We're freezing! What about kerosene heat?

[ChickenPotPie]

It was 47 degrees downstairs in the "warm" part of the house this morning. Upstairs, where my young family sleeps, was 40 degrees. Brrrrrr! My poor kids don't want to get out of bed to get ready for school and I don't blame them. We need a heater!

Downstairs, we have one fireplace with a blower (it's weak) in the living room . If you sit right in front of it, you can manage until the fire's been going for a few hours. We bundle up anyway because there are many other rooms downstairs that stay very cold.

Upstairs, it's icy! It's difficult to want to go to bed just because we have to go up there. The house is old, one window is broken (gone), the other windows are likely over 100 years old. This 110+ yr old house is just not insulated well.

We rent. We barely scrape by. Last winter, our portable "energy saving" electric heater sent the electric bill through the roof! We can't do electric. (ends whining)

TSC has a kerosene heater for $130. 1 gallon of kerosene is $20. It has a 2 gallon tank and runs on high for 12 hours on that one tank. That sounds so dang expensive!!

Is anyone familiar with this type of heater? Is there a better option for non electric heat upstairs in a rented house?

 

[BarredBuff]

If you get a kerosene heater, PLEASE be careful.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

If you get a kerosene heater, PLEASE be careful.

What are the dangers? What precautions should one take when using one?

 

[justusnak]

we have used Kerosene heaters. There are MANY dangers....FUMES is number one! Make sure the room is ventilated....second..FIRE. Clothes, toys get thrown too close. Dont let it set too close to a structure, ie: bed, wall, curtain. Is the window at least "covered" with something? The one thats "gone"? Be safe, and I hope you stay warm.

 

[BarredBuff]

we have used Kerosene heaters. There are MANY dangers....FUMES is number one! Make sure the room is ventilated....second..FIRE. Clothes, toys get thrown too close. Dont let it set too close to a structure, ie: bed, wall, curtain. Is the window at least "covered" with something? The one thats "gone"? Be safe, and I hope you stay warm.

TIMES 2

 

[Wifezilla]

Ok...it's cold, but WHY is it cold? Is it an overall lack of insulation or is it the windows? If it is the windows, you can get clear vinyl and cover the windows to really cut down on heat loss.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i was gonna say.. they are stinky.. like wow thats really smells awful. we have a kerosene one for the garage and only use it inside if its an emergency. to put it in perspective, we were out of electric due to an ice storm for 4 days and we still didnt use it b/c of the fumes and smell.

hows about the $20 ceramic space heater that TSC has???

 

[ChickenPotPie]

I'm sure it's an overall lack of insulation. If the house ever had any upstairs, I'm sure it's disintegrated by now. The upstairs is sweltering hot in summer and ice cold in winter.

It is definitely the windows, too. The windows are a really old fashioned type and single paned. There are gaps between the upper and lower panes. The window that is gone is actually one from the 1970's so it's modern and still, single paned but....gone. We duct taped a garden trash bag over it. At least it's in my room and not the kids'.

I'm going to try to find some old baby blankets to hang over the windows to see if they will take the edge off some but we still need some heat up there.

Ceilings are high, so are the windows (they're tall). Rooms are small. The doors of the three bedrooms upstairs open up into a very small hub which opens up into a small landing. The only way to get downstairs is down a narrow, winding staircase. I was planning on putting the heater on the upstairs landing and taking the doors off the hinges so we could get heat into each room. There really isn't any ventilation up there.

Bad smell does not sound appealing. Neither does dying of lack of oxygen. But those little space heaters are going to cost a fortune for the electricity. The one I had last year was an oil filled radiator type. We'd run it full blast and it barely made a difference. Our landlords told us that our electric bill was $1000 two months in a row and $800 another month. That's insane!

I really need to do something. We get paid on Wednesday and have bugeted $200 for a heater and fuel but we can't afford to pay a huge electric or fuel bill each month. We're going to have to be careful to not burn through all our wood before January as it is.

Do those ceramic heaters put out a lot of heat? Which ones will give us the most bang for our buck?

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we have ones like this (but not this exact model)... they heat up really fast and we find them to be pretty darn efficient

http://www.tractorsupply.com/home-i...ort-zone-multi-purpose-ceramic-heater-2170801

good luck!

 

[AL]

I lived in a trailer without heat for 4 years. It got so cold one year my shampoo froze (not solid - but kind of like gel, it would stand in your hand).

You can hang blankets or plastic on the walls to serve as a small bit of insulation. Garbage bags or plastic over the windows. Buy a big economy bag of rice or dried beans and either use tube socks or make sacks out of cotton fabric. Put a couple of cups of the rice in, sew or tie it shut and microwave 45 secs - minute....great bedwarmers and foot warmers. I would find a small area of the house to concentrate on rather than trying to warm the whole place.

I am not sure I would go for a kerosene heater... sounds like it is just asking for trouble.