House temp in winter??

We burn wood in our wood stove, that's our main source of heat.
We have a gas furnace and the first winter before we put in new windows and the wood stove my gas bills were $300 a month! :eek:
But since the new windows and wood stove our monthly gas bills are around $40.

The temp in the house is always around 70. It's nice to sit and watch TV in shorts and a t-shirt all year around! But the dogs don't like it! :p

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Originally Posted by pitc9

We burn wood in our wood stove, that's our main source of heat.
We have a gas furnace and the first winter before we put in new windows and the wood stove my gas bills were $300 a month! :eek:
But since the new windows and wood stove our monthly gas bills are around $40.

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Do you think that drop is mainly from the windows or from the gas stove?? The only time I've ever had $40. gas bills was when I was using it only for the stove and my old hot water heater. Not even heating the house.

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Originally Posted by jenn_librarian

I two doors at the front of my house. The front door to the outside, then the small entrance way, and the main door to the house. They are both the originals, and had mortise locks in them. They still have the buttons on the side where if you push the one in, it locks the handle and you can't turn it to get in the house even with a key. I found that out 2 winters ago when I locked myself out during a snow storm and the next door neighbor broke the one pane of glass to get me back in, and then closed the inner door and locked me out AGAIN!! Both doors let in a lot of cold air in, the windows too. There are new windows in the kitchen, and new windows on the 3rd floor from when the previous owners remodeled the attic into livable rooms.

I think that my house generally stays cooler downstairs in the summer than my apartments did. Again, I think it's the high ceilings. I hardly used the AC at all this summer, and it stayed fairly cool during the day with the lights off and the ceiling fans running.

I wish I could renovate the fireplace. I hate it. I would love to get something electric or at least not gas. I don't trust the gas logs. Lord knows how long they've been there, lol, and I guess I need to get the chimney looked at as well. I took out the gas water heater and put in an electric one, and am much happier with it.

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I know exactly how you feel, my house was built in 1911, and I know about those old doors, that are too wide for "today's" door sizes, so we just put up with the draft, right? Hah.

I have done a considerable amount of updating at my house, I've lowered the ceilings from 10 ft. to 8ft, that has helped a LOT to conserve the heat in my home, although, still drafty! I also put in central heat and air, which I am starting to think was a mistake.

When the CH/AC guys came to put in my unit, they said, we just put this same unit in JcPenny's... I was like WHAT :eek: So... Who knows. My utility bills are through the roof summer and winter, at least I'm still enjoying the 50 - 60 degree weather before I actually turn that Big JcPenny sized heater on. LOL

But to answer your question, I keep my house at 65 to 68 degrees in the winder.

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Originally Posted by jenn_librarian

Wait.. so you have no heat in your house at all??? No electric, no oil, no gas, nothing??

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We have portable heaters in every room. They actually do a good job since our house is so small.