Affordable Heating?

[Ross]

Well just got my fuel oil delivery for the first of winter. 129.1 gallons at $3.149 a gallon. OUCH. Man am I glad half of it's paid for already, but it's going to catch up with me in spring.

What do you use and how are the prices affecting you?

 

[geebee]

We switched to a natural gas furnace last year (from oil). It has made about a $75 - $100 a month difference (to say nothing of it being cleaner from a house dirt standpoint) and Chris installed it himself so that saved quite a bit. I think total cost of the furnace was about $1200. After this season, we will be ahead of the game.

 

[Praline]

I heat with natural gas. My stove also uses natural gas and so does my clothes dryer. That is what was in the house when we bought it.
Of course you have to remember where I live. It was about 49 degrees today. My heat is on because it is so windy and DAMP! I keep the thermostat on 70 at night and about 72-74 in the day when I am home, mostly for the dampness. My gas bill ran about $50-$65 a month in the winter plus electricity. Now with just me here and being at work all day, it should be quite a bit less.
BUT watch out when summer comes!!! We use air conditioning here from about March or April till October. So our big utility bills are in the summer. I have mine what they call "levelized" so my electric bill stays about the same year round. That works good for me.
What is eating up everyone here is homeowners insurance, especially since Katrina! I just got a notice saying that my "wind and hail coverage" would have a 5 percent deductible starting this spring. On a $100,000 policy, that is $5,000. My insurance last year went from about $1200 a year to almost $1800.Plus about $300 a year for flood insurance. Flood insurance is so low for this house because we are not " in a flood zone". This neighborhood has never flooded, even during Katrina.

 

[Susan BAV]

We're on propane and it's grossly expensive out here.

When my husband and I lived in the colder climates, though, we always heated with wood stoves; but I don't know if that would bother your lung condition. If we ever move to another cold climate, I think I'd look into those pellet stoves; I've read some really good things about them.

 

[Trinityheart8891]

Ross,

My dad put in a wood stove this last fall, everything (stove, pipe, fittings, 3 cords of wood, hearth, everything) costed about 1500-2000 (thats definitely less than we would have spent on fuel oil alone) I guess. cord wood dry and cut up here is about 250, and we could probably get through with about 3 cords (its really really cold up here, barely got above 0 today)

the only downside to this is having to handle the wood, I'm getting better about getting dad and emily to do this but it can be a real pain in the butt, I try and avoid doing this when I am home alone, but its definitely better than having to carry 50 lb bags of pellets, this way I can carry the pieces of wood one at a time (5-10 lbs)

hope this helps

morgan

 

[Blanche]

Sorry

Sorry

Ross:
I can be of no help for you on this subject. Our house is 100% electric. This is not unusual for Arizona. Some of us do have solar for heating water.

My brother in Buffalo is having great difficulties with his oil bills. He has been on disability for a few months and the heating bills are eating into his little income.

Sorry, I have no recommendations for you.

Blanche

 

[Andrew'sMom]

blanche, i have seen a commercial on tv several times about a program that provides venezualian heat oil for free to needy people. ya, i know, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is... but the next time i see the commercial i will jot down the info (telephone # or web site) and PM it to you if you like.

 

[Debster]

Natural gas....we run 69 degrees on average...just got our bill-$169 dollars for 30 days guess next month will be worse.....

 

[Guest]

We got our gas bill today, water heater, stove, dryer, and heat. $101.50 for 31 days, 11-20 to 12-21. We are charged a customer charge, a delivery charge, cost of gas, weather normalization (what the hell is that?), reloc cost Recov/CCF, and a city tax. If we were only charged for the cost of gas the bill would have been $73.25.

I paid our electric bill last week, $90 for one month, I don't think the Christmas lights made that much of a difference but you never know, we did not decorate like the Griswalds. They're gouging us I tell you! It doesn't get too cold in Central Texas though our last couple of nights it's been in the 20s.

Our house is 4 years old, 2200 sq ft, 10 ft ceilings in every room except the main bathroom. Our gas bill runs about $29 during the summer months, electric has been as high as $180 (air conditioning).

 

[Dennis S]

I have cut a lot of trees bringing the forest on our few acres into a more healthy condition. We have a good wood stove, and that generates a lot of heat. When Barb designed the house, she studied where the sun would stream through in the winter. She placed the windows where the house would be warmed in winter, when the sun is lower on the horizon. During the summer the sun is higher in the sky, and the overhang she designed is just enough to shield the windows from the bulk of the summer sun. Lucky for me that she did the research, and now the passive solar really helps us out.

She went to work, and now we are enjoying the benefits.

 

[Bina]

Good Topic!!
You want to talk about heating bills....ask a Canuck Last year my heating oil cost about $3,000.00
This year the price has gone crazy. I filled the tank for $550. It's already my second fill.
Luckily, we have taken some extra care to seal up leaks around the house. We bought tubes of caulking for around all windows, and a new weather strip and sill for the doors.
Electric is about $105. per month, about half is the actual electricity, the rest is those insane delivery charges, debt recovery, etc.
Mind you this house was built in 1894, 4 bedrooms upstairs, uninsulated basement with thick stone walls.
We have a wood burning stove insert in the fireplace as a back up. Got some wood for $70 per face cord.

 

[Dennis S]

I should have included this picture. This is less than 25% of the wood I have cut & will eventually split. There is a lot of potential heat under those piles of snow!

 

[Freddie]

Natural gas is what we use here in the Canadian Prairies.
After upgrading to a high efficiency furnace, and keeping the temperature between 69 to 71 degrees, we are now paying about $900.00 a year - $75.00 a month, winter, spring, summer and fall. And yes we do have air conditioning. We are on an equalization payment plan, so come May or June we may not have to pay a cent because our statement may show that we have over paid. Paying the same amount every month really helps us to budget our finances.

 

[Lisa in Katy]

Central air and heat is pretty standard here in any house built in the last 50 years. Some have all electric, others, like ours, have electric air and gas heat. We also have gas dryer, water heater and stove/oven. It doesn't get that cold here, so our highest bill is around $100 in the winter. The summer, however, is a different story and we get extremely high electric bills, although we do have balanced billing so pay about $130 year round. One thing that helps my bill is programmable thermostats. They go down to about 65 during the day when no one is home and top out at 70 at night. In the summer, they go up to 85 during the day and down to 78 when we are home, although there are many days when the air conditioner works non-stop for that! We have lots of large windows and very high ceilings in an open concept house, about 2300 sf, so it's not that energy conscious.

By the way, I paid $2.99 for gas today, up from $2.74 a few days ago. They announce that oil hits $100 a barrel, and boom, the prices go up. I know that's not that high for folks in other parts of the country, but remember, it doesn't have to be transported that far to get to me. There are refineries within 30 miles of my house!

 

[terryj]

We are all electric with a woodburning stove for the winter. My bill runs around 120.00 a month in the winter and about 250.00 in the summer. But, in the summer we run the pool pump 24/7. My husband gets most of our wood for the stove for free. Our friends call whenever they have a tree down and he goes and chainsaws it up and splits it at home.

 

[hensylee]

Ross, there is a program here to help those who need it for electric bills but I am not sure about gas or oil.

I just paid our bill (electric) and it was $101+.

I used to have propane gas furnace combined with a.c. but it kept springing a leak and I figured eventually it would kill us so I had to go with elec but we still have gas water and stove. That bill is never over $24.

 

[Ross]

I know there is, Home Energy Assistance Program. We didn't qualify as Lyn makes $600 more then the limit. Were paying a equal payment plan at $100 a month for fuel oil and $130 month electric. Someone needs to do something about these prices. Fraid that ain't gonna happen for while yet.

 

[farmgirl]

Hello Ross,

Our electric company offers off peak dual fuel. They will put an electric heating element on your furnace and then charge a reduced rate for the electricity that is used to warm it. My husband had looked into it. It is supposed to be cheaper than LP or fuel oil. The fuel oil would be used as back up heat then.

At the present time, we have an outside wood burning stove with propane back up. The wood saves us an incredible amount of money as we live in an old farm house. But the downside is that the wood is an incredible amount of work and may soon not be realistic for us to do. That is why my husband is considering the off peak electric heating.

Hope you are able to find something to help you out. Diane

 

[Birky]

fuel

fuel

We live in Central Illinois and have natural gas for heating, dryer, and stove. The rest is electric. We receive the gas from one source, Ameren, and pay $154.00 a month all year around. This fluctuates 3 or 4 times a year when they review your useage. Our electricity comes from the City of Peru which has their own generators. Average bill for electricity, water, sewer and landfill is about $80.00 a month. We have hot water heat downstairs and a small forced air furnace in family room over the garage. The highest bill we have had for electricity in the summer is about $70 so I am not complaining. Gas went up here to $3.09 a gallon. Something has got to give or I will never be able to retire. I can't believe the cost of groceries. What is with the prices of eggs and milk. Are the chickens constipated or what? Hope a new president will do some good.

 

[swim mom]

The discounted oil is Citgo's discount oil program. To contact them you can call 877-Joe-4-oil. I don't know any more than what the commercial says but I am a financial counselor so I wrote down the information to give to clients. I hope it can help someone.