I miss Tommy C, I miss the Guru, I miss Persky, I miss the Cosmic Muffin. BLM is a shadow of its former glory but it is still here and has some legitimacy left. The slashing of personalities had made me often listen elsewhere, but i still pop in. I have been lucky to have been born and raised with a monster AOL station and then, in moving to Maine, blessed with another. These are rare. They still are allowed by their overlords to play Beatles and the enitre catalog "A to Z"'s and might play an occasional deep cut off of vinyl. Tommy C at least has his show on CLZ and that is the best thing on the radio. I'll enjoy what we have while we have it.

Why do you say that? Do you know anything about the firing or any Persky gossip?

In your situation, an energy audit from a BPI certified Building Anaylst Professional will likely be the best next step. They used to cost between $0-$500, depending (Idk currently.) The results will be really handy in guiding next steps.

Maybe the quickest, cheapest next step is just getting a wood stove. An audit can help guide here, too, especially in looking at how to avoid negatively affecting the safe venting of any existing heating unit and how to avoid moving too much moisture into attics. (An auditor should be seeing how everything in the house is connected in one interdependent system.)

I don't recommend a pellet stove. They blow warm air, they DO NOT RADIATE like a wood stove. The amount and quality of the heat is very different. If you want the ease of a pellet stove, go with a mini split heat pump. Easier, cleaner, provides AC too. But doesn't work when power is out without deep cycle batteries and an inverter.

Before shelling out on more shiny heating technology, cover the basics with an audit and go from there. There might be all kinds of open chases into the attic (around the chimney, open wall tops especially around plumbing and wires.) The old bathtub could be built to be open to the wall and framed around, there may be connections from porches that are cooling a ceiling that can be bagged and blown. The sills and basement door may be leaky. The sills and foundation may be uninsulated. There may be opportunities to do IR-guided dense pack cellulose in the walls. The audit should include IR inspection, a blower door to quantify and qualify leaks, a good visual inspection with photos of the attic and what's under the insulation, and a cost and savings for individual insulating, air sealing, and new heating systems tasks. If it shows you that over 10 years solar will cost $20k and reduce your heat bill by $10k, but dense packing will cost you $6k and save you $20k, that is the kind of guidance I mean. In some cases the monthly savings can be greater than the loan payment. Whew. Didn't know I was going to write so much!

If you can make it till summer, we'll probably have a good long 5 month drought.