Holy heating bill!

[Jim Oaks]

I called to get 100 gallons of propane.

My propane company went from $234 last year to $298 this year. I usually have to buy 100 gallons a month. I'm not paying $300 a month for heat.

I'm off to Walmart to see if I can find a good space heater for the living room. I've been turning down the heat at night and using an electric heater (thermostat controlled) in our bedroom at night to conserve propane. Looks like I may have to do that during the day now too. Paying for more electric is probably going to be cheaper than buying more propane.

 

[Ozwynn]

man I feel for ya ......... ours is almost that much ........ we used 98 units last month at a rate of 2.51 a unit ........... thats a 25% price increase over last year.......

 

[JohnnyO]

All depends. I have natural gas, it gets piped into the house also , I'm on the budget plan so I start paying more in Sept to keep it even until summer. $171 a month, which is a dollar less than last year but my straight-up usage can be over $300 a month. The big jump was two years ago, I pay almost double what I did three years ago.
Thank God for the warm fall.
Try using the electric more and see how it goes. Where I live I'm told we have the third-highest electric rates in the nation.

 

[azhrei]

Jim where are you? there is a co-op that you can join and they have discounts with fuel dealers... it is here http://www.nrgy.org/ I know they did fla at one point too... might be worth trying to start one...

Paul

 

[Will]

Being warm is better than being cold.

Remember that.

 

[RobbieD]

Do what I do; burn the furniture.


Just kidding. Heating oil, propane, gasoline, just about everything is getting more expensive these days; unfortunately more expensive than it seems it should be getting. It hurts, but what can you do?

 

[Psychopete]

Being warm is better than being cold.

Remember that.

You can always add blankets... Although I tend to agree, I refuse to do a lot outside if it's cold, but no problem if it's 90.

I use to live in a 2 bedroom apartment (other room was full of parts, it was called my 'garage' by my neighbors), private entrance, w/ washer and dryer that had electric heat. I think my bill was 150 at the most and I was pretty careless about it. The rent was 430/mo. but it was in the south part of town.

The apartment was cheap, but there were lots of drug raids, robberies and the occasional gun shots. I honestly couldn't care about that though, just as long as no one fucks with my shit. I've learned (not from experience, only witnessed) if you complain about a neighbor, or give them any shit, I can guarentee that you'll have problems. Like your car getting broke into with nothing stolen, only damage. I never had a single problem, but I ALWAYS kept to myself.

Pete

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

All depends. I have natural gas, it gets piped into the house also , I'm on the budget plan so I start paying more in Sept to keep it even until summer. $171 a month, which is a dollar less than last year but my straight-up usage can be over $300 a month. The big jump was two years ago, I pay almost double what I did three years ago.
Thank God for the warm fall.
Try using the electric more and see how it goes. Where I live I'm told we have the third-highest electric rates in the nation.

Here where I live, we have the second lowest rate for electricity while some of the highest for natural gas in the nation. I replaced my mother's natural gas furnace 2 winters ago and installed a 12 seer heat pump. Her natural gas bill was easily $175/month with the power bill right at $75 during the middle of winter. After installing the heat pump her power bill went up to $125/month with no gas bill at all. $125/month savings sure is nice. It would be worth checking into depending on your climate, electricity and fuel rates.

 

[Will]

Well, I have 4 small children and they aren't good at keeping blankets on. We have to keep it up more than I like.

My own thermostat is pretty high. I function fine outside down to 25*F. Below that, I start to get mulie. Inside, I would keep it at 60* but my wife likes it hot even in the winter and doesn't care what it costs. My wife keeps the thermostat full blast and I keep the wood going full blast to combat her efforts to get knighted by the king of Saudi Arabia.

 

[ZMan]

those space heaters use alot of electricity. Check out your electric bills when they come, might not be worth it using a space heater.

 

[krugford]

I'm picking up a corn/pellet burner up this weekend from a friend to use in my shop. My heating bill last year was $300-$400 a month. Hopefully I'll be able to lower it a little bit this year.

 

[AllanD]

I feel for you Jim,

I have both an oil furnace (my only source of domestic hot water)
And a coal stove.

Heating oil is over $3/gal, but you have to buy a minimum
of 100gallons and I just don't have it. So I keep adding
Diesel ($3.59/gal) or Kerosene ($3.39/gal) 5-6gallons at a time.
The oil heat is switched OFF.

it takes 4-5gal a week to keep the hot water working.

Coal is up but I haven't bought any yet this year,
I have "leftovers" from last year, but I'm probably
going to go through 2-2.5 tons again this winter.
at $135/ton.

atleast with my "new" stove I can burn wood if I really have to....

AD

 

[ozzy85]

I live in an old singlewide (1974) that was drafty as hell last year. All electric. The highest bill was $196 for one month. A couple months ago my folks pitched in for new windows. So far the bills seem to be about a third less, but the heat is turned up a bit more since the place retains heat instead of just sending it out the windows. I have a space heater which is nice but I'm not so sure about it being any kind of savings $-wise.

 

[Simple_serf]

We have been running the woodstove for the last few years continuously and have been able to keep the gas bill down below 120/month in Dec, Jan and Feb. I use kero in the shop and in lamps in the house. It's gone up $.50 in the last two months, it now is more expensive than gasoline for clear undyed (I can't run red dyed, it ruins $15 lamp wicks and $7 mantles in about a month's worth of use, with clear undyed I have never had to change a wick and the broken mantle was because I am dumb. Kero heater wicks are about $25 before shipping...don't want to kill those either).

Wood costs us about $150/year to log and haul. If I keep my basement at about 80 degrees with that, it keeps the upstairs (where my parents live) at about 65-68 depending on outdoor temp.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I bought a ceramic electric heater to heat the living room. High is 1500W / 5118 BTU, but the low setting is only 750W / 2559 BTU. Most space heaters are 1500W and those with lows are 900W on low. If I turn the heat down to say 50 in the house and use the heater in our bedroom at 65-70 at night, I should be able to save something VS heating the whole house at night while we're sleeping.

I figure it's worth a shot.