Using Infrared Heaters to Cut Home Heating Costs

New solutions to old problems are often born out of necessity. This is absolutely the case in our home heating predicament. We purchased an old farmhouse 5 years ago; apparently the previous owner threw in the winter drafts in for free. Our first winter in the house was quite a wake-up call; we filled our oil tank 7 times that winter! Heating oil was no where near the cost today, but it still was quite a dent in our budget.

Since that time, we have gradually added updates to our home to cut down our heating bills. We have installed replacement windows on all 24 windows in the house, we added storm doors and better insulated entry doors, added insulation to the basement, and we have added insulation to the outside walls of the 4 rooms we have remodeled so far. It is absolutely a step in the right direction; the winter-time drafts in our home are no longer strong enough to blow out a lit candle, and last year we only refilled our oil tank a total of 5 times.

This year the oil prices have jumped so much that we were absolutely shell-shocked when we filled our tank for the first time back in September. We have decided to turn down the thermostat to 62 degrees until we could research cost-effective ways we could supplement our forced air heating system. We looked first towards pellet stoves and wood burning stoves. This idea was quickly ruled out because of the labor costs to install and vent the new heaters into our home. Plus, we knew we would be purchasing fuel to burn, and while it would be cheaper than heating oil, it would still be inconvient. Lastly, we were looking for something that would be safe for my 4-year-old son and our labrador, and we were afraid of the safety issues that a hot stove may create.