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With crude (WTI) back over $100 barrel, I'm anticipating my next heating oil delivery to be well over $4/gal. Electricity runs 10.6 cents/kw here. At $4.20 gallon for oil, I'd be better off using an electric space heater. Actually, since my furnace is 20+ years old, and probably only about 80% efficient, the time has probably already come.

http://www.epfo.net/oilvselectric.shtml

Burn wood! I live in NH and my heating bill is $0.00. I have lots of trees at my disposal and people give away wood constantly on craigslist.

Yes, it's a pain in the arse, but every swipe of the chainsaw brings a little smile to my face and little dollar signs in my eyes!

Also, don't worry, oil will be the cheaper option of the two again once our dear leader gets all the coal power plants shut down.

Last year I bought two used fireplace inserts. One for $250, the other for $300. The Country Comfort one is in the fireplace, the Buck is out in the garage on a workbench. With the auto-blower set on low, that Country Comfort keeps the house in the mid 70's.

Heating with wood is a lifestyle change. Even if you get all your wood for free, it ain't free. It involves lots of time dealing with wood and tending the fire, but there is far less cash going out your pocket than heating with electric or oil.

Hey. Weren't you going to go into the portable sawmill business? Heating with wood would be a natural byproduct of that.

I would argue that heating with wood is more eco friendly than oil or electric. The carbon rotation cycle for wood is something like 80 years while the carbon rotation cycle for oil, coal, or nat. gas involves millions of years.

About $800 in coal keeps the house toasty all winter. It's dirty, and about 10 minutes of work twice a day, but cheap and warm...

I would seriously consider coal if I did not have more wood here than I know what to do with. My house was built in the 1750's so it is NOT energy efficient. If I had to use oil or electric it would really burn up the FRN's!

My house is all electric...the electric bill wasn't bad before deregulation...As they were saying from the rooftops...deregulation is GOOD....COMPETITION IS GOOD...the prices WILL COME DOWN...f..'n LIARS...electric rates in houston shot up from 5 cents to 15 cents a KW...just recently started coming down to 10 cents....the heat does NOT turn on until 6am and the thermostat reaches 62 ....coldest it ever been in my house 55, last year. I would burn wood if I had a fireplace but they are extremely inefficient here during the 10 month long summer when the AC is on. I buy truckloads of Kerosene at work...nearly 25k per load currently.

fasteddy wrote:My house is all electric...the electric bill wasn't bad before deregulation...As they were saying from the rooftops...deregulation is GOOD....COMPETITION IS GOOD...the prices WILL COME DOWN...f..'n LIARS...electric rates in houston shot up from 5 cents to 15 cents a KW...just recently started coming down to 10 cents....the heat does NOT turn on until 6am and the thermostat reaches 62 ....coldest it ever been in my house 55, last year. I would burn wood if I had a fireplace but they are extremely inefficient here during the 10 month long summer when the AC is on. I buy truckloads of Kerosene at work...nearly 25k per load currently.

Yeah, they lied about all that deregulation, the cable bills shot up, the phone bills... all of them.

I have natural gas to my house, forced air heat with that. I have a fireplace and used it quite a bit in the past, but the firebox is now in poor shape. A few days ago I put in a set of gas fire logs, closed the flue and covered up the chimney. Not sure how much the gas costs in relation to what I was paying for firewood, but having a ventless log system is definitely more effective that sending wood fired heat up the chimney.

I have a gas log fireplace it is only used for ambiance and emergency. The wife and I tried to run it the 1st year we installed it and in addition to not keeping the whole house warm enough it cost a fortune in gas to operate.

Some of you who are good with your hands might want to look into passive solar heating. you might be surprised how well it can work, with some designs even built almost solely from scraps. It wont entirely heat your home by any means, but even in northern latitudes can take a bite out of heating bills. I have some other projects to tend to first, but I will be going heavily into such designs before to long.

fasteddy wrote:My house is all electric...the electric bill wasn't bad before deregulation...As they were saying from the rooftops...deregulation is GOOD....COMPETITION IS GOOD...the prices WILL COME DOWN...f..'n LIARS...electric rates in houston shot up from 5 cents to 15 cents a KW...just recently started coming down to 10 cents....the heat does NOT turn on until 6am and the thermostat reaches 62 ....coldest it ever been in my house 55, last year. I would burn wood if I had a fireplace but they are extremely inefficient here during the 10 month long summer when the AC is on. I buy truckloads of Kerosene at work...nearly 25k per load currently.

This last week outside temps have dropped to low 30's. I don't run the heat in my apartment, so it's 58 inside, except for the master bedroom which is probably a toasty 74 compliments of a space heater. I have inch and a half thick insulfoam board covering all exterior windows. Summertime PGE bills are mid $30 range, wintertime is worse... last month was $51.

I want to hear more about this insulfoam board for covering the windows. Do they sell that at Lowes or Home Depot?

I think I remember reading a while back.. probably on this forum.. about using bubble wrap on the windows. Looks a bit odd.. but cheap.. and it works.

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:I want to hear more about this insulfoam board for covering the windows. Do they sell that at Lowes or Home Depot?

I got the Insulfoam board at Home Depot. Comes in same size as plywood, can't remember the price but it wasn't terrible. I use it just as much for keeping the interior dark (and prying eyes out) for daytime sleeping when working night shift, as I do for temperature control. Some people have $700 PGE bills in my apartment complex, mine probably avg $40 year-round. You can shape it with a kitchen knife. It's just big flat styrofoam with a thin plastic backing on both sides. It does start to deteriorate from weathering after three or four years tho.