Space Heater

Randy-Lee Braman

Sean ,Bob has a very good point,caulk and spray foam are cheap.Start looking for those cracks and such.It just might suprise you what a few hours worth of labor with a caulking gun and some weather stripping will produce in heat gain.
Randy

Sean B

Space Heater

I have a small log cabin that is heated with in floor heat. My water heater seems to be pretty inefficient as I burn through gas relatively quickly. Also, I know the cabin itself is hard on heat because it doens't seem to be insulated very well and wind blows right through it. I have put plastic over the windows and that does seem to help a bit.

Anyway, I was wondering if I might be better off, due to the small size of the cabin, to keep my gas in floor turned down and use a small electric space heater for added warmth? I suppose I'll just have to try it and see what the electric bill is after a month or so???

Thanks for any responses.

Sean B

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

stop the wind

and seal up the building is the first thing I would do.
Bob Gagnon

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Sean B

Renting

The thing is, I'm renting. I hate to put a bunch of money into that sort of thing and I'm sure the landlady wouldn't splurge for it either.

I guess I'm trying to find the easiest and most cost effective way for me to heat the place without completely renovating or doing any major work.

I do have a wood firplace inside that I use. But, it generally doesn't heat the entire place. I thought maybe if I kept my thermostat set at 60 or so, plus the fire, plus the small space heater, it may just cut down on my energy consumption. Maybe not though.

Thanks

Sean B

Bob Harper_2

Unguided sealing of windows may result in backdrafting can carbon monoxide. Sealing windows may cause smoke spillage from your fireplace. If you want heat, either install an insert into the fireplace or seal it up. Burning a fire exhausts 400-600 cfm of heated air. Fireplaces are grossly inefficient.
You need to seal the upper envelope of the cabin but provide enough makeup air to feed the appliances and provide at least 0.35 ACH.
Get a high quality low level CO monitor so you make sure you wake up.
HTH,
Bob

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Bob is right

all your heated air is going up the fireplace. Use it only when it isn't that cold and you are not running your heat or put in a wood stove insert with combustion air directly from outside. Bob Gagnon

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