The Alternative to Central Heating

We have oil heat... and radiators... This is a first for me! Everywhere I have lived - in our apartment last year, at my parents' house, in my apartment in college - I've always had some sort of central heating system. I've just never dealt with radiators before. We had not been able to successfully turn on the heat since we moved here, but we hadn't needed it yet. Since the weather took a turn for the worse this past week, we decided to get serious. We called someone to come fill up our oil tank.

When we called, they asked whether our oil tank was above ground or below ground. Thankfully, I was able to tell them the answer, as a few nights prior to this I was outside in the dark doing laundry and completely tripped over the little knob sticking out of the ground marking our tank. Yep, our tank is certainly underground.

Now we have oil in our tank and the heat is running. The one thing I was not anticipating is how utterly creepy the furnace and radiators are. The radiators pop every now and again and when I'm not expecting it, it makes me jump! It's incredibly loud. The pops have even woken Chris up in the middle of the night (Thankfully, I sleep through everything!). Plus, when the furnace starts up in the basement, it makes the strangest noises you have ever heard. I may avoid doing laundry down there until we turn the heat back off in a few months just to prevent the fright of it coming on unexpectedly while I'm down there.

I mean seriously. Look how creepy that radiator looks. Not friendly.

I am pleasantly surprised though with how well the radiators work. We have been keeping the thermostat set at 60 or 62 degrees, but it feels so much warmer.