Cold Wives’ Tales
Low-Tech (Cheap) Solutions To Warm Park Hill Feet In Winter
The cold weather has at last blown in. The Christmas, or holiday, lights had fortunately been hung before the shivers on an Indian Summer day in early December. It was a little late in coming, but as of this writing the temperatures are dipping to their normal seasonal lows. Which means that upon entering our 8th winter in a Park Hill bungalow we are dealing with the annual challenges of keeping warm.
Some things come with the territory of a 100-plus year-old house. Along with the charms of original woodwork, occasional ghosts, working fireplaces and double sash windows there comes cold drafts, little or no insulation, no vapor barriers and creative additions with thin walls and no heat.
As in past years I fell into the familiar drill of persuading the ancient wooden storm windows to do their duty. Awakening them from their slumber in the dark crawl space I dragged them out. It was easy for me to imagine myself a part of a ritual stretching back to 1911 and feel a kinship with the men and woman before me who have climbed their own wooden (now aluminum) stepladders.
Then, during the breathless moment when the full weight of the storm window is suspended above my head and amid the cries of “be careful,” I guide one 100 year-old bracket to its accustomed 100 year-old hook and I find another thing to like about living in an historical home.
We now value energy conservation much more than in years past. Although I may not be able to do much about Syrian refugees, I can by golly make my home more energy efficient. What are my options that won’t cost a fortune? Surely there are some things I can do to cut down on heat loss that fall short of replacing windows, doors and floors. Some things we already do, like put plastic over windows, seal the doors and have an evaporative cooler vent.
First I wanted to find out how much money was at stake. Over the last two years for the months of November through April our monthly energy bill averaged $175. Twice we went over $200 in both Decembers. The other months run at $91. Maybe I could save $50 for five months, and be more responsible a citizen along the way? I could budget $150 this year with a good chance of breaking even.
My online search yielded lots of helpful articles, surprisingly of two kinds. One was dealing with myths and old wives’ tales about heating. These didn’t supply much help though it’s nice to know that water heaters don’t adjust automatically, electric space heaters are OK to use, and that I shouldn’t turn my heater off when I leave the house and it’s 15 degrees outside.
I was however surprised to discover that “having cold feet is just part of enduring the winter” is an old wives’ tale and has achieved near mythic status. I wonder what my Park Hillian ancestors would think of that? I hope that enduring cold feet on the bathroom floor in the mornings makes us a little tougher and fit to compete with say Swedes or Siberians in the global marketplace. Besides, maybe old wives just have colder feet than when they were young … I know I do.
Other more helpful articles did supply the nuggets I was searching for. I was looking for a low-tech (cheap) type of solution. Did you know there is a thing called a chimney pillow? You can use it for sealing your fireplace chimney when not it use. They run $50 to $70. You can insulate your water heater with a fiberglass blanket ($20 to $40) and set the thermostat at 120 percent.
Another little trick I’ll try is reversing the rotation of your ceiling blade fans so that they push warm air down. Lastly I’ll try a small space heater … less than $50 and that’s my budget.
Another helpful item was the Home Energy Audit. The full works sets up blowers and infrared cameras, which show where your home’s air leaks are. I was happy to find out that you can get the whole works done for less than $200 if you qualify for Xcel’s rebate.
Maybe I’ll fit that into my next year’s budget.
Neil Funsch has been a mortgage broker for 19 years, the last seven in Park Hill. He can be reached at 303-229-2684 or neil.funsch@gmail.com.