Boosting the furnace

[thomasortega]

So, the most terrifying time of the year is coming.

Right now, exactly 59°F outside, according to Alexa. My infamous Williams double wall furnace and also a portable electric space heater to try to eventually keep the temperature comfortable for me to sleep (at least 86°F).

I've already put a fan in front of the furnace to boost its mediocre performance.

By the way, my 100 year old apartment has no (or almost no) insulation on the walls. i can feel the walls really cold and I even moved my bed to almost the middle of the room just to stay away from them.

Next step is probably put hooks on the wall furnace and sleep hanging on it, but I'd wake up looking like a grilled steak (at least I'd be delicious).

Before you guys think I'm crazy, both thermostats (furnace and space heater) are set to 90°F and they never reach above 86°F. If I set the thermostat to 85°F it will, eventually shut off after a few hours, but in a couple of minutes the temperature in my bedroom will drop like 20°F and take forever to recover, so definitely the problem is the mediocre insulation. The furnace solution for the winter is simply remove the thermostat cover and set it to "incinerate", but again, if it's really cold outside, it will never be hotter than 75°F inside.

When winter really comes, Then I'll be sleeping with TWO electric space heaters, the furnace, a heating mattress pad, a super thick duvet (and this year I'll buy an a electric blanket otherwise I'll strangle my beloved husband) and I'll definitely wake up in the middle of the night shaking like a chihuahua

The apartment had radiators under the windows that were removed right before I moved in because they were jurassic. Now I feel really sorry the landlord did that stupid thing.

What else can i do to increase the furnace performance? As my gas bill will already be absurd, like all winters, I'd love to find a way to avoid using the space heater and the mattress heating pad (so I can at least lower the electricity bill.)

 

[retro-man]

Here is a thought. Since your always cold in bed and seem to need 86 degrees to sleep, which I would not be able to sleep at that temperature. I might suggest that before you go to bed about 1/2 hour try eating a large meal or something hot to ingest like a large bowl of soup or stew. This would warm you up internally and give your body time to digest, which warms you up also. This may take the chill off of you. You have been in this country a number of years so you should have adjusted by now. Can't imagine you living in the Northeast where our winters are brutal. 59 degrees is almost shirtless weather around here lol. Another thought is how is your physical condition, how is your circulatory system and heart. If not enough blood is being pumped around your body will be cold also. Not to scare you but you need to find the cause of this, because to me working in medical for many years, this is not normal.

Jon

 

[launderess]

Most physicians recommend at least two or more hours after eating before lying down. Especially as one gets older otherwise it tends to promote gastric reflux.

Leaving that aside for now....

OP, your home/apartment was designed to be heated by steam (or hot water) rads. It seems sadly your situation is a common one; when steam or hot water is replaced by forced air the home should have had a new heating estimate done. This is needed to calculate proper sized heating replacement requirements.

Steam or hot water heat especially with cast iron rads gives off heat even after boiler has shut down (thermostat satisfied). They also heat by radiation (warming objects) and convection (warming air).

With forced air heating it is either on or off. Once the blowers stop things begin to cool down. Also lacking radiant heat of rads the place soon feels cold.

You can (and should) make sure windows are sealing properly when closed, and around the sill/frame.

Don't think your LL is going to reinstall a boiler and rads for steam or hot water heating, so you'll have to consider other options.

A nice fluffy eider down duvet should keep you warm while sleeping. In fact some are so toasty people stick their feet out from underneath to keep cool.

Other than that an electric blanket does sound like a good investment. I'd lay in a supply of flannel pajamas and maybe heavy socks as well. Socks are for sleeping in as well as walking around home with cold floors.

 

[yogitunes]

what you need is a HOT BEAR to hibernate with....it's as simple as that!...and FREE!

 

[maytagbear]

They are

a slight bother to install, but film window insulation kits....3M originated them. They would be an excellent idea. They reduce air infiltration by quite a lot, are not difficult to install, just fiddly, and are well worth the modest investment. In Ohio, they save more than their cost.

They are available at Ace, TrueValu, Lowes and similar.

My apartment is new, and well insulated, or I would be putting up these kits.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[ozzie908]

Slumberdown do a heated duvet

Which is better than an electric blanket as its lighter and the whole duvet is warmed up half an hour before you go to bed and its toasty

As said above find a bear to sleep with I have one and although we have NO heat in our room at all we both end up with our feet out the duvet.

Do you have such government schemes where they subsidise the cost of insulation so your LL only gets a small bill to pay and you would then have warmer walls?

Good luck hope you manage to at least stay comfortable.

Austin

 

[norgeway]

86

I would DIE I keep mine on 68 I HATE heat in summer and REALLY hate it in winter!

 

[searsbest]

You'd all freeze to death during the winter at our house as I can't stand the house any warmer than 64 during the day, and 60 at night..

 

[ozzie908]

Ours is 19c

works out to 66 Fahrenheit and we leave it at that. The stat is now in the kitchen which at night is the coldest room in the house. It was in the living room but the air con kept making the heating run lol

I am just too fat to have it any hotter my poor mum who has a similar build to Olive Oyl has a separate heater to warm her room up I go in some days its like the tropics....

Austin

 

[jerrod6]

Go to an online store like LL Bean and order base layer underwear. Wear a pair under your clothes in the day and wear a pair at night. These are poly fabric and fit snug against your body so no bulky feeling.
It may not keep your place warmer but you will feel warmer.

I agree with the above poster about the inside Film on your windows. It will help and make sure the entire window area is covered. Does the heat from your furnace come from registers near the ceiling?

 

[mattl]

You may not want to hear it, but a lot of this is a matter of getting your body to acclimate to current conditions.  I keep the house cool, here in mid MI I  only turned the heat on last Friday -11/8.  It got down to 50 in the house, during the winter I keep it a 64, and heat only runs 10-12 hours a day, it goes off at night.  I and others have found it takes about 10 days for your body to adjust, after that you are fine in cooler temps.  I walk around in shorts all winter.

 

I do use a heated mattress pad, and it helps take the chill off the bed and I find it difficult to sleep if it's too warm....

 

[thomasortega]

Some answerts:

Find a bear (Well, I'm a bear and I have a husband)

I sleep with my two dogs. They help warming me up.

Underwear?Nah thanks... I can't sleep with anything... Just like Mrs Monroe. Just a few drops of Chanel #5. (Actually just a few (10 or 15 sprays) of O Boticario Acqua Fresca.

My furnace is a Williams wall furnace, (super normal in California) It has no blower. It's just a rectangular thing on the wall that looks almost like a giant register almost as tall as I am.with a gas burner on the bottom and a metal duct that gets super hot. It is double sided (bedroom and living room).

I place a fan in front of it to move the air (it actually works way better with the fan).

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, Thomas, when in Rome, as they say.

 

As soon as the temps up here (SF area) dropped where I started closing the windows and doors at night to keep the cold air out (during the summer I used the usually cold night air to cool down the house), I started wearing sweats at night (and during the day, for that matter). I STRONGLY  recommend getting used to wearing something to bed. Like Dorothy, you're not in Kansas (well, Brazil) any more and either you have to change or find a warmer clime. Although global warming is on the menu, it probably won't ever be as warm as Brazil here.

 

Plus, wearing PJ's or long johns or sweats to bed means your bed sheets etc will stay cleaner longer.

 

I do sympathize: in the last decades of her life, my mom lived in a nice rent controlled apartment in the SF Richmond district. It had steam heat, and the heat was paid for by the landlord. But, when the system had a problem, instead of fixing it, the landlord decommissioned it and installed inadequate space heaters in all the apartments. Her heater was located in the entrance hallway of her apartment, which was closest to the front door and the bath, but nowhere near the living room or the bedroom. The steam heat radiator used to be in the living room close by her bedroom. She'd spend a lot of her time standing at the end of that hallway by that gas heater, and complained about the cost of the gas to heat the place. There was nothing to be done, it supposedly was the only spot such a heater could go. Supposedly. And for sure the landlord ran the numbers and realized he'd save money by installing cheap gas heaters in the apartments instead of continuing to keep the steam system alive and paying for that heat without recompense.

 

When I was younger we lived in a number of flats in SF where the sole heat was one of those floor gas heaters. The exception was when we moved to the "Stonestown Apartments" the last year of my high school days. That place had hot water heating. Often I'd keep my window open because we were on the second floor and I found it too hot - even though we were out by the ocean and in the fog belt. There was a little chain you could pull on the heater that supposedly controlled the hot water flow. It didn't seem to have any effect, LOL.

 

When I lived in Berkeley as a student, one house actually had a gas space heater in each bedroom. Apparently the tenants before me had raised holy hell with the landlord and used legal methods to force them to install those heaters. A later house I lived in, alone, had a single wall heater on the first floor by the stairs. It really was inadequate to heat the first floor, but the bedrooms up stairs stayed comfortable. Cause, you know, heat rises. I also stuck a fan on the stairs to help blow heat around the first floor, which sort of worked.

 

This house now, I own, and it has forced air central heating. The first winter it ran almost continuously on winter nights, and the gas bills showed it. Single story, with no insulation above the ceiling in the low attic. As soon as I could, I insulated the attic "floor", and also sealed off all the air leaks I could find (there were a LOT).  Also insulated under the first floor in the crawl space, which help a lot also. After that my gas bill (and usage) was 1/2 of what it was the previous winter, and the furnace didn't run all night, even on the coldest nights. I even insulated the heating ducts and the return air duct under the house.

 

These days I keep the thermostat at 66F, and it's fine for me - albeit with sweats on most of the time. The windows are single pane, aluminum framed, but I did renew the "mouse fur" strips at the joins so they don't leak air as much as before. I'll have to look for the 3M winterizing stuff. I've seen (and used) it before. What I don't like is that it involves using cheezy double sided tape to affix the plastic to the window frames. I'd rather build some wooden frames and figure out some way to attach those to the windows, instead. Probably on the interior.

 

I gather arctic exploration is not on your menu ;-)...

 

 

[mattl]

Thomas, have you considered a few (dozen...) of those oil filled radiators?  Last spring I was out on my cousin's boat and I sleep up on the deck since I"m the only one who can sleep with sun shining directly on me.  The rest of the group was snug below in their beds with the heat on as the temp outside dropped into the upper 30's.

 

Even with the Bimini top up and all the side panels zipped tight it was COLD.  Luckily they though ahead and  brought one of those electric radiators.  While it was a relatively small area it got very hot in there, so much so I had to turn the heat to low.  Perhaps using a few of these would give you better results and more comfort.

 

[rp2813]

Find a bear?

That can backfire on you.  My FWB is furry all over and as much as we like to spoon and cuddle, he says I run too hot for him and usually can't last more than a few minutes.  During the summer he has his bedroom AC set to 64.

 

I'm looking forward to cold nights, which is totally out of character for me, but I have my priorities.

 

Oil filled electric radiators work really well.  I have one in my office room so I don't have to heat the whole house with the forced air system, and considering the circumstances, the last room I want to heat is the master bedroom.

 

[dometicsavant]

I would use a combination of electric blanket (or better yet mattress pad) and a big fluffy down duvet. This year one of my Christmas gifts I want is a down duvet I found on amazon for $120 with amazing reviews. The tiny feathers trap air which in turn will also trap your body heat (and or blankets heat) which would allow you to feel and stay warmer at night. Thick insulated curtains to block out any cold coming from the windows. Better yet, a 4 poster bed with curtains would be nice (though may not always be feasible) I generally don’t turn on my heat until it’s in the 50s inside my apartment except a small space heater in the bathroom when I take a shower. Weather stripping windows and the insulating cling films will help. If you have hardwood floors- rugs will help or even if you have cheap apartment carpet a rug will help too. Humidifiers may help the comfort level of your air is really dry. Also look into infrared heaters if you really want a heater. They heat the objects around them instead of the air like regular heaters which may help with your comfort. My grandma has one in her livingroom that has a really tall ceiling and it helps a lot.

 

[ea56]

Thomas,

I’ve lived in Northern Calif. all my life and during most of my life I’ve lived in apartments and houses without forced air heating. All of the apts. and cottages I rented from 1970 thru 1987 had either gas wall or space heaters or electric baseboard heaters. In fact 4 of these dwellings didn’t even have gas heaters with a thermostat or a pilot light. I had to carefully turn on the gas and quickly light it. I could adjust the flame up or down, but that was the extent of the control I had on the heat. A few times I fell asleep with the heater on and awoke thinking I was burning up.

I got used to wearing more clothes in the house during the fall and winter, long pants, crew neck sweatshirts or sweaters. And an electric blanket is a godsend. The older ones were better, because they would really warm the bed before I got in it if I turned it one about 1/2 hr before. Most of the newer electric blankets don’t heat like this anymore. We now have a wonderful Sunbeam Heated mattress pad, and this really heats up the bed.

You mentioned earlier that you had a Heated Mattress pad and were contemplating also getting an Electric Blanket to use with it. Some other posters suggested the same thing. Don’t do this! You can only use one or the other at the same time, not both. And for my money the heated mattress pad is the better choice. And pair it with either a couple of good fleece blankets or a heavy down comforter, this should keep you warm. And I know you like to sleep in the raw for the freedom of movement, How about trying an old fashioned flannel nightshirt. They aren’t especially sexy, but you can still free b*ll and keep your upper body warm. LL Bean sells some nice ones.

I’ve not seen your apartment, you mention that the LL covered up radiators and installed the two sided wall heater that you now have. Now its possible that these radiators were originally for steam heat, especially if the apt. was built in the 20’s,30’s or 40’s, but in Southern Calif. steam heat wasn’t as prevalent as in other areas of the country or N. Calif., and even in N. Calif. steam heat was fairly rare, except in larger apartment buildings, office buildings, schools and hospitals in larger cities. I suspect that these radiators may have been electric baseboard heaters. You can still buy an electric baseboard heater, plug it into a wall outlet and place it under the window. If you keep the door closed and turn it up high enough you should be able to achieve the level of heat you desire and maintain it fairly constantly. But this will be expensive.

You did discover that using a fan directed at the heat coming from the wall heater helps to distribute the heat more effectively, thats exactly what we used to do in the last home we lived in with gas space heat. But this type of heater has never been known for all around heating comfort. You either fry you ass off if you’re close to it, or freeze it off if you are further away from the source of heat.

The one other suggestion I have, which I believe I suggested several months ago to you on another thread about your wall heater, is to get a Dyson Heater Fan. It will cost you about $300.00 and it will be money well spent. These heater fans oscillate, have a thermostat that you can set for the temp you desire to maintain, have a remote control, and the fan speed can be adjusted up or down, and of course can be used during the summer for cooling too. One of these heater fans in a closed bedroom will get your room as hot as you want and maintain that heat.

Hope that you can eventually get warm. I’m always cold too, and can’t stand the cold. When we had the power outage a few weeks ago I thought I would freeze to death each morning.

Eddie

https://cadetheat.com/products/baseboard-heaters/portable-baseboard
https://www.amazon.com/Dyson-Focus-Heater-White-Silver/dp/B00SMLKEPA[this post was last edited: 11/15/2019-12:38]

 

[rp2813]

Thomas,

Considering all of the electric powered augmentation that has been mentioned, either already in use or as potential additions to the current (NPI) mix, I would suggest making sure the wiring in your old building can support it.

 

The entire electrical system in my 1922 house was upgraded to modern standards before I bought it, and I still wouldn't plug in all of the heating appliances that you're using.

 

[ea56]

A king size heated mattress pad draws about 375 watts max and an electric space heater draws 1500 watts max, so unless there were a lot of other electric appliances also in use on the same circuit you should be OK, but Ralph does make a very good point about not overloading the circuits in an older dwelling.

Eddie