The oven and the bathroom fan
Be warned, this post is about frugal minutiae so if that sort of thing annoys you, you should stop reading now. 😉
Today I'm going to write about two very small things related to heat, and I'm curious to get some input from frugal people that are more experienced than me!
As you all know, I bake a fair amount. In the summertime, the heat the oft-used oven generates is less than welcome, but in the wintertime, baking with the oven warms the kitchen quite nicely. When I'm finished baking, I usually open the oven door to let the heat pour out into the kitchen(don't worry, all my children are old enough to know not to touch the hot oven door). Obviously, I don't do this in the summertime, but no matter the time of year, the heat has to go somewhere, right? If I keep the oven door shut, I suppose the heat dissipates more slowly, and I suppose more of it goes into the walls of the house(this must be what happens in the summertime, when I leave the door shut) . So, is it any better to let the heat quickly pour out into the kitchen? It definitely feels better in the moment, but I'm not sure it makes any difference in the long run since heat that soaks into the walls isn't exactly lost.
I'm quite certain that my second idea does conserve heat, but I'm not sure if might have some other negative side effect that is unknown to me. This fall I was thinking about how warm, humid air is in pretty short supply in the wintertime. When we shower, the bathroom fills up with that kind of air, and when we turn the fan on, that air all gets pumped outside. This is good in the summertime, because we have warm, humid air aplenty, but in the wintertime I'd prefer to keep that air inside.
Since the weather got cold we've been showering sans the fan, and then when we're done with our showers we open up the bathroom door to let the warm, humid air out. Since the air in the house is pretty cool and dry, the bathroom dries up fairly quickly, and so I don't think we're going to cause our walls rot or anything. But maybe there is some downside to going without the fan?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on both the oven door and the bathroom fan...so comment away!
We do the exact same things to help with the heat!
I'd be careful about letting the damp air from showering into the house, because the more damp your house is, the more difficult to heat.
However, I do exactly the same thing with my oven, which lets out dry heat, I believe.
BTW, nice clean oven. 🙂
Funny...I just made muffins and left the oven open wide. Then I sat down ti read this 🙂
I do the same things. Hubby turns on the fan in the bathroom when he showers. I do not. I'm hoping we won't have to run the humidifier as much.
I let the oven door open after baking. I think it helps because our kitchen isn't far from the house's thermostat, so it makes the time before the heat comes on again a little longer.
There are no bathroom fans in my house, so I can't really comment on that.
The oven door, however, I leave shut. I've found, this winter, that it keeps the kitchen warm a lot longer (I can tell by the fogging of the windows) than when I leave it open (when the fogging stops quickly).
Here, I take my bath right before bed (husbands the only shower lover) in the hopes that sliding a clean hot body under the sheets means I'll stay nice and warm longer. During the winter, I leave the hot water standing in the tub until morning, letting it humidfy and warm the upstairs. The water gets let out in the morning. We don't have kids yet, and the one cat that is allowed upstairs ignores the water as well. I gotta say, as we heat only with our downstairs woodburner - this little bit of extra heat upstairs does seem to make a difference.
Be a bit careful with the shower heat, too much humidity over time can cause mold in the walls, which (trust me) is way more expensive to fix than almost any amount of heating!
My wife leaves the oven door open when she finishes baking. I've told her that it makes no difference whatsoever as the heat is going to come out anyway. (Is it going to stay locked up in the oven forever? No!) BUT, it makes no difference she leaves it open anyway, SO for the sake of peace I stopped telling her (I only told her twice - but in female language that apparently is equal to 1,000 times!) BUT, when I go by after its been open for a while, I shut it, keeps my shins in better shape! I like your idea of leaving the bathroom door open after a shower, because dampnes definitely makes it feel warmer. Damp air feels warmer, thats why humid summer days feel so hot and uncomfortable, but if we turn on the dehumidifier it feels better even tho' the temp is the same! We have a lot of plants in the house, this makes it feel warmer because we water them and the humidity from the water makes it feel warmer.
Valerie is right that you don't want too much moisture to build up. You could even use a small fan to propel the humid air out of your bathroom more quickly. Or, you could also leave the door at least partly open while you shower, thus reducing the build up right away - if this works for other reasons...
Related to this principle, proponents of green heating and cooling technology have developed a product called a dessicant wheel. In the summer it removes the humidity from the air being pulled into your house, making the air much easier to cool (because the high specific heat of water makes the water vapor the hardest to heat/cool.). In the winter, it removes the humidity from the air being expelled from your house (which is already warmed) and then adds it back to the air being taken in, greatly reducing your need to heat that air because the warm moistures is already being added to it.
I've only heard of this product being used in commercial applications, but it might also exist for residential use.
David, your comment made me giggle.
Steve, the dessicant sounds really cool! I hope it's available for residential use at some point in the future.
I often leave the oven open at least a crack in cooler months to allow the heat to pour out into the kitchen. I'm not sure it does much for the thermostat, but it feels really nice. 🙂
I also love to leave the oven door open after baking in the winter. It's such a warm heat.... kinda like a fireplace. I think it makes a big difference.
Something that I haven't seen anyone else comment on though, is the heat from the oven in the summertime. That can make a kitchen unbearable down here in the South. I have a really good fan/vent over my stove and I turn that on when I open the oven so it will suck the hot air out. But after baking, I just keep the oven shut like you do.