Stick House Electric

[lasater]

This time last year, I paid almost $400 for my monthly electric bill in Arizona's NW desert country. This year we left in June for the Pacific NorthWest. I set the thermostat at 90 degrees, turned off the water heater, and unplugged everything in the house except what we needed for security monitoring. My latest bill for July was $71. Now I can handle that kind of electric bill.

[richfaa]

We do the same thing here in Northern Ohio for the winter season when we go to Florida. Set the thermostat for 50 degrees. he bills run about 50.00/60.00 per month

[dsprik]

We are probably not going to do the same thing we did last year when we drained and winterized the house and shut off the heat and the main electric. This year we have furniture which may suffer from extreme cold/dry environment. Hate to pay that propane bill, but we may have to. Just have to have Cheryl work a few more days at Disney this winter.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Dave,

Might think about still draining the water, UNLESS you have hot water heat. Your furniture will be fine at about 45 to 50. Believe 45 might be as low as many furnaces will go. Have set ours at 47, furniture was AOK when we returned.

I don't want that water on tho, in case the power goes out and the furnace cannot run, therefore freezing the lines and pop goes the lines when the house warms up, and now, mucho dry wall damage.

So, we drain, even tho the heat is still on.

I wish our low bill was like Rich's. Geeshhhh. That said, we cut our bill considerably when compared to what it is when we stay in the north and freeze our back sides off. [}:)]

[richfaa]

Yes Dave. Turn off the water at the meter. Open all faucets, Drain water from everything. Pour camper anti freeze in all the elbows. This is a precautionary measure should you lose power and everything freezes. We have had no problems with the temp set a 50 Degrees for 3 winters now. I have been informed that we had a 70.00 electric bill this winter Our KWH per hour rate is 6 cents. Our high natural gas bill last winter was 115.00 in February. normal is around 60.00.We had a very cold winter here. It was 14 below and below zero for many days in Feb. I had figured that we save on the utilities here in the winter months to more than pay for the Electric bill in Florida.

[dsprik]

Just got back from a meeting... I should have mentioned that I intend to still drain the water. We may take a trip back to MI around the Holidays for two weeks and I don't want to make it too hard to turn things on and off again. We have a water well so I have to go down in my crawl space to drain and turn off things.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Dave, we have a well, don't have to do the crawl space thing tho, as we do have a basement. We drain all lines, AND the hot water heater. Do the pink thing as Rich states. Enjoy the holidays with your family!

[dsprik]

Thanks, guys!

[Bob and Sheri]

We learned the hard way last winter. Had the thermostat set on 55. All went great until January when our son stopped by the house to check on things. We had only been away for 3 days. He called and said "Mom, is water supposed to be coming out from your front door?" The power had gone out in the neighborhood and the temp was so low that well, you guessed it. We had water damage that took 5 months to repair. This winter we will go to plan "B". WINTERIZE!!!

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Oh, Sheri, what a mess. I can only imagine how you felt, all that work, all that mess. Having had serious water damage (from roof leak from stupid contractor that did not put felt on the entire roof during constuction), I can fully feel your pain. I am so sorry you went through this!

[garyka]

I have hot water heat so I can't drain the water.What I do is hook up a Honeywell temp switch that turns on a bright light when the temp. falls below 40 degrees so my neighbor can notify me.I had my furnace quit on me once when I was snow birding in Jan.I live outside of Buffalo NY,the temp was in the teens when this happened.Almost had a disaster.

[steves]

When we leave NJ for the winter I do the normal- turn the water off to the 1st and 2nd floor...turn down the temp to 50 degrees and then I also activate 2 tools that help to ensure I am aware of a heating problem:

1. Install the winter watchman temp sensor which will turn on a light when the temp goes below my setting of 45 degrees.

2. Install the Reliance Controls THP202 into my phone line which will dial up to 3 phone numbers when the temperature
goes below 45 degrees. You can also add a water sensor into this system that will also activate phone calls if it detects
a problem.

Both of these can be purchased on-line from Amazon.

[clutch]

We have to heat our house in the winter also. Most of the outside walls are plaster and I don't think extreem cold will do them any good. We turn the heat down to 50* and turn off the hot water tank. Neighbors check on it every week. Three years and no problems.

[garyka]

Does anyone have information on winterizing the hot water system with antifreeze on the stick house?

[Tom S.]

quote:Originally posted by garyka

Does anyone have information on winterizing the hot water system with antifreeze on the stick house?


Are you asking about hot water or hot water house heating systems?

For hot water, I would just drain the water heater (they all have drain valves and should be drained occasionally), and of course make sure you turn either the gas or electricity off before draining.

If on the other hand you are talking about a hot water house heating system using a boiler - I am out my element (no pun intended)!! I do know my father use to run antifreeze in his, but that's the extent of my knowledge. [?]