My winter heating history.
Growing up in So. Maine, my folks put an oil furnace with forced hot water/BB heating in the house they built, in 1959. I was 6. Sisters, - 5 and 4. Never thought about the coldthru....always. We had serious snow winters back in the early 60's...incredible amounts of snow.
But I moved to Central Maine in the early 80's. Bought a duplex in a small, thriving Central Maine town. I lived on the 2nd floor with my wife Tammy (grhs). No insulation to speak of. Windows were incredibly loose and porous. Heat source: kerosene drip stove. Sand bed. a continuous kerosene pilot, once lit. Drip, drip, drip. Lotsa fumes. Fire Hazard. Eventually replaced with a woodstove - a small Consolidated Dutchwest box. Incredible heat change. Downside, I had to carry the wood up 30 ft. stairs, then another 30 ft. to the stove - between 40-60 lbs per carry, 3-4 times a day. And depending on the weather.
Relined the chimneys to safely single flue burn for both apartments with separate oil furnace set-up, downstairs.
Heat requirements totally changed when I ripped out the interior horsehair plaster/lathe wall system - restuffed cavities with R-19? insulation and sheet-rocked, Big Diff. Next, the windows: rebuilt the woodframe and lead ballast windows, but added exterior storms bought to accommodate the bay window design, The result being an apartment of approx 1100 st and it effectively heated us on about 1.5 cord of wood/winter.....given the insulation/window upgrades I made.
>>>>Next Installment: The next move and the energy lessons learned on buying high land 50 acres with an 1850's built farmhouse.
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