We spent our weekend consumed in projects. I had to clean and cook for Ruhiyyih's party, and George had to tackle the insulation problem under our house. He was not a happy camper.
When I first checked out this crawlspace, it was to determine why the house was so cold. We've had some of the worst cold weather all winter the past week. And, our house just wasn't getting warmer than 65 degrees - that is uncomfortable. I'm not especially fond of wearing snowpants and a coat in the house just to keep warm.
I discovered that animals, probably opossums and raccoons, had been getting under the crawlspace and tearing the insulation, to use as bedding material. Perhaps the furnace vents were exposed, cooling down the air from the furnace. We checked it out, and figured making the repairs was necessary - but George was not at all happy about going into that dark, cramped place filled with spiders.
He went to Home Depot and got goggles, a face-mask, some plastic sheeting and a staple gun, and got busy pushing the insulation back into place, then packaging it with the plastic sheeting, so it won't fall down again. He also had to cover the area where animals had gotten under the house. He's got about 1/3 of it done, the worst part. And, it really hasn't made any noticable impact in the temperature of the house. None of the furncace tubing was exposed, which leads us to conclude that whats under the house is not the issue - the cold weather is.
At our party on the weekend, I talked about fireplace inserts with Tim, Annie's dad. He knows all about the regulations for these things, and said that a wood-burning fireplace insert is made according to codes and regulations now, and that it would not be an issue to burn wood in a new model type. The soot, smoke and emissions are minimal, if you are following instructions. So, I'm going to call around and see if I can get something on sale and get it installed. Tim said if I'm using wood on just those terribly cold days, one chord of wood may last me three or four years, and it would not be terribly expensive.
There is no doubt that for the money, wood-burning heat is cheaper than the electric I've been using - this furnace has been running constantly, with little improvement in the temperature.
