What's it cost to heat your house?

[Sourdough]

Just wondering what other people are spending to heat their homes during the winter.  It cost the average Fairbanksian  over $700.00 per month to heat our home September through April.  Count in boiler maintenance that is over $5,000.00 a winter.  These numbers were put together before heating oil went over $4.00 a gallon.  In the villages they are spending over $10.00 a gal for heating oil.  I think we are looking a an exodus before this coming winter here in my neck of the woods. 

We are also looking at higher cost for Electricity since our Electric is produced with fuel oil.

[dpe.ahoy]

I work for a non-profit agency that helps people with basic needs, rent, utilities, food ect, and have seen many natural gas bills of 350 plus and electric heat bills of 400.  Propane is about the same.  This is in Billings, Montana.  DP.

[MSP Ret]

I live in the Northeast on Cape Cod, the last 12 months my bill for natural gas (heat and cooking) was $2,181.00. The electric bill for the last 12 months was $2408.00. A total for heat and lights of $4,589.00. That's an average of $382.42 a month, $88.25 a week, $12.57 a day, $.5238 cents per hour, just about a penny a minute. For someone that spends $$5,256.00 a year for utilities that is one cent for every minute....<><....

[dpe.ahoy]

CRAP!  Thats 18.3 Handis, 15.8 Ultras or 12.5 B.C.s    Now it hurts even more!    DP.

[PanaDP]

Who needs heat? The coolest part of the winter here was still in the 50s.

Downside is living in Southern California.

[Hairtrigger]

I heat with propane. Last year I purchased a corn burner and saved more then 30%.
It looks like corn is going to go up like gas now

[morganp]

I live in Indiana and my house is built with insulated concrete forms or ICF's. This house is 1700 Sq. FT and has 25" of blown insulation in the ceiling. It is total electric  w/ a heat pump and I keep it at 77 deg. as I have very poor circulation. My highest monthly electric bill so far in the past two years was just over $200. In contrast, my brother's conventional built house of 3000 Sq. Ft next door uses propane and he says it takes $500 per month just to heat the space and water. I highly recommend ICF construction, they claim the walls will withstand 300 mph sustained winds and it is very quiet.

[jls]

moved from northern colo. to southern colo. about 6 months ago. bought an adobe house built in 1890 that has exterior walls about a foot thick. so far my heating bills have been running right around 150 a month( propane) and my elect. never runs more than 75 a month. too much hunting and fishing to do to be tied to the tv and computer. with the price of propane going up, I might switch over to wood burner before the snow flies again. interesting stuff, this adobe but my grandfather always told me" warm in the winter, cool in the summer" so far , he right!

[towpro]

I live in SE PA.  We have around 2 weeks per year where it's down in the teens at night, then about a month where we see the lower 20's at night. Still, we need heat from October through June.  My house is 1700 sq feet.  I used to burn just oil, around 500 gallons per year.  This was with me also running my central heat wood stove (has a thermostat, blows hot air into the duct system). Stove heats the house up to hot when it's getting near 30 so it only runs a couple weeks per year. 

then I added central AC, and spend the additional $500 to add a heat pump.  in the first year the heat pump paid for it's self!
With our local electric, I get a discount rate in the winter time because of the heat pump (they call it electric heat even though I don't have electric element back up).  I have it set that once it goes below 20, the oil heat come on.  My electric bill only changed around $75 per month because of the discounted rate.  Last winter I probably used 40 gallons of oil in the house.

I also have a pellet stove in a large 25x 25 finished room in the basement. I might burn 15 bags of pellets per winter since we only run it when we are in that room.

I have a 4' electric baseboard heater in my daughters room so it stays a little warmer in there when my auto thermostat turns down the heat to 62 at night.  Plus an 8" electric baseboard heater in my reloading room (in the basement).

I also have a 100,000 btu oil burner in downstairs garage of my 28X28 two floor garage.  I run it at 40 deg during the winter to keep the concrete floor of the top garage from freezing.  then when I want to work in the shop I just turn up the thermostat, within a couple minutes it's warm.  Between the 2 oil heaters I can't meet the 100 gallon minimum delivery and have to pay an extra fee to get it delivered.

this year I think I am just going to use my 40 gallon diesel tank in my truck bed and bring home some off road diesel every once and a while to refill the 2 tanks.

[45north]

  My house is a two story log cabin with the garage on the bottom floor (of-course) my main heat source is a blaze king wood stove in the middle of the garage floor,with a stove pipe made out of old pipeline pipe that is about 3/8 of an inch thick and 8 inch's in diameter and 22 feet long from the concrete garage floor up through the second floor and on up through the roof. I also heat my water from the wood stove. I use an electric hot water heater but it is preheated by the wood stove. If I am gone from the house for a few days I have propane heat for backup if I am not there to feed the stove. My electric bill runs about $ 80.00 to $ 150.00 a month, wood for the year runs me about $ 300.00 to $ 400.00. Propane is another $ 250 for the year, I don't like to go to town to often. So I am there to feed the stove. As you can tell I am not a fan of oil heat!!! So I average about $ 150.00 per month. That is an average so there is always varying costs, more in the winter and less in the summer. If I fill the freezer with moose, caribou or black bear, life can be fairly cheap. But no movie theaters or museums  for 200 miles in any direction. So I give up one thing for another. Life in the bush or in the city I'll take the bush.

45north

[magooch]

We heat with wood, which is basically free except for the gas to cut it and haul it.  I'm still waiting for Algore's global warming, so I can cut back on the work of getting firewood.

[rex6666]

Live in an all electric 1900sq ft. house in Euless.TX keep the stat on about 74 in the winter.
Bill is about $230.00 except a couple of months it will hit $300.00 that is when i blow
a fuse and tell my self i need to move.

[myronman3]

way too much.  i would estimate it at 5500 this last year, and my house was NOT warm and it isnt that big..  thermostate was set to 62, wife was unhappy ( i am still hearing about it).  and the price just keeps going up, up, up.   last time i told them to fill the tank, they only put in 200 gallons.  it was still $840, and that is about gone.  THANK GOD SUMMER IS HERE!!!!!

[oldandslow]

After reading what some of you are having to spend to stay warm I'm almost ashamed to chime in. First let me say I spent a lot of time and money in the 70's insulating my house. I did it before the government offered any incentives to do it so it all came out of my pocket. I usually fill up with propane in late September to beat the fall price hike. Well last year they did it the first of the month and it coast me two bits a gallon more than if I had filled up two weeks before. I spent about $425 to fill my 500 gallon tank and I have about 25% left in the tank. I have two electric water heaters and my electric bill runs in the mid $50 range per month. I do have an air tight wood stove and use it some when the wind isn't blowing to hard.

This year I will fill that propane tank in August. Hope the propane dealer doesn't outguess me and go up in July. Who knows, the price may not even drop this summer.

[deltecs]

Well, it's time for my $.02 and I do realize it is my choice.  I use about 12 100# bottles of propane a year.  Most of it goes toward an instantaneous hot water heater for the crew quaters.  My home cook stove is propane, not a gas coverted range, which uses 4 100# bottles a year.  My electrical generation uses about 3,000 gals a year at a current price of 4.85 a gallon.  I heat a 1600 square foot home with firewood in a huge wood stove that I built over 25 years ago with a Sotz fireplace stove door.  Wish I get another couple of those doors, but they are out of business now.  Don't know why.  The firewood is collected from beach wood logs and floated to my home whole, cut and split on site and stored in the wood shed.  I use about 12 cords of wood a year.  So with electric, communications, heating, propane, or all utilities, my monthly utility bill is approximately $2200 per.  A 100# bottle of propane costs me $107 just 3 weeks ago for 23.9 gal fill up.  That doesnt' include my transportations costs of vehicles and boats.  All of which are needed to get supplies to and from my residence.  If a flat tax is implemented, I sure hope some deductions are allowed for business expense or I'll shut my business down.  Too many taxes.

[Hairtrigger]

You guys that burn wood... How much time a year do you work at cutting , splitting, and hauling the wood?

[deltecs]

The wife and I can cut, split and stack a cord of wood in about 6 hrs.  We are both over 55 and I am disabled with MS.  It takes about 6 trips to gather beach logs and tow them home, another 4 hrs per trip, so 3 long days.  Call it 18 days for 12 cords of firewood.  We go when the weather is nice and it is enjoyable just looking at the scenery on the longer tows home.  A thermos of coffee and general chit chat with the wife and makes for a good time.

[magooch]

So far this year, my wife and I have spent about a week getting wood.  The woodshed isn't full , but there's enough to get us through next winter.  I've got another load to go get and that should fill the woodshed.  It'll take about a gallon of gas to get er done.

I actually enjoy cutting firewood, especially since I got a new chainsaw that rips through it like there's no tomorrow.  I'm retired, so there's no problem with having the time to do it.  On average, it takes about six loads a year to keep us warm.  Even when I was working, it was no problem to find the time.

My fall-back plan--in case it gets too cold around here--we go to Arizona for the winter.

[Will Bison]

Now 'ya made me sit down and do math. This past Winter was about average for temps and snow. I heat 8 months of the year and will continue for several more weeks (it's snowing right now). The house is 4,000 feet square and 3 tons of pellets did the job. Pellet cost was $525 plus $50 for delivery plus tax. I keep the doors closed on rooms that are not in use and that seems to help.

[nomosendero]

I live in Indiana and my house is built with insulated concrete forms or ICF's. This house is 1700 Sq. FT and has 25" of blown insulation in the ceiling. It is total electric  w/ a heat pump and I keep it at 77 deg. as I have very poor circulation. My highest monthly electric bill so far in the past two years was just over $200. In contrast, my brother's conventional built house of 3000 Sq. Ft next door uses propane and he says it takes $500 per month just to heat the space and water. I highly recommend ICF construction, they claim the walls will withstand 300 mph sustained winds and it is very quiet.

This looks interesting, I will do a search for ICF homes. A/C is the real expense in AR., winter usually doesn't amt. to much, but summer sure does.

[Hairtrigger]

My house is the Family's old farm house.
After I bought it the first thing I did was to pick it up and put a 9' basement under it, it had mostly a 6' and the rest was a crawl space. I also put radiant heat in the floor.
I highly recommend the ICF . I would not dig another basement without using the ICF. In my area we have no complete homes built like that but it would be a great way to build.