Another heat loss
December 28th, 2007 by gambit32
Apparently the flue damper on my chimney has been open since we moved in. I had to discover this by putting my digicam up the fireplace and taking pics to see a lightsource at the top.
I’d like to hope that having the fireplace itself blocked for the last 22 months helped keep some heat in, but since Ive got it closed now, that should have an impact (albeit slight) as well.
edit: fixed.
sneaky flue!
We actually decided to just use our fireplace for heating the house in the evenings and sometimes on weekends and it helps a lot, but our place is WAY smaller than yours. Otherwise the 2 electric baseboards we turned on seem to keep the place a comfy 60 or so, we’ve plasticised 3 windows but I still want our slider in the bedroom covered, its really hard to get out of bed next to a freezing window.. and our door has a few leaks we need to weatherstrip.. ahh the joys of keeping warm.. would be better if it wasn’t negative 12
I want to get the chimney checked and cleaned before I use it “for real”, then Im moving to it as an additional heat source. I did a quick run tonight with some kindling and a small log, mostly to check to make sure the airway was clear.
Things ran well, and with the massive stack of wood outside that Jeff gave me, I know it can go far. I just dont feel safe running regular fires without getting the chimney checked out, and I dont think anyone is going to be eager to do it over winter.
Here’s today’s fun fact about heating: electric baseboard heat is slight more efficient than… heating your house with incandescent lights. Hopefully you have something else. We have the baseboards. Maybe we should switch back to incandescent (from CFL) for the winter..
Hope your chimney turns out to be free of damage.
But what kind of baseboard? Ive got gas-heated-water baseboard. One of my zones is electric baseboard though (ive never actually turned that zone on however)
My parents sent me home with a 4′ electric baseboard, not air-propelled, for localized areas.
I spend most of my time in the living room (largest room, same zone as kitchen and dining room) on the laptop. if it were just me here, i’d be in a smaller zone, but this way I can socialize with the cats and actually have some semblance of happiness.
This place is just generally a clusterfuck when it comes to heating. I figure its just the offset to how I handle summer. I dont do AC. It may be on because of the situation (other people, computer hardware) but I dont think I’ve ever turned it on by choice. Im more than happy with just a fan running.
Karma strikes back. My refusal to use an air cooling system strikes back twice as hard, to try and force me to turn on the heat.
Blast you!
I believe the article I read was talking specifically about the plain vanilla electric baseboard heaters that are not oil/water filled. The filled type are more efficient because the oil/water actually hold heat. We have the plain vanilla kind, made even worse by the fact that the heat sensor/controls are near floor-level, and since hot air rises, the heat comes on more often than it probably should..
I suspect any space-heater type of unit is more efficient than the built-in plain vanilla electric baseboard heaters because they run on 110 volts (vs. the probably 220 that the built-in units use). Plus, you can use it exactly where you need it (vs. the entire zone).