On 1/24/2013 5:34 PM, George wrote:
On 1/23/2013 5:26 PM, Doug wrote:
I'm noticing in upstate NY, zero or subzero weather and just wonder
how the older homes handle these temps? Does your heater constantly
run? Pipes stay safe? Etc... Do you have to do anything special
to your home for these kinda temps?


I think it is less usual to find older homes that weren't retrofitted
with better insulation etc. So if they did a good job there isn't much
difference compared to a newer house.

I live in a subdivision built in 1968 outside of Toronto. The home
builder here was known for illegally under insulating homes (walls) and
ours is one of them but to be honest you can't tell. As long as the
drafts are cut down on the west and north walls where the wind can't
blow inside things are fine. When I first moved in here i found drafts
along the inside corners from lousy drywall joints and simply putting up
new beading and mud eliminated the drafts and raised the temperature.

Getting rid of the 1968 single sheet garage door and installing an r16
insulated garage door raised the temperatures in the rooms above the
garage by 2 C but the real savings came in summer cause it cost less to
cool those same rooms down as well.


We can get a week or two at a time where the temperature will never rise
above freezing and I spend more time worrying about warming up the wifes
car than I do heating the house.


Now let me tell you what it was like growing up in a 100 year old
Canadian wooden farmhouse that was on top of a 400 foot hill that was
heated by wood furnace that never ran at night, then having to wake up
at 5 am to start farm chores before school....