blatant plea for sympathy and advice...my FURNACE DIED FRIDAY

[grannylib]

and it's COLD at my house...Minnesota winters are tough enough, but with no central heating, they're pretty miserable.
They're hoping they can get here tomorrow to fix it; I'm hoping they'll finance it or else I don't know what the hell I am going to do. Already spent $200 I don't have on a big-ass kerosene heater and enough fuel to get through 3-4 days, and another $200 on the service call to get someone out here to fix what we hoped would be the thermocouple, but no luck.

*sigh* It's 34 years old, and well past its life expectancy, so I should count myself lucky that it's lasted this long, but holy shit...what timing. :scared:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Oh, that sucks!

Mine went out in similar weather a few years ago, and it was just miserable. Damn near froze until somebody could come out to fix it; all I had was a space heater. And yeah, it gets expensive. I definitely feel your pain.

Hope you get warm soon.

[texanwitch]

2. We had the opposite problem with old central unit a few summers ago.

It died in August, and the one we wanted to buy had to be ordered.

So we were without AC in August for almost 2 weeks.

Machines just wait for the right time to die, yes they do.

Hope you get some heat real soon.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

3. Do you have your faucets dripping?

Because it would SUCK to have your pipes burst too.
Good luck!
Duckie

[flvegan]

4. Good point, Duckie

[YellowRubberDuckie]

5. Why Thank you!

[grannylib]

7. yes, we do...have a small space heater aimed at the wall in the

basement where the pipes come in, too...
yeah, that'd be all I need, to flood the place when it's already freezing *lol*

[amerikat]

6. what kind of stove do you have?

if it's electric turn it on and use a fan to blow the heat into the rest of the house. Not sure if you should do do the same with a gas stove.

[grannylib]

8. it's gas (LP) so I know I can't open it and leave it run, but I sure

baked the biggest fuckin' turkey I could fit into it, just to heat up the house yesterday! And then I baked cookies. And today I made a giant pot of turkey soup. So I'm thinking of all KINDS of ways to burn propane, one way or another!!
We do have a couple of windows cracked open, just to make sure we don't get overcome by kerosene fumes, and we have 3 CM detectors, so hope we're OK there.

[Breeze54]

10. Boil lots of water and raise the humidity too!

I had to do that when my heater broke and it really did raise the temp!

Close off the unnecessary rooms too. Just heat one room, if you have to!

[grannylib]

13. We are living in the LR/Kitchen area (pretty much one space) and

have blocked off the hallway and closed the door to the basement, so we are pretty much in one room. We have one small space heater keeping one bathroom warm, so we can shower without freezing.

[amerikat]

11. just test the co detectors to make sure they are functional and

burn that stove.

[Breeze54]

9. State of Minnesota offers weatherization assistance program & furnace repair!

Call them in the morning, first thing!!!!!!

State of Minnesota offers weatherization assistance program

http://www.dl-online.com/articles/index.cfm?id=33205§ion=Business

The Weatherization Assistance Program uses energy conservation techniques to reduce the cost of home energy by an estimated percent. Correcting health and safety hazards and potentially life-threatening conditions is the first consideration in WAP activities.

Households who are at or below 50 percent of the state medium income are eligible: All homeowners and renters who are income eligible for EAP are income eligible for WAP. Priority is given to households with at least one elderly or disabled member and to customers with the highest heating costs.

Federally funded through the U.S. Department of Energy. Services available include: participant education, energy audits to evaluate home's energy usage, exterior wall and attic insulation, air infiltration and bypass sealing, test, repair, and/or replace home mechanical systems to ensure efficiency and safety.

For more information, log onto the Minnesota North Star state Web site at http://www.mn.state.us/

------------

This is awful!! :hug:

Do you have anyone you can stay with until you can get it repaired?

Family, friends, neighbors?

Have you contacted the above agency yet?

Keep us up to date!!

:(

[grannylib]

14. Thanks for the info! I am not sure if I qualify or not; we are JUST over the limit

for assistance from a local agency, so not sure...
But I will surely check it out! Thanks again for the info!

[Stuart G]

12. After getting some water boiling...as previously stated.

Turn on all electric lights in house. Leave them on...If you have those new type bulbs, install the other ones, the old ones produce more heat...Also...if you can. put plastic over the windows, to keep heat in. The plastic over the windows, the bulb heat, the water boiling might help some..even a cheep electric heater could raise the temp in one or two rooms...Good luck

[grannylib]

15. Thanks! It's well below zero, with the wind chill, so we do have the

large expensive kerosene heater going; we have holes in every blanket in the house (except for two handmade quilts) where we've nailed them over windows and doors to cut drafts; and we're so bundled up we can barely move (I weighed myself earlier and I have almost 8 pounds of clothing on!) and of course, hats mandatory...
So we're surviving! It's not the cold that's going to get me, it's the damn finances. Not sure how we're going to swing this. If it were March, I'd say fuck it and live with it for the short term, but noooooooooo....it has to be the coldest fucking weather in a YEAR....

[Stuart G]

16. If you have no plastic for windows, then....

Take some plastic garbage bags, cut them open, use some duct tape to tape them together to for a shield, then take that shield, now a large piece of plastic, and tape it over the windows (that have been covered by the blankets.) in the room where you are. The additional protection of the plastic over the blankets will form a barrier to the wind. Together they will keep the heat in. Good luck.. Keep the lights on till sleep. They will provide some heat too.