I thought this might be a good place to inquire on energy savings for those with old homes. We just bought our 2nd home, 80+ yrs old, and in excellent condition. This is also our first experience with using an oil furance for heat and hot water. We have been told that over all oil heating is the most efficent which I have to agree, 2 hrs of running the heat and the house is warm and toasty.

The down side is filing the oil tank. We have a 2800 sq ft colonial, and I was wondering if someone could give tips on which radiators should be on and off, is it efficent to turn off the whole system at night, once the house is warm which would eliminate the hot water being heated up while we all sleep and no one is using it? The previous owners did not do any upgrades to the house, it is really still in its original form, i.e. windows, insulation, etc. I am not sure I want to change out the windows since I have been told they are very expensive and people buy them to use to restore historical homes. We know we have to get the attic insulated, however I am not so sure I want to change the original windows or radiators.

Anything you have done at your old house that was wacky but worked. :-)
Also as I was reading the web , has anyone converted over to "hot water on demand systems" or " ductless a/c?"

Not really.

Our house is not that old - built in 1964 - but it had no insulation under the house and only a few windows are the energy efficient ones.

We have gotten insulation under the house (did that last year) and this year we will replace the rest of the windows (a sliding glass window = expensive!! and 5 other windows). I think the quote we got 2 years ago was around $3,000 for the windows, and that included installation and removal of the old ones.

We had propane heat, but after a horrible experience with the company (Ferrellgas - I would never do business with them again) we decided to just use the baseboard heaters. Our electric bill jumped up $50 this winter, but it has been freezing cold all day/night lately (I live in WA and we are having a massive cold snap), and it is still cheaper than what Ferrellgas was charging us for propane. There is finally another option in our county for propane, and we are considering it, but for now we are sticking to electric heat.

The house we own now was built in 1930, the house we owned in Virginia was built in 1911. I love old houses, I think they have so much charm that you just can't get in a newer house. Our house in VA had radiator heat/oil system. I wouldn't turn it off at night, as it takes awhile to heat back up (when you had CHA did you turn it off at night? probably not). We did not replace the old sash windows, but added storm windows to help with insulating the house. We had a fire place, make sure that you have the chimney cleaned before using. The house we live in now, the previous owner did some upgrades that I don't care for, please don't make the same mistakes, they lowered the ceiling to regular height, although I'm sure it helps with heating/cooling costs I prefer the high ceilings. They also put in CHA which I am not so sure I am going to keep when this unit dies, I have been thinking about going back to the free standing gas open flame heating system that was used in earlier days, you can still buy the gas stoves and there is still a working gas heater in one of the bathrooms and all the hookups are still in the house, then we would also have to go with window units for AC (which there is one already installed in the wall that works) we would have to add a couple more. I was thinking last night as we had a power outage for 3 hours and the temps in the house dropped 10 degrees (we are having a major ice storm here) that if we had the old heating system we would have still had heat.

Penny.

I love old houses too. I passed up the 200 yr old farmhouse for this one built in the 30's also. Our VA winter has been very mild this year ( oddly enough today is 74 and sunny). They did put in CA but not heat. The a/c system is old and will need up grading and I am looking into the ductless a/c units, as all the duct work is running in the attic which could be easily converted into more living space once a solution is decided upon what to do with the duct work & old central air. Thank your for the tip on not turning off the heat, we have been cutting it off and on, and of course it runs anyway to heat the hot water. It is nice to know that if the power fails we would still have heat. This is such a new adventure with this old house and I am so excited to start decorating.

Dawn

Dawn, it would depend on what type of ignition your oil heater has if you will still have heat. If it has electronic ignition and the electricity goes out then you will NOT have heat, however if your radiators are already warm then they will keep the house warm for quite awhile. Also, check your weather if you are going to get this ice storm we are currently having, it's going to be bad, LOL, we were in the 70's one day, then in the 50's at 5:30am the next day and by 8:30am I had to scrape ice off my windshield to take DD to school, it came in that fast in less than 3 hours.

we heat with wood. there is nothing to compare to wood heat. we also cook on the wood stove( its a wood cook stove) we also have window quilts over some windows and we put in new windows a few yrs ago and added extra insulation over head. we also have a oil furance that is set to come on if it gets below 50 in the house while we are not here. we have to fill it up about ever 2-3 yrs. this winter, so far , has been rather warm and we have not used the furance but maybe 2 times so far.

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little jo,

My in laws heated their very large home for years with wood. I love wood heat. We have discussed one of those huge fireboxes in lieu of the oil furnace. We are lucky we do not have terribly cold winters, like Penny in OK. We are in eastern VA and again today we will have unseasonable 70 degree weather.

Penny,
We are suppose to get some cold weather but nothing like what you are experiencing there in OK. Stay warm and dry.

I am going to try and do some before and after pictures of the house as I go along. We all could start our own home decorating page and show our improved " old house" . I saw a web site somewhere how you can add value to you home inexpensively. I will have to find that again and see if it is has some merit.

Best wishes for the day,
Dawn

My house is 147 years old - I heat with oil - and the best thing I ever found was www.heatusa.com - it's a co-op for heating oil, you pay $25 a year to belong, but it gives you a service contract on your furnace, a free cleaning every year, and co-op pricing on your oil. I save, typically, 40-50 cents a gallon over the companies around me. They don't serve everywhere, you have to go to the web site and put your zip code in. Best move I ever made!!!

HTH

Diane

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~Diane~

Thank you for the tip I will check and see we can get service.
Dawn