Monday 5 January 2015

HEATING A HOUSE

Happy 2015!

We had a lovely Christmas and New Years and now it's back to real life while I start 2015 with 19 straight days of work. Yippee! ;) I like to think of it as character building. Moving on.

I'm also starting off the new year with a riveting blog post (totally kidding). Segue. Are you cold? Because I am. (Especially today - pretty much all of Canada is at least 30 below right now with that blasted wind chill.) In our little old house - built in the 1950s or 1960s - we are constantly trying to come up with ways to make it warmer. Our house is heated by a forced air electric furnace and because hubby and I both grew up in homes with wood stoves, it just doesn't cut it for us. We fully insulated the attic a couple of years ago which has cut down on heating costs but doesn't change the fact that electric heat isn't cozy. During the day we're ok but to save money hubby turns the heat down at night and I freeze a little in bed. Correction. I freeze a lot. When I'm there (remember - 19 straight days).


We were thinking of buying a space heater until he found the Eco Heater on the Home Depot website last week. It's only $99 and after reading the reviews we figured why not try it? I like to think of it as a big, magical heat square. (Really. I'm not kidding. Totally accurate name.) I truly find this the strangest little contraption. It's a convection heater so there is a little (and I mean little - like size of a deck of cards) 400 watt heater on the back of this ceramic (?) tile. You mount the whole thing to the wall and it plugs into an outlet. This little heater warms the air trapped behind the magical heat square, the warm air gradually rises, pulling cold air in behind, which then is heated, etc.


Now - if you are looking for a way to warm your bedroom at night I have to tell you. We are impressed that this strange $99 contraption works because I seriously had my doubts. I might have even laughed. The accurately named "magical heat square" might have come to be because I was...making fun. The wall, the floor nearby, and even the bed is warmer than before. Full disclosure - I find if the bedroom door is open it isn't very effective. Even with the door closed it certainly doesn't make the room hot by any stretch of the imagination, but you can feel a noticeable difference between the hallway and entering the bedroom. From the online reviews, people who had no additional heat source in a room didn't like this product, but for those who are just looking for a little additional warmth, it's pretty good. No doubt about it - I am warmer in bed now with the door closed. The instructions say you can paint the square the colour of your wall, but we find it actually gets quite hot to the touch so I wouldn't try to paint it. And I would never leave it on when I'm not home.

That was the only addition to our house over the holidays so I thought I would share! We are slowly trying to update our spare bedroom so hopefully soon I will have some photos. Happy New Year!