Had an idea to help with heating costs: ceiling canopies.

[politicat]

We have 12 foot ceilings (gotta love old houses), but they're going to be huge heat sinks this winter. So today, I was at Cost Plus picking up coffee and realized that those decorative canopies will work well to bring down the effective ceiling and keep the heat closer to where we are.

Or am I missing something? I'm seriously thinking about one for our bed, considering that was the whole concept with victorian and earlier tester beds - to preserve heat by using curtains and hangings.

[NMDemDist2]

1. ceiling fans, lots of ceiling fans

a few well placed ceiling fans will pull the heat off the ceiling. most fans have reversible blade direction that you change in the winter so it pushes the heat off the ceiling and sends it back to the floor.

the fans are reasonable, and easy to install in any existing ceiling fixture

my concern with a fabric "false ceiling" would be the fabric really won't stop the heat from rising, but will make the fan on your air handler work harder to move the air through the barrier. Putting bed curtains on the bed is a good idea though, your body heat will help keep it cozy. there are some cheap work arounds to hang them if you don't have a high 4 poster bed.

[Skidmore]

2. Forget using the overhead light fixtures you get with those

fans. Install them cause they are perty, but buy lamps at garage sales or charity shops and put flourescent or low watt bulb in them. We use 60 watt bulbs. Shoot, people used to read by candlelight.

[NMDemDist2]

3. i didn't mean to use the light kits, I meant the fans would install in any

ceiling fixture (if you have them)

[politicat]

4. Well... it's an old house. No ceiling lights.

We have a single ceiling fan, and let me tell you, it was not a shiny day when we ran that gorram wiring up to that fracking fan. Much swearing was to be heard in the Politicat household on that day.

So... not an idea I'm particularly thrilled with repeating, given any choices.

We already have CF bulbs in everything, and they're okay... except for the lighting lag to come on and the fact that I've had to change out all of the housings on all of the lamps so that the light is more blue instead of red.

I'm really looking forward to LED lights.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

5. nice use of firefly vocabulary!

that's really all I wanted to say, but I'll throw in my experience with bed canopies - they do indeed help keep heat in. I put one up as a teen during the summer...it came down a week later when our air conditioning died.

[politicat]

6. Another fan!!

My heart goes pitter-patter! (We're making a conscious effort to not swear because my nephew is at the tape-recorder stage, and my niece is just learning to talk. Lots of Chinese in all three households right now....)

The DVDs are my workout companions - Firefly 4 days a week and Buffy the other 3.

i *heart* Joss Whedon.