Heating Things Up

This summer I struggled with trying to keep my home cool. The 120 degree weather really took a toll on my body and it was just miserable. I felt like I couldn't sweat. It was as if my body just couldn't cool off. I was told to run a dehumidifier in our home during the summer. We bought a used one, from one of those garage sale sites from our county, turned it on, and it dropped the temperature in our home a good 15 degrees. This was amazing!

During the winter months we stay warm via a jacket on at all times, and a wood stove. We have central heat but we do not run it as the expense of it just doesn't seem to be worth the comfort of it when there are cheaper ways to heat our home.

I was setting around a day or so ago and kept thinking how chilly it felt in our home. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was almost 20 degrees outside. I couldn't seem to get warm even with a jacket and the wood stove. I have a cast iron kettle that sets on my stove with water in it. The kettle isn't very large but I actually bought it for its cuteness not for its effectiveness but I was pondering the idea of how to keep things a little warmer.

The idea came to my mind that if taking the water out of the air in the summer to keep it cooler must mean that water in the air would keep it warmer. I started up the small humidifier and let it set blowing warm steam into the air. Within a matter of 20 minutes the temperature in the living room went from 45 degrees to almost 55. In about an hours time I had the room up to 62. I was even able to take my jacket off and enjoy the heat without having to drag that big hoodie around on my body.

I was curious if the humidifier would run up my electric bill so I searched online for my model to see the wattage and such. I got my humidifier at Dollar General for $14.50. I was amazed when  I realized that the humidifier will cost me only $1.75 a month to run it for 12 hours per day.I figure that is a pretty good cost for a 10-20 degree difference. This will allow me to burn less wood to keep the temp at the same price. I will actually save money by running it because my cost of wood will go down significantly. This is the cheap type of humidifier that I have:

The good thing about this particular model is I can put liquid Vicks in it and that will also help with colds and stuffy noses.


I think we can all save a little money in a lot of different places if we just look for them. Sometimes it is an ah-ha moment like I had and sometimes it just takes a little research.