Cheapest way to heat your home ?

Wear more clothing indoors.
there's no cheap way to heat a big, leaky house.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

I bought a new wood stove around 10 years ago and found, because of new EPA regulations governing smoke and pollutant output, the new stoves, at least mine anyway, couldn't be loaded up with wood to sit there and simmer all night. To meet the new EPA regulations, the only way to meet those regulations was to increase the amount of air going into the stove for a more efficient burn, the stove could not be dampened down and the only way to regulate the amount of heat output was to limit the amount of wood put in it at any given time. If you tried to load it up, the excess would run you out of the house or make you open all the doors and windows.

The new stove I bought eventually got modified to remove all of the excess air modifications mandated by the EPA so I could control the damned thing like the old-fashioned stove I replaced.

My experience is that these new wood stoves are garbage because of the EPA and if you can find a pre-2010 or so old stove without all of the new EPA emission standards, buy it.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I recommend a wood burning stove since it seems like you are low income. I had one in my old house and miss it a lot. It would get so warm in the house I would be sweating in December.

If you go with mini splits, go top of the line Mitsubishi. Do not cheap out because they are very difficult to find someone to repair them and very difficult to find parts to be able to repair. You do not want to have a surprise in the dead of winter. The person selling you these units will not tell you that. With such a large home, costs are going to be high. You mention balking at 20k for painting your historical home. Would you not rather pay that price for an excellent detailed paint job than have Jimbo come paint it for 5k and a big mess on your hands?

Homeownership is expensive. Utilities are expensive. My gas bill this month will already be close to 300 dollars and we are not even in the real cold months yet. If you can't afford to heat it, you shouldn't have bought it. If you don't have at least 10% of the value of your home in a home emergency savings fund "just in case" you should not have bought it. I like to be comfortable in my house in my pajamas. I dont want to have to walk around my own home bundled up in layers like I live in an igloo. I won't do that.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Hey! I got 2 houses and a cabin: cabin- fieldstone fireplace. House 1- no furnace, boiler, House 2 fan forced w central air.

Installed electric new cabin heater mounted on chimney.....

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

3500 SF of leaky house is a lot to heat and cool. Like a sieve really.
That's why these old houses had fireplaces in every room and in the winter everyone used to sit around the fireplace. We have one.

$300-350 doesnt sound too bad considering a leaky house with no insulation and 3500 sf.

Where do you live?

If you don't want to spend mucho $ to bring up the entire house energy efficiency up to a reasonable amount, I would do as mentioned above and install minisplits in the bedrooms and shut down the main system at night. Or split the system.

EG4 sells minisplits which are powered both by 120v and solar with a direct panel input and automatically switch depending on solar input. Solar wont help you at night, but it would help if you run them during the day.

BTW - Nice house.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I love victorian houses the architecture is beautiful, but it takes a lot to heat them properly.