through BGE and I found it a total waste (audit didn't tell us shit and we felt it would be helpful on our old and complicated house to tell us the problem) and scam. The companies jack up their prices and then give you a rebate off of their jacked up prices. Way cheaper to get our insulation done outside of that program.

I do think we learned that most heat escapes through the roof, so insulation is way more critical than new windows.

We thought we were goners, with so many issues, but turns out nope! Our bills have halved this year and here's why. We abandoned the damn heat pump and put in a high efficiency gas furnace system. We almost doubled down on the heat pump because we weren't thinking the gas furnace would solve our problem and we needed to be in the house mid-last winter (freezing Jan. and Feb.) for 3 weeks without heat to await the gas line being run to do the gas furnace. But we went for it and thank god! House is actually now warm (heat pump was $$$$ and we were cold) and bills are halved and now more than reasonable.

We keep our heat at 67 in mornings and evenings and then 64 during day while at work (poor dog) and 62 at night while sleeping.

There was an article two months ago reporting east coast residents will have astronomical heating bills this winter because heating fuels were purchased at the high prices of last year. Your bills will double maybe triple.

Anonymous wrote:Things that help in our 3 level townhouse with single zone heating. Our problem is that different parts of the house are drastically hotter or colder than the others. For example in the summer the top floor is very hot, and the first floor is very cold.

1) As a previous poster said, keep the fan on the furnace/ac on all the time. Set it to ON instead of AUTO, this will blow more air around the house.

2) Close / Open vents around the house. This helps a bit. In the winter it is plenty warm on the top floor (heat rises after all) but very cold on the first floor. Open all of the vents on the first floor, but close the vents on the top floor. Reverse this in the summer.

3) We have these little things that sit on the floor vents. They have fans on them and help pull the air out of the vents. In the summer we put them on the top floor to help suck the cold AC air up from the first floor. See what works for you.

You should have 2 zones

Things that help in our 3 level townhouse with single zone heating. Our problem is that different parts of the house are drastically hotter or colder than the others. For example in the summer the top floor is very hot, and the first floor is very cold.

1) As a previous poster said, keep the fan on the furnace/ac on all the time. Set it to ON instead of AUTO, this will blow more air around the house.

2) Close / Open vents around the house. This helps a bit. In the winter it is plenty warm on the top floor (heat rises after all) but very cold on the first floor. Open all of the vents on the first floor, but close the vents on the top floor. Reverse this in the summer.

3) We have these little things that sit on the floor vents. They have fans on them and help pull the air out of the vents. In the summer we put them on the top floor to help suck the cold AC air up from the first floor. See what works for you.

Anonymous wrote:Try running your fan all the time. Helps even out the heat in a town home.

We got a free energy audit from the DC government. They advised against new windows and for some minor, inexpensive changes like caulking and closing up our laundry chute.

We keep our thermostat set at 67 all the time and temporarily bump it up if we are feeling cold.

PP clarifying: I mean run the whole house fan all the time.

Try running your fan all the time. Helps even out the heat in a town home.

We got a free energy audit from the DC government. They advised against new windows and for some minor, inexpensive changes like caulking and closing up our laundry chute.

We keep our thermostat set at 67 all the time and temporarily bump it up if we are feeling cold.

Check to see if you have an auxiliary heating system. Those kick on when temps fluctuate rapidly or wher you make big changes in your settings. Auxiliary heat doubles the Amoy of energy you use. This was the root of my neighbors super high bills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you all fat? I keep my heat at 73. I also like to see my hot blonde wife prance around in a tshirt.

Yeah we keep ours at 72. I wear t-shirts or pajamas at home, so 68 won't cut it.

I can't believe these inside temps either. 62????? Why not just sleep outside? All to save a few bucks?

I'm constantly warm and yet, I can't imagine 62. Especially with kids. That's just crazy.

I will say though that the same temp feels different in different homes. I have a condo where 68 was chilly. Now we are in a rowhome in DC and 68 feels warm.

Come summer, 76 or more in the condo is roasting and 76 in the rowhouse is perfectly comfortable.

Whoops Thompson creek not anderson

Anonymous wrote:Are you all fat? I keep my heat at 73. I also like to see my hot blonde wife prance around in a tshirt.

Yeah we keep ours at 72. I wear t-shirts or pajamas at home, so 68 won't cut it.

Oh dear god, nightmare flashbacks. We have one single pane window left. It's a large non-standard sized window. We called Anderson Creek Windows to come out and give us an estimate. The guy that came wouldn't leave the house, he was here for 3 hours with a super high pressure sales pitch. It's not an exaggeration to say he was 10 times worse than a used car salesman - after all he was in our house. It was a horrible experience. Whatever you do, don't call them.