Home Heating - Usage this year?

[edro]

We use propane.
I had a fill up on 12/31 for 358 gal. @ $2.39/gal + tax = $937.
I just got filled up again on 1/31.

So my heating bill for January was $937.

We only use propane for heat. (electric water heater and stove)
We have a 130+ year old house with all new windows and doors.
The exterior walls have pumped in foam insulation.
We live on a hill with open fields all around us, so the wind bombards us.

I just can't believe our heating bill would be $900+ if we were on 100% electric.
I am thinking about looking into heat pumps and switching to 100% electric.

Thoughts?!

Share your winter heating woes!

 

[Humpy]

Did the heater ever shut off during the month?

It seems like you could convert gallons of propane to BTU's and then to kilowatts to find the cost difference.

I live in the SW. I'll save my woes till summer.

 

[PastTense]

The most economical method of home heating is by wood which you cut yourself. Is there any reason you don't do this? The only reason I don't do this is because I am too lazy.

 

[Zivic]

we run LP in our building/shop. paid 3.99/gallon a week ago. 2.39 is a good price. I have been seeing it as high as 6/gallon in this area

next year I think we will look very seriously into getting metered natural gas ran to it.

 

[iGas]

Water, hot water, and heat are included in the rent. The only thing I pay for is electricity, and it is roughly $23 a month. Free hot water and heat is awesome.

 

[jagec]

Last bill (most of Jan, first week of Feb) was 98 therms for $110. ~1200 sqft 2 level+basement rowhouse, 100 years old with new windows, doors, insulation. Condensing natural gas furnace+gas stove/oven, and we keep the heat around 65 when we're home and setback to 55 when we're not.

I'd ditch the propane, as it has a reputation for being super expensive, particularly this year due to supply issues. 1 gal of propane has the energy content of 27 kWh of electricity (but lower heating efficiency when burned), so you'd be looking at around 10,000 kWh of electricity for that fill

Heat pumps are GREAT in mild winters/climates, but in OH you'd probably be on resistance heat most of the time anyway. Ground-source heat pumps are an attractive option for harsher climates, but the installation costs would probably kill the deal.

 

[edro]

Here is a good spreadsheet I found: http://www.eia.gov/neic/experts/heatcalc.xls

The Heat Pump calculation needs to be adjusted for your location.
For Ohio, it goes to 4.3 which absolutely kills it.
Even when adjusted, the heat pump is $10 lower than propane though.

It shows that Natural Gas is by far the lowest cost option... but I don't think they can pipe it to my location.
I am out in the country.

 

[Demo24]

$937?!!


I've ~1400ft to heat, heat pump, and it costs me roughly $100 a month +-15. Struggled when it got down to temps under 20. A better thermostat may have pushed it over into resistance heat instead of keeping the pump on. Still, never cost me more than $8 a day to heat the place. Stayed pretty close to the 70 I set it at.

 

[jagec]

You might find this website useful. Lots of PDFs on the right with Ohio-specific useful info.

Also this.

 

[richardycc]

I use oil, got it fill on 12/16, just got 125gal today and my tank was almost empty(20-30gals left). I don't think it has been THAT cold this year, but looks like I used twice as much oil this winter. I remember I was using about 1/4 tank or 70gal per month last winter. I have a buderus g125be, which has an efficiency ratings of 90%. I fried my old oil company, because the last tune up they were only getting a 86% using a chart and a calculator, and they didn't have a working handheld efficiency reader to adjust the efficiency, so I am sure I am using more oil than I should because of that.

 

[bbhaag]

I'm in central Illinois running NG. Furnace, water heater, fire place and stove all run NG. Walls have been insulated with expanding foam as well.
Nights/days have been cold here this year though. Tonight's low is -14. Gas bill has been right around $110 the last few months. Our house is only around 2000 finished sq. ft. though.

Isn't there a propane shortage this year in certain states? Maybe that's why you're seeing higher prices.

 

[Wreckem]

natural gas > electric > > > > > > propane > heating oil

 

[Sho'Nuff]

We use propane.
I had a fill up on 12/31 for 358 gal. @ $2.39/gal + tax = $937.
I just got filled up again on 1/31.

So my heating bill for January was $937.

We only use propane for heat. (electric water heater and stove)
We have a 130+ year old house with all new windows and doors.
The exterior walls have pumped in foam insulation.
We live on a hill with open fields all around us, so the wind bombards us.

I just can't believe our heating bill would be $900+ if we were on 100% electric.
I am thinking about looking into heat pumps and switching to 100% electric.

Thoughts?!

Share your winter heating woes!

Get a good size pellet stove. We used to heat our home solely with oil, and used ~1000 gallons a year (at 3.50 a gallon, you can do the math). We installed a big decorative pellet stove on a first floor and converted our hot water from an off boiler system to a super high efficiency hybrid electric unit (stiebel eltron accelera). The pellet stove handles most of the heat load of the house except on the very coldest days. We burn ~5 tons of pellets a year at ~$220/ton delivered, and the HWH is on track to cost us ~$240/year to run. So those two changes save us ~$2100 a year in heating cost. Installed cost of the stove was ~$4000 and the HWH was $2400 installed. So ROI is ~3 years. You might want to look into those options.

There are also high efficiency pellet furnaces that could replace your propane furnace. They are expensive, but the feds and most states are running incentives now that make them about the same cost as a new propane or oil furnace. Only difference would be that you would have to clean it now and again, and the price of your fuel would be ~ half what you are paying for delivered propane.

Edit - here is the stove we have http://www.regency-fire.com/Products/Pellet/Pellet-Stoves---Inserts/GC60.aspx Between it and our HWH, we spend ~$200/month to heat a 2600 square foot home (with bad windows) in NH.

 

[Mai72]

I like the way South Koreans heat their homes and apartments. The heat is generated through the floor. It took longer to heat my apartment but within an hour it was pretty toasty. It does get expensive so you need make sure that it's turned off before you go out or to bed.

 

[Imp]

100 year old house, no insulation. Using an infrared camera, I picked up a -5C reading at a window -- not calibrated or setup, but it probably wasn't too far off. Long story short, this shit is not holding heat.

There have been weeks of -15 C, so the bill is atrocious this year.

 

[Jeff7]

I don't think I want to look.

There were times in January when the poor furnace hardly turned off the entire time I was home from work. And somewhere not too far below 0°F, it can no longer keep up, and I needed to have a little space heater running just to maintain the temperature. Damn old buildings... :\

 

[skyking]

1300SF modern home, we used 4170 KWH over 60 days from Dec 5 to Feb 5. Cost was $320.

 

[Imp]

I get the feeling that if I lived in an apartment on my own, I'd be too cheap to heat the unit beyond whatever it takes to unfreeze the pipes...

 

[Mungla]

Whether we are in the hottest time of summer with highs close to 110F or January with lows in the 10F range, my electric bill is always around $80-110 per month. We are total electric as well. 1800 sqft with 10' ceilings everywhere. The thermostat never moves off of 72F. Our big difference is the Waterfurnace 5 series geo thermal HVAC system. After the 30% credit from the IRS and energy efficiency credits from our electric utility, geo cost us $4,000 more to install than a traditional 15 seer dual fuel system. The decision was a no brainer for us. Our lot is small with little yard and so we did 3 200' vertical wells.

 

[Newbian]

I like the way South Koreans heat their homes and apartments. The heat is generated through the floor. It took longer to heat my apartment but within an hour it was pretty toasty. It does get expensive so you need make sure that it's turned off before you go out or to bed.

In floor heating is not anything new really and while it's great to get up and walk around on a warm floor I don't think south korea is really known for a ton of cold weather like parts of the states.

Northern parts of north korea maybe.

 

[IEC]

Uh... despite running a 6MH/s+ scrypt farm 24/7 all of an unusually cold January the electricity bill was a paltry $180...

Then again, we're probably R30 or thereabouts on insulation... cheap power + majority of heat being delivered by a heat pump with an effective COP around 5-6 is much win.

I can't fathom a $900+ heating bill. When I lived in an apartment in the frigid north (Wisconsin) my largest heating bill was $60 (natural gas) for a ~900 sq ft apartment...

 

[IEC]

In floor heating is not anything new really and while it's great to get up and walk around on a warm floor I don't think south korea is really known for a ton of cold weather like parts of the states.

Northern parts of north korea maybe.

South Korea can get bitterly cold.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm in Northern Ontario and pay about $100/mo equal billing.



Bills:



It will be interesting to see the difference once I insulate my basement.

 

[DrPizza]

A ton of coal runs us about $260 for bagged coal. It lasts a little more than a month; so about $200 per month for heat. House is barely insulated - window in 5ini room that needs to be replaced, and about 2-3" of insulation in the attic. Basement is unheated, resulting in quite chilly floors. But, at the moment, it's around 5F outside, and 72F inside.

 

[Newbian]

South Korea can get bitterly cold.

You are from texas so your definition of cold is anything below freezing.

The average low temps for seoul is a bit below that during their coldest months around low 20's so case in point.