View Full Version : What Is Your Heat Source?
Boohoo
11-18-2005, 6:09 PM
With the rising costs of electricity and oil my heart goes out to alot of people with winter approaching. Just wondering what heat source you all have in your homes. I have a wood and oil furnace, but I refuse to buy a drop of oil at these prices. So it looks like I'm going to be just burning wood.
cyberbeer65
11-18-2005, 6:18 PM
Natural gas here,and that's going up too.
Kasakato
11-18-2005, 6:37 PM
Human gas! I mean natural.
Blueiz
11-18-2005, 6:42 PM
I switched from natural gas to a heat pump last year thank goodness!! I was paying upwards of 2500 dollars for gas in the winter of 2003, I couldn't even begin think of what it would cost now.
Boohoo
11-18-2005, 6:47 PM
Kas, do you eat a lot of beans in the winter?
xboxlive2020
11-18-2005, 6:49 PM
I'll wear warm clothing and snuggle under a blanket. :)
Kasakato
11-18-2005, 6:50 PM
Kas, do you eat a lot of beans in the winter?
That helps
nursie
11-18-2005, 7:35 PM
natural gas...and a fireplace. Better stock up on wood.
mishi8
11-18-2005, 7:45 PM
Natural gas. This winter will be bad for heating costs, even with government subsidies during the coldest months. Just had an energy audit done on the house to see how we can save money on energy. We need a new furnace (no surprise there). Our woodburning fireplace is a big source of heat loss, so we're blocking it for the winter, and will put in a gas insert next year. And are insulating every other possible place for heat loss: electical outlets and switches, windows, crawl space, etc. At least our attic has had an insulation upgrade already.
a Oiled filled Radiant electric heater that you get from Walmart for $35 will heat a single wide mobile home and they are CHEAP .. and we have on in our bedroom .. we had that one goin last month just the one the electric bill only went up $30 for the month .. so it aint gonna be to much more for the winter .. and trust me those things heat reall good and are safe ..
Marn
Oil.......my husband is going to be picking up a coal burning stove to put in the basement. Coal's the cheapest thing going these days, it aught to help a bit anyway.
Wildiana
11-18-2005, 10:36 PM
just got a kerosene heater from Walmark, great buy, set my reg. heat at 65 during the day and turn the kerosene heater on when my wife and i gets home in the evening. i turn it off around 11:30pm or midnight before i go to bed. by the time the temp goes down to 65 its morning already. as we speak its on and its 79!
All-electric, plus a little bit of passive solar.
Harry Tolen
11-19-2005, 12:00 AM
All electric, with an enclosed fireplace (similar to a wood stove) for backup. We tend to keep the household around 64 degrees, and because of good insulation, this seems to require little additional heat input.
Electric... I already miss my wood burning stove...
blitzen25bm
11-19-2005, 12:39 PM
san diegos sun. still using the air conditioner in the car. but i heard some people i know use stoves that burn corncob or something like that. seems pretty cheap to use.
anonapersona
11-19-2005, 12:52 PM
Even here in TX I spend $1200 a year on natural gas for heating in winter and water heater in summer.
kveeti
11-19-2005, 1:04 PM
Natural gas. 2 years ago we replaced our old furnace with a high-efficiency one, which means the exhaust no longer goes out the chimney but through the new input/output tubes to the side of the house, just seems weird.
mishi8
11-19-2005, 2:33 PM
Natural gas. 2 years ago we replaced our old furnace with a high-efficiency one, which means the exhaust no longer goes out the chimney but through the new input/output tubes to the side of the house, just seems weird.
We're looking at a high efficiency furnace too. Since it vents out the side of the house, what about the hot water tank? Does it still exhaust through the chimney?
dougall
11-19-2005, 7:13 PM
Coal here...
Last winter it cost maybe $3-400 to heat the house.. sometimes it was so hot we were opening doors to cool down..
daveedka
11-19-2005, 8:08 PM
given my childhood, I really have no plans of ever cutting firewood, splitting firewood, carrying ashes, cleaning chimneys, or lighting wood stoves again. We have natural gas and I even opted for a natural gas fireplace in this house. The house is pretty new, and we have fairly conservative habits. I figure with the rise in costs, We'll probably spend about $1400 through the winter for gas, that's a drop in the bucket compared to our summertime electric bills. We have gas appliances except for the dryer.
Clean effecient and highly dependable. We have never had a gas outage in Hilliard Ohio. We have had a few power outages though. Even if Gas cost more I wouldn't have electric. Last winter when the ice storms hit, my daughter (8 months pregnant) and her Husband went 5 days without heat during Christmas. The hassle and concerns they went through in that five day period would be enough to convince me to pay twice as much for gas as electric.
Dave
kveeti
11-19-2005, 9:40 PM
We're looking at a high efficiency furnace too. Since it vents out the side of the house, what about the hot water tank? Does it still exhaust through the chimney?
This is something you have to take into consideration about the cost of the high efficiency. Yes, the current hot water tank still goes through the chimney. BUT the contractor warned us that next time we have to replace the hot water tank, because of regulations, there will be an extra expense, in that the opening will have to be made smaller (with a liner).
mishi8
11-20-2005, 12:21 AM
This is something you have to take into consideration about the cost of the high efficiency. Yes, the current hot water tank still goes through the chimney. BUT the contractor warned us that next time we have to replace the hot water tank, because of regulations, there will be an extra expense, in that the opening will have to be made smaller (with a liner).
Yes, that would be the case for us with any new furnace, since we will be upgrading from a 33 year old, low efficiency furnace...will need to bring everything up to current codes. I'm considering going with an on-demand (tankless) hot water heater at some point too...I understand there are side venting units as well as chimney venting ones. To eliminate the need for a chimney altogether should further increase the energy efficiency of our house, and we can reclaim the space the chimney takes up in our kitchen and second story. :)
cyberbeer65
11-20-2005, 7:41 PM
I'm considering going with an on-demand (tankless) hot water heater at some point too...I understand there are side venting units as well as chimney venting ones.
We just upgraded to this system,and let me tell you it is awesome!Ours is side venting.We will be upgrading our furnace soon (before Christmas) we also will have central air conditioning installed.
ScottoMacD
11-21-2005, 12:25 AM
We are 100% electric here. I have and use a nice slow combustion wood burning stove however. Since we just moved in and it is only starting to get cold around here I only used it a couple of times and have found it quite effective in helping to warm the entire house.
I will see how effective come mid january when the -40's hit in our typical Quebec winter nights.
I grew up with natural gas and miss it so much. I find the elecrtic heat just makes the house so bloody dry. Itchy skin, staticy (is that a word?) and tank top off becomes crutial bi-daily in the winter months.
mykidsmylife
11-21-2005, 10:22 AM
We have a heat pump, a LP(liquid propane) gas furnace and a fireplace. The heat pump works until the outside temps drop below 40 F. then the LP kicks on. I just had 200 gallons of LP put in the tank and it cost $450! Holy Crackers!!!! We also use the fireplace to help keep the cost down on the other two. I keep the heat set around 68. We have parrots in the house so I don't want the temp too low because of them. Well...and the kids too. It's crazy expensive sometimes.
OrionGirl
11-21-2005, 10:23 AM
Natural gas. But, with a programmable thermostat, it shouldn't be too bad. The heat kicks on at 4:30am, gets the house to 68, then will let it drop to 62 after 6:30. Then, the heat will come on again at 5:30 til about 9pm, once more, when we're there and moving around. The house stays pretty warm--I've only seen it actually get down to 62 once or twice, when we've had doors open for more than a few minutes. Last year, max gas bill was about $175--hoping it won't be too much worse this year. So far, it hasn't been any higher than this time the last 2 years.
mogurnda
11-21-2005, 10:29 AM
given my childhood, I really have no plans of ever cutting firewood, splitting firewood, carrying ashes, cleaning chimneys, or lighting wood stoves again. We have natural gas and I even opted for a natural gas fireplace in this house. The house is pretty new, and we have fairly conservative habits. I figure with the rise in costs, We'll probably spend about $1400 through the winter for gas, that's a drop in the bucket compared to our summertime electric bills. We have gas appliances except for the dryer.
A neighbor cut down one of their big oaks a few years ago, and insisted that we take about a cord of pre-split firewood. Just had our first fire of the season Friday.
But that was just for romance. We have gas on a programmeable thermostat. And two dogs for nighttime. And dog gas :thud:
Boohoo
11-21-2005, 11:54 AM
Mo, what are you feeding those dogs? :)
mogurnda
11-21-2005, 11:57 AM
Mo, what are you feeding those dogs? :)It may be the vegetables. On the other hand, what we feed them is only a portion of what they eat. The world is full of interesting snacks when you're a dog.
saltyc
11-21-2005, 1:34 PM
We have natural gas, with a hot water radiant heat system. Our house is over forty years old, still has the original furnace (the man that had our house built put the best that money could buy at the time into it! I'm amazed at how well it works!). We toyed with the idea of taking out the radiant heat & putting in a forced air system-after the first winter, we said no way! We just picked up a secondhand HVAC that a dealer had pulled out of a house (owner hadn't paid him), installed it in our garage, and use it almost exclusively for a/c-hardly ever use the heat.
We also have a small kerosene heater we keep in our basement-just to take the chill off down there.