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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Getting ready for Winter Weather

Getting ready for Kansas winter in an all electric house with no heat can be tricky and expensive. Our electric bill last year for the winter months was disgusting. Unfortunately with a new baby we have to have it warm inside.
Since we sealed the floors last year and that helped, We are going to purchase some room rugs for the living room and dining room and kitchen. We also wrote down the cold spots we felt on doors and walls last year so we can prepare better this year. We already know that we are going to purchase some envi heaters. They are wall mountable and only cost 4 cents an hour to run. We will purchase 2 for downstairs and 1 for upstairs. They are $100 each. We also have a kerosene heater for extra cold days if needed. We need to purchase 2 more rolls of heat tape for the basement pipes as we still froze up last year. Which cost us money to replace pipes. My goal is to make the house warm and cut our costs from last year by half. Although we caulked and caulked the stairs last year, it did not keep them warm as the basement is directly under them so we are going to purchase some indoor outdoor carpet and carpet those this year. The expense is minimal but should help alot. We will also plastic all the windows again this year , I can't stand the plastic that hangs on the outside of windows. Last year we used the inside window kind that is super clear and you use your hairdryer to seal it to the window. I really liked it but it was super expensive with all the windows we have. Luckily at end of season last year at Walmart they blew this stuff out at $.50 a pack and I bought enough to do all the windows. So for the price of 1 pack at original cost I can do every window in the house. We had originally wanted to put a wood stove in this year but time constraints and money just aren't gonnna happen this year. We will try to shop end of season sales this next year for that to have for next year.

Start preparing now and you won't be "caught in the cold". Farmers almanac for this year says although snow levels for most of the country will be less then last year, temps will be much colder for longer periods of time. Good luck bloggers and stay warm. Michelle

4 comments:

Tonia said...

We have some caulking and insulating to do.. Our living room and dining room is directly over the base ment and has absolutely NO insulation so the floor is very cold. Thankfully it is easy to get too and wont be to expensive to get the insulation in.. now to just get it done!
I have used that window plastic for the few windows have been replaced. It works pretty good and looks MUCH better then the plastic from the outside.

frugalredneck said...

One tip on the insulating the basement, Ours sounds just like yours, very easy to get to. We have 110 year old wood floors, We decided on the sheets of foam insulation that we could custom fit ourselves into the rows and then caulk them in. And I could not believe the difference in the temp from last winter compared to the first. We could not walk on the floors the first winter with 2 pairs of socks and slippers still freezing lol. Last winter was no problem. I made all of us gripper socks with puff paint one pair and we were warm and toasty. The foam insulation was cheaper then the rolls and it was a breeze to install. Just cut and staple and caulk the edges. HTH Michelle

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness; where did you find such a great deal on the plastic shrink-wrap window sealers?? We spend a small fortune on those every winter and I would love to be able to stock up on great sales at some point.

frugalredneck said...

ss anon, Walmart after winter clearance sales. Michelle