Our oil furnace doesn't give us much heat in our bedrooms which are on the end of our home. We removed a wall in our kitchen a few years ago and it's very uncomfortable now. Our Home is 1354 Sq. Ft. and we think it should be warmer than it is. Any suggestions?

Did removing the wall disturb the duct work? The cold bedrooms need both an unobstructed supply duct and return. If they no longer have them, you need to figure out how to replace them. It is also possible the rest of the house was left with overly generous ones. That can be more easily corrected even by blocking off part of something.

You need to provide much more info. Like how is your house heated (hot water, steam, forced air, etc.), where is the thermostat, have you had your oil company check the furnace?

Your first step should be to have your oil company come in and run an efficiency check on the furnace. This is usually a part of an annual service contract so it shouldn't cost you anything.

We had the furnace checked annually but there seems to be no problem, so they say. It's a oil furnace with blower. I'm no pro but I know there has to be a problem if the rooms are cold and it doesn't warm the kitchen enough now that it's bigger. The kitchen is in the centre of the house and is about twenty ft. long. I was wondering if we shut of some of the vents downstairs if it would make a difference. There's five down there altogether. Thanks for your reply.

Ok so it's a forced air system. When you expanded the kitchen, did you increase the registers? I'm not an HVAC expert, but I would assume there is some formula about the number of registers needed for square footage. If you increased the space without increasing the registers, that could affect the heat for the space.

Shutting off vents to other space could help.

Another possibility is adding or moving thermostats. If a thermostat is in a hot area, it could cause uneven heating by cycling the furnace off before the rest of the house is warmed.

If the furnace kept the whole house warm before removing the wall, it should now. It is just a matter of finding and correcting the problems from removing the wall.

Thanks again for your reply. The stairs to the rec room is off from the kitchen and there is no vent there. It gets cold on the steps and I'm wondering if that gives a draft also. Do you think installing a wall heater or a vent would help. I'm trying to keep down cost for the Winter because with Light and heat it cost us about five Hundred a month last year. Our light bill alone is about $150.00 up in the Winter. We burned about $3000.00 including tax in oil. Not bad hey? Our Garage is also off from the Kitchen and the door is always open because the animals want access all the time. Cold from the concrete doesn't help either. There's two vents in the Garage though. There was a vent by the wall that was removed.

I would bring the animals in the house and close the garage door and vents. Then make what you have work like it used to. $3000?

It all goes back to duct design. It is not very easy to help without seeing sizes of everything. Maybe, if you are a real do-it-yourselfer you can go to http://www.constructionbook.com/xq/ASP/ProductID.3423/id.341/subID.752/qx/default2.htm and buy a manual D book to better determine what your requirements are. The bad thing is this book is most helpful if you have done your heat gain/loss calculation that is the Manual J book. Sorry no good rule of thumb solutions. I could tell you to increase the size of a run and the boot and register, but if the trunk won't handle the CFM it will have been a waste of time and money.

Yes, Labman $3000.00. That's hard to believe isn't it? The reason I knew the exact amount was because last year we decided to go on the monthly budget where you pay the same summer and Winter and they went by what we burned the previous year. The Company told us that we burned little over $3000. Like I said that's not including the Light bill. I feel like I'm at the end of my rope because my Husband just says that's all we can do and I feel it's not. For the size of this house and we live in a wooded area with lots of shelter I'm blown away with the cost of everything.

NorthernHeat, thanks for the reply. I can't bring the animals in the house because I have four cats and a Dog. The cats use their litter pan out there and they're always back and forth. They break their hearts when the door is closed also. I know some things have to change but I figure probably a heater or a vent in the stairwell will make a bit of difference but my Daughter says she's frozen to death in her bedroom which has the door closed all the time and Winter is just around the corner. She has to keep her door closed because she has rodents(pets) in there and she's afraid the cats will do the job on them. HA! Where ever I look I feel my hands are tied. What I'm thinking about is the cost of my light bill if I install a wall heater.

Just thought I'd let everybody that responded to my problem know that our heating problem has gotten a bit better those days. I shut of some of our registers downstairs, just left enough open to keep it warm, closed of some upstairs in small areas where we had two and probably only needed one and we find it a lot more comfortable. Just needs to use a bit of common sense sometimes that's all. Thanks again.

Get a high efficiency furnace. The new style oil units do saye money on your oil bill