Heating Costs - How do you heat your home?

[Warwagon]

How many of you folks heat with wood? When we were moving to the area here we found a perfect house except.......it had a gas log fireplace. I convinced the wifey to put in a wood burning stove.

Why?

Last winter our highest gas bill was $34. That was in February when LNG was selling for 7.34 MMBtu. My neighbors were paying around $250-$300 + or - .

Friday it closed at $12.753. Natural Gas Weekly Update

I'm sharing this not to gloat, but to get the gears turning. We prepare for zombies, plague or economic meltdown...whatever.

How are you going to heat your house? Guns, rice and beans do a poor job.


We hear So much in the media about high gas prices. What's going to happen when people can't heat their homes? When municipalities go broke with their heating assistance programs.... We've seen the economic pain from gasoline prices already, what happens when it doubles?

 

[melensdad]

One problem I see with your comparison is that you don't factor in the cost of time. Time to cut, gather, etc. Granted it is good exercise but that is also a very real 'cost' and it is something that must be considered. My gas bill, for a 4000 sq.ft. home is roughly $200 per month. My home has some winter passive solar assist and on sunny days we actually gain heat.

Your points about the costs of energy are excellent. I recall reading an article a while back about a police department that decided to park its cars for most of the day and reduce night patrols too. The cost of gasoline would have bankrupted the department. The chief told people to buy guns and call them if there was a problem.

I also know that the US POSTAL SYSTEM is getting chewed up by high energy costs, expect another stamp increase soon.

 

[indyjoe]

My new home is all electric. I love to cook on gas, so I have to decide if I want to convert to gas or not. The one thing I keep thinking about is that natural gas and propane will keep going up in price. We import about 75% of NG, if I'm remembering that statistic correctly.

Solar is getting more and more efficient. I think I might be better to stick with electric and spend the conversion money on building up a solar assist to my electric bill. That would still be useful if we got into a crazy situation with utility prices or lost the grid for any reason.

The nice thing is that there is a good fireplace with insert and outside air combustion. This means that it shouldn't rob the house of heat by sucking in combustion air while running and add to the winter heat. Not quite as good as a wood burning stove, but far better than a gas fireplace.

 

[Lars]

Our home is 100% electric. It's 5 years old, 1601 square feet. Our electric bill floats between $105 and $225 a month depending on the time of year and weather.

 

[Annie Oakley]

I heat with wood once the temps drop below 40. We have plenty of deadfall that is easy to get to and also barter with neighbors so that they get a load and we get a load. Works out great. The thing I like about wood is that you can cook on the stove top when the power is out. It might be "cowboy coffee" but it still gets you going in the morning.

 

[Warwagon]

One problem I see with your comparison is that you don't factor in the cost of time. Time to cut, gather, etc. Granted it is good exercise but that is also a very real 'cost' and it is something that must be considered. My gas bill, for a 4000 sq.ft. home is roughly $200 per month. My home has some winter passive solar assist and on sunny days we actually gain heat.

Very good point.

I'm still coming out ahead by a long shot. I only spend 2 weekends worth of time cutting and splitting. (5 cords)

I'm estimating my 'sweat' cost at roughly $50/cord, split and stacked. (includes depreciation on the truck) When I gather wood - there's a truck and a good sized trailer FULL and 4 dull chains. 2-3 cords hauled from the field in one morning. It's not hard at all. I work in Banking... I do nothing with out looking at the numbers... drives my wife nuts. Sounds like you're a man after my own heart. However, if I have a heart attack doing this, you're the wiser of us two.

You must have an exceptional solar system to be heating a 4000 sf home and only have a $200 gas bill this past winter! Wow...that's impressive. Not many can pull that off.

 

[JcJ]

My new home is all electric. I love to cook on gas, so I have to decide if I want to convert to gas or not. The one thing I keep thinking about is that natural gas and propane will keep going up in price. We import about 75% of NG, if I'm remembering that statistic correctly.

Solar is getting more and more efficient. I think I might be better to stick with electric and spend the conversion money on building up a solar assist to my electric bill. That would still be useful if we got into a crazy situation with utility prices or lost the grid for any reason.

The nice thing is that there is a good fireplace with insert and outside air combustion. This means that it shouldn't rob the house of heat by sucking in combustion air while running and add to the winter heat. Not quite as good as a wood burning stove, but far better than a gas fireplace.

My house is setup just pretty much like yours.. I am in need of updating my heat pump to modern standards. Ours is 30 some odd year old technology, can't afford geo-thermal right now.. but solar is on our radar. We have gas in our neighborhood, our house might be the only one without it but my wife is bugging me for a gas stove.. and it would be good for a short term shtf. My fireplace insert has an electric fan, powered by my 7500kw genset when needed..

 

[indyjoe]

My house is setup just pretty much like yours.. I am in need of updating my heat pump to modern standards. Ours is 30 some odd year old technology, can't afford geo-thermal right now.. but solar is on our radar. We have gas in our neighborhood, our house might be the only one without it but my wife is bugging me for a gas stove.. and it would be good for a short term shtf. My fireplace insert has an electric fan, powered by my 7500kw genset when needed..

My choice is a little harder, because they put in a new heat pump a couple years ago. I think if I change to anything it would be geothermal. I have just enough land for straight horizontal piping. If I laid it myself, I would probably not be too expensive. This is a year or two off minimum, assuming our economy doesn't truly tank.

 

[bwframe]

I'm still coming out ahead by a long shot. I only spend 2 weekends worth of time cutting and splitting. (5 cords)

Two weekends for 5 cords?

 

[Warwagon]

Two weekends for 5 cords?

Okay, maybe 4 cords? + ? 24 hours of work time and 3 hours of prep. Ask a firewood company how many man-hours it takes to cut, split and stack a cord. You'd be surprised. Real surprised.


Seems too good to be true, but it's not. You've just got to plan ahead. Most don't when cutting, splitting and stacking, cutting, splitting and stacking etc.... They cut, load, then cut, load on and on. Plan. When felling a tree, plan the fall so the wedge cut is ground down. Stack the trees if felling more than one. You'll out cut your chain, with them stacked there's no thinking or planning on how not to hit dirt. IF you have to hook up and drag the tree with the truck the wedge will act like a ski tip. Drag the trunk over branches and logs you've laid down to raise it up, trim the butt on the ground if you have too before dragging. I have an F250 diesel 4x4, so....

If you're cutting dead fall or logging wood, buy the extra chain and drag it out. 200' of chain is worth the investment. (4) 50' lengths.


I know it seems unbelievable... But it isn't when it's planned out.

My time is way too valuable to waste cutting firewood. I enjoy it, but don't want to spend all summer doing it.

 

[Electronrider]

We heat with propane. As of last week, Amerigas was charging 2.56 a unit for the stuff!!! Watching the Lafayette news a week ago, they are already talking about how propane is going up, and to get on a budget plan. A few days later, a friend of a friend was complaining about how much work his woodstove was, and wanted to get rid of it. Long story short, I walked away with a 1200 dollar woodstove for about 200 bucks. The wife and I were ecstatic over that find.

Cutting wood is what we call sweat equity. We have a few friends who heat with wood, so we all get together and do a lot at a time, so the work is divided by many many hands, which makes the work both easier, and more enjoyable.

We are going to see HUGE amounts of people getting into serious problems over heating bills this winter. If you can find a way to go wood, do it now.

 

[Warwagon]

disregard....

 

[NEOCON]

We heat the house and shop with nothing but wood for nearly 15 years. Living here in the woods 18 acres of it we have trees that get blown down, die or just need to be cut due to maturity. I was a timber cutter for several years after getting out of the Army and still have logger friends. I usually sell the marketable logs to them and then cut the rest up for firewood. I use to sell over 30 cords of wood a year but I don't have time for that any longer.
As far as time worth something, out here it is a job that has to be done. If we don't do it we have to pay someone to do it, and I'm not going to do that. It is just one of the jobs that are on the list just like , gardening, haying, mending fence, cleaning the wood lot just fits right in. I figure it is just our way of life. I often wonder what it would be like to live in town and have nothing to do but care for a yard. I believe I would be bored very fast.

 

[4sarge]

How many of you folks heat with wood? When we were moving to the area here we found a perfect house except.......it had a gas log fireplace. I convinced the wifey to put in a wood burning stove.

Why?

Last winter our highest gas bill was $34. That was in February when LNG was selling for 7.34 MMBtu. My neighbors were paying around $250-$300 + or - .

Friday it closed at $12.753. Natural Gas Weekly Update

How are you going to heat your house? Guns, rice and beans do a poor job.


We hear So much in the media about high gas prices. What's going to happen when people can't heat their homes? When municipalities go broke with their heating assistance programs.... We've seen the economic pain from gasoline prices already, what happens when it doubles?

When I moved to the country and discovered the wonderful world of propane pricing, I freaked. Did a little research and bought a high efficient bio mass stove. Corn burning was my preference but since corn has gone from 1.25 bu to 8.00 bu in just 3 short years thanks to ethanol and speculators (I heard 12bu was predicted). I bought enough post season wood pellets on close out to get me thru the upcoming heating season but have given thought to utilizing my wood supply. My propane budget is 25 dollars monthly and coupled with the corn/wood pellet costs my heatings costs (less cost of stove & electricity) has been less than 600 dollars for the year. Things have changed and will be playing it close this year on an alternate fuel choice.

 

[bwframe]

When I moved to the country and discovered the wonderful world of propane pricing, I freaked. Did a little research and bought a high efficient bio mass stove. Corn burning was my preference but since corn has gone from 1.25 bu to 8.00 bu in just 3 short years thanks to ethanol and speculators (I heard 12bu was predicted). I bought enough post season wood pellets on close out to get me thru the upcoming heating season but have given thought to utilizing my wood supply. My propane budget is 25 dollars monthly and coupled with the corn/wood pellet costs my heatings costs (less cost of stove & electricity) has been less than 600 dollars for the year. Things have changed and will be playing it close this year on an alternate fuel choice.

I heated my shop with a multi-grain pellet stove for the past three years. As 4sarge said the price of corn went through the roof. Last year I moved my shop and went to electric heat. Anyone interested in purchasing a used grain/ pellet stove?

 

[4sarge]

I heated my shop with a multi-grain pellet stove for the past three years. As 4sarge said the price of corn went through the roof. Last year I moved my shop and went to electric heat. Anyone interested in purchasing a used grain/ pellet stove?

I'm hoping (dreaming) that I still can find a reliable source for corn at a reasonable price :rolleyesedit:

 

[bwframe]

I'm hoping (dreaming) that I still can find a reliable source for corn at a reasonable price :rolleyesedit:

Without a doubt, corn burns way hotter than wood pellets.

 

[indyjoe]

Are you burning the cob, or the whole corn grain?

 

[bwframe]

Are you burning the cob, or the whole corn grain?

Just the grain.

 

[indyjoe]

I've looked at the outdoor wood furnaces from Central Boiler. It is a multi-day burning "shed" that gets heat to your central air and water heater via insulated pipes. This seems like the easiest retrofit for wood burning in a house not designed for it. I wonder if it would be hard to use the same loop for going through the solar water heater to do hot water only in the summer, without wood burning, and assist with pre-heating the return in the winter. The price is a little steep, at about $5k to start.