How do you heat your home?

[FLATHEAD]

How do you heat your home?

Looks like it will be very expensive this year to heat your homes. With oil going through the roof, natural gas at a 71% increase in cost. <br /><br />I have a few cords of wood cut and ready, and will be picking up a few ton of pellets this week. Between the pellet stove and the wood stove I figure I can heat the place for about 100 a month through the winter.. A lot of work to to do it, but with the cost of fuel it will be well worth it.<br /><br />Anyone else heat with wood or pellets?

 

[ndemge]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

I'm all electric, and thinking of down the road putting in a outdoor wood burner.<br /><br />elec bills jump $100 a month in the winter for me.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

I have all electric with a big wood stove. My first year in this house I heated strictly with the wood stove. I was hooked up with 5 cord of wood for $250, so I figured "why not". It was a pain, but it heated the whole house and my electric bill never went above $30 a month. Last winter I tried just running the electric. My worst bill was $220 in one month, but the average was $120 to $150 per month. I could not find another sweet deal on wood, its about $120 to $150 a cord here. I burn roughly a cord or more a month, so the electric and wood costs are close enough to warrant me not dealing with keeping the wood stove going.<br /><br />If I could get another sweet deal on wood though I would do it again in a heartbeat. The good thing about my electric company is they let you average your costs through the year, so I actually paid about $60 a month through winter during my low income period, and paid the acount off during the summer when I make more money. I feel bad for the heating oil folks, that is going to be terrible this season for them.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

The sun, its freakin hot down here in Houston!!!!<br /><br />Actually, the old house uses gas, fixing to move into an all electric house.<br /><br />Highest gas bill was 80-100 bucks.<br /><br />Ken

 

[Boomyal]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

We use a combination of heat pump and wood stove. We probably burn an equal value in wood (2-3 cords/winter) to our cost for the heat pump but on the wet dreary PNW days the large window in our Vermont Castings wood stove gives a warm, friendly ambiance that the heat pump cannot match.<br /><br />I keep a 30 gallon metal trash can, on a Rubbermaid dolley, right outside the patio door, to empty the ashes into. Once or twice a year I take a snow shovel and just spread (fling) the ashes out onto the lawn. Voila, no disposal problems. Also use it for barbeque ash disposal.

 

[Booner]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Propane. Sure am glad that I prepaid for 600 gal in July.

 

[wildbill59]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

<br /><br />Got all this prime split red oak 4 1/2 cords from a tree taken down this spring in my driveway. I don't have a stove or fireplace.

 

[Homerr]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

I use propane. It ran me about $50/month last year. I use several small 20 and 50# bottles that I go get myself at the station.<br /><br />I used to have one of those large tanks they would come out and fill, but I believe they were ripping me off not only by charging me a full rate (I didn't get NO break when buying in bulk)... I would also go through a lot more gas with the big tank than the small ones.<br />They couldn't explain why this was happening even though I was using my stove in the exact same manor.<br /><br />I can make a 20# can last a week under normal use, whereas I'd go through twice that in the large tank. <br /><br /><br />My house use to run wood heat, but the price of wood was the same (f not more) than propane at the time. Even if you get the wood yourself, the price of your fuel, time, equipment... you're not saving much (if any).<br />I love wood heat, but my back and truck just can't handle the abuse any more!<br /><br /><br />I've did a lot of re-insulating this year, so we'll see if it helps.<br /><br />I'm also going to put in a small wood/paper stove in our kitchen to help take the bite out of the cold mornings.<br /><br /><br />H.

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Gas boiler forced hotwater baseboard!!!!<br /><br />Gas fireplace that throws out 40,000btu heatilator for backup

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

We usually heat with wood 90% of the time, 10% oil. Last season only burned 120 gallons of oil. I start the wood burner up about mid October then quit burning about mid April. I'll burn about 6 to 8 cords.<br /><br />I usually get free wood for removing trees. Last January's ice storm pretty much set me up for this winter and probably next season also. Hopefully this season I will use less oil.

 

[neumanns]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

LPG...Currantly at 1.69 gallon, Last winter it was 1.25<br /><br />We use around 700 gallons witch aint bad for a house this size in this climate,...it is fairly efficient home.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Originally posted by wildbill59:<br /> I don't have a stove or fireplace.

I'll be right over wildbill. <br /><br />Seriously, it looks like some cool boatin cash sittin there. Put up a sign, "You Haul. $XXX for the lot"

 

[Wimperdink]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Considering setting up solar panels for the heat/ac.. should take a good bite out of the month to month bill but will be a big expense to start with.

 

[roscoe]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

1100 gal of propane. Prepaid in July, $1.33 a gallon,<br /><br />Have an old wood stove in the basement, not hooked up, just there in case of emergency. Wood is abundant here, but expensive.<br />I also heat an outbuilding for the parrots I try to raise.<br />May have to sell them next year.<br />Home insurance was quoted $480 higher if I use the wood stove.

 

[11 footer]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Natural gas here, we burn like four logs a year in the fireplace at christmas time

 

[fixin]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Heated with wood for 15 years,<br />put a propane furnace in two years ago.I just got tiered of cutting wood all the time.

 

[Twidget]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Im in an all electric house with a heat pump. Not great, but it gets the job done.<br /><br />My Dad heated his house at the lake with wood for 15 years. Sister and BIL moved in and it was evidently too hard to carry to wood in that Dad left there. Dad ended up putting in central heat/air for them.

 

[treedancer]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Built this house with 2x6 studs instead of 2x4s.It is will insulated with thermo. Windows my biggest expense has been this summer with the air condition. Have a floor to ceiling fireplace with a blower that has two vents that heats the family room <br />the loft bedroom as well as the kitchen. The bedrooms stay cool as we like it. Have ten acres of hickory and oak with about twenty trees on the ground should be will dry by now. Will get my winter cardio with a Torro log splitter. Probably spend about fifty a month to heat a two thousand foot square foot house.

 

[qaztwo]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

high eff. gas furance/ heat pump. 1800sf during jan and feb, gas bill never gets more then $100. Also have gas water heater,stove, and dryer.

 

[JB]

Re: How do you heat your home?

Re: How do you heat your home?

Propane and mesquite.<br /><br />Gonna do a lot more mesquite this winter.