~~*Paradis
My husband and I are renting a small house, I would say about 700 sq feet or so. We would like to get an energy efficient space heater to reduce our oil bill. If I get a small space heater will it help heat the whole house, it is one floor with two bedrooms and the living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big space. So my question to help heat the whole house, how big of a heater do I need. Keep in mind I don't want to completely heat the whole house, just cut back on the amount of oil we need to use.
Answer
I did something like this in a house about 1500 sq. feet for the two years prior to my braking down and spending some serious ching on a dual-fuel heating sytem.
I put a chep thermosat in the basement, disconnected the one upstairs, and then set the one downstairs to 50. I ran a space heater in the kitchen, living room, and each of three bedrooms as needed; the idea being that we only ran them when we were home, and in those rooms.
Keep in Mind I am talking about Minnesota, and the northern part of the state at that. I went from burning through a 250 gal. tank in a month or so over Dec., Jan., and Feb, to a quarter of a tank over the entire winter.
My power bill, at 8 cents a Kwhr, was, at the most about $180-$210 a month.
I had installed energy efficient windows in my house prior to this gambit.
You can save yourself some money with this plan, but w/o knowing what shape the house is in, or where it is, I couldn't guess as to how much that would be.
Myself, I like electric space heaters. Propane is not the best idea indoors. If it leaks, it settles to the floor, and has this irritating habit of going "boom."
Get a couple of 1500 watt heaters and make sure they are not bigger than the circuit they will be plugged into can handle.
Townhome Conversion Layout question: Living areas upstairs and bedrooms down?
Q. I have a friend who has bought the upper two levels of a town-home conversion. He wants to go the old tried-but-true route of living areas on the first level, and bedrooms on the second, then set up a patio on the roof.
I mentioned why doesn't he put the bedrooms and toilets on the first level of his space, then on the upper floor put the living room, kitchen, WC and the like, which would then make it easier for people to access the roof garden and spaces from the living room. I think it's rather brilliant, but he seems to think that bedrooms always should go UPSTAIRs, above the common rooms.
Can anyone give me a good reason just WHY you can't have the bedrooms on the first level (third level of the building) and living above that? I mean, it's not like you'd be walking right into the bedrooms; you could arrange it so that when you enter the space, there is a little foyer, with a stair case leading up directly from there, with a hall next to the stairs from which the bedrooms and toilets branch off.
Anyone?
Cheers Paula! ;o)
Answer
I think it's all a matter of personal preference. I live in a 3 level townhouse with my brother. His bedroom is on the ground floor with the garage. Common areas are on the second floor and the other 2 bedrooms including mine are on the 3rd. It's great because it maximizes the amount of privacy we have (we each have our own level essentially).
There is also a deck coming off the second level directly under my bedroom window so in case of a fire emergency it would be easy for me to drop down there if I couldn't leave my room. If an intruder breaks in they have two flights of stairs to climb before they get to me in which case I would shoot them first and call the cops second, so security and emergencies are really non issues.
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