Keeping Warm This Winter. Gas? Oil? Coal?

[launderess]

Hot water? Forced air? Steam?

We have steam with baseboards, though hear some in our area are ripping them out and installing cast iron radiators. Many say the older radiators held heat well and therefore their boiler runs less often which means less drinking of gas or oil. Have also heard coal is making a comeback in parts of upstate NY and PA, what with high oil and gas prices. With oil nearing $100 a barrel, bet lots of people are going to be either turning down that thermostat and or wearing sweaters indoors (a la the UK).

L.

 

[sudsmaster]

In my area here, nearly everyone heats with natural gas. Some newer outlying communities, esp those without gas service, may use heat exchangers (electric). But in the nine Bay Area counties, I'd say gas heating is the norm.

I would also guess that gas-air heating, either forced or passive, is the major type of furnace. A lot of older home/apartments have only space heaters, such as wall or floor based single units. Then perhaps gas fired boilers for radiator or radiant heating. But with all the quakes and settling going on, I think that radiant heating is a bit more problematic.

In my current home, it's a horizontal gas forced air furnace that lurks in the crawl space. There are two intakes in the living space, with originally had ill-fitting glass fiber filters, and which I've retrofitted (with some carpentry work) to accept standard 3M Filtrete Ultra passive electrostatic pleated filters. Every room has one or two registers.

I have read that folks back on the east coast are busily replacing older oil fired furnaces with gas units, in large part because the surge in international oil prices (over $90/barrel) means that heating oil will be ever more dear this winter, vs. a less spectacular increase in the cost of natural gas. My guess, thjing being the way they are, is that supply and demand will drive the price of natural gas upward at an increased rate this and subsequent winters. Importation of liquified natural gas from abroad will help ease supply issues, but importation carries its own inflationary potential, including the falling dollar, costs of transport, and international unrest.

Meanwhile, I plan on adding yet more insulation to the appliance nest.

 

[eddy1210]

what about wood

We heat with an airtight wood stove with very low particulate emissions. Sure it's quite abit of work but it's carbon neutral ie no net greenhouse gases added to the environment. I get most of my firewood for free, albeit I do the cutting with the chainsaw and splitting it. There's nothing like a nice woodstove going in the cold of the winter.

 

[DADoES]

Electric. No gas in my house, would have to be propane if there was. No fireplace, either, which is not a problem as I don't like the odor. Winter rates are lower. Last bill was $0.079/KWH.

 

[launderess]

You cannot sell a house around here with an underground oil tank, and smart sellers not only insist on the tank being gone, but want to see papers that the tank was removed, properly disposed of and so forth. Too many "new" homeowners have been bitten in the financial backside after finding out an oil tank they didn't even know was on their property is leaking, or has leaked oil into the ground or worse their neighbors ground as well.

Think many people still believe gas will "explode" and or that oil heat is cheaper. While it is true certain grades of oil can be cheap, some homes/buildings burn stuff that is one step below or equal to Bunker C oil! *LOL* Stuff smells ghastly and is not very clean. Some hedge their bets and go with dual fuel boilers/heaters that switch between oil and gas, giving the owner the advantge of using which ever fuel is cheaper when it gets really cold.

Many places though still do not have gas lines, so it is either oil, electric or propane heating. Or, sometimes the gas line does not come to the property, so one has to pay to bring gas to the home.

L.

 

[toggleswitch]

What you are really getting is a higher room temp at the sam

~Many say the older radiators held heat well and therefore their boiler runs less often which means less drinking of gas or oil.

NOPE. No such thing as free heat, unless your house is over an active volcano (think Flinstones) or solar.

Steam boilers run a great deal at the start of a heating cycle (think a coal fire) and then stop when pressure has built. Hot-water boilers run with more on-off cycles. Overall fuel consumption all other things being equal, in theory, is exaclty the same.

Cast-iron radiators take longer to heat up and longer to cool down. It's only a time-delay and shift in the heating cycle. Baseboard heaters heat up and cool down much more quickly. As a matter of fact in the fall and spring when heating needs are less these old radiators tend to over-shoot the temp. setting on the thermostat, therby wasting energy and being UN-economical, overall.

I heard two stockbrokers speaking (who you'd think are intelligent). One says "When I buy a house I want a boiler that also produces hot water for the taps. Why should I fire-up a separate hot water heater and waste all that energy when I can get free heat from and already hot boiler."

FREE HEAT????? Book-smart life dumb.

If you pull heat out of a boiler, the temperture will fall causing the controls to light the burner. DUH!

If I had a million dollars/euro in an account and I pulled one out one each day, would the balance not fall? You may not notice it right away but it is still depleting......

 

[countryguy]

My house is heated with both electric baseboard heaters and a home made wood stove with a furnace type blower and duct work attached to it....keeps the house very cosy even in -30 C temperatures.

Gary

 

[turquoisedude]

Cobmination Furnaces

Does anyone have any experience with a combination type of furnace (wood and electric in particular)? The house I will be moving into this week has electric baseboards with an oil stove (a modern one) but I don't really like the idea of burning oil... We would have enough space in our basement for a furnace and it is not completely finished so running ductwork is not going to be a problem. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?? Any information about Canadian-made furnaces would be especially appreciated. TD

 

[washernut]

Electric, Wood and Solar

I have a wood burning fireplace and electric baseboard heaters. My sunroom has 4 10' Patio doors (2 that face the south and one east and one west) they generate a great deal of heat in the pm. Actually the east door starts warming the room around 9 or 10 am. I keep the room open year round. The dogs absolutely love coming out and lying in the sun all day long...You can tell what time of day it is by where the dogs are....kinda like a furry sundial...lol.

Bill

 

[hoover1060]

natural gas here

forced air furnace at my house. Seems to be more the norm here. My water heater, stove and dryer are also gas, and in the winter time the bill runs $150-$200 a month.
My former apartment had electric baseboard heaters, that was expensive heat!

 

[oxydolfan1]

I have gas, hot water baseboards...but I have an oil-filled radiator, a convection heater that heats up lickety-split, a quartz infrared tower for the bathroom, and a few other small supplemental space heaters.

I'm anticipating the rates will be SKY HIGH this year, and I've resolved to be even more conservative with the thermostat, and heat locally with the electrics only where I'm at.

I need another winter of monthly surprises from the gas company like I need (another) hole in my head...

 

[rp2813]

Natural gas-fired forced air furnace here. It's already been on a few times this season, to get the dust off and to remove the morning chill. It's a Carrier pushing 20 years old with a very noisy inducer motor (the furnace is in a hallway closet) that has apparently vibrated itself loose and I can't find a way to tighten it up. I try to keep the bills down by bundling up but my partner hates to wear clothes so it's always a battle. Hoping to keep the coldest winter months under $200 (thats for both gas & electric) this year.

During the winter I will do things like leaving the oven door open after baking or roasting to help heat the kitchen. Every little bit helps. The attic exhaust fan has been switched off since September to help retain heat for the cool fall nights. The house is insulated but has original 1957 aluminum casement windows, which supposedly act as membranes for warmed air to escape to the outdoors. New windows are on the radar, as a few friends who have gone to dual-paned windows say they are amazed at the difference this has made.

 

[hydralique]

Windows . . .

Good-quality double-paned windows will make an enormous difference in both winter and summer comfort. They also dampen outside noise effectively which is a side benefit many don't realize.

As with most people, my heating is by a gas-fired forced air furnace. It works fine, although I would love to have some hydronic baseboard radiators on exterior walls because the radiant heat will keep you comfortable at lower temperatures than forced-air will. However, it's expensive and not justifiable as a retrofit in my climate.

 

[petek]

Old gas fired hot water boiler here with baseboard radiators. I absolutely love it now though it was something that gave me pause to consider when we bought this house last year.. Next week will be our 1 year anniversary in this house YAY.
I'd guess the vast majority of houses here are FAG heated (forced air gas) while gas boilers like mine are second but not as common. Even less common is anything oil burning though one of the houses we looked at last year,, newer than this one built in the 60's and at a tonier address, did have an oil furnace with the tank in the basement, that put me off right away. Probably a reason it took awhile to sell. I was amazed anyone still used those and at such a late date.

Anyways, over the course of this past year I've been comparing my gas bill with moms. Her house is smaller but similar construction also with newer windows etc like this one. She has a newer hi-efficiency Carrier forced air gas furnace yet our heating bills are much the same. I've found the hot water heating much more even, it's quieter and best of all there's less dusting, a huge bonus. And yes I put good Filtrete filters on her furnace for her and change them regularly, still more dusty at her house. She also has way more attic insulation. Dad having worked for Fiberglas knew the value of added insulation, plus he got it free no doubt.. LOL

 

[dj-gabriele]

Winter winter, spare me from the cold!

I love my new house! I love the fact that there is underfloor radiant heating, plus all the heat comes from a remote heating plant, so it's fuel efficient and ecologic (runs on waste) so I have 21°C 24h a day, fixed at a cheap rate, only 200€ per month, very economic!
At my parents we still have radiators with a condensing boiler, I don't like that very much, the boiler is very fuel efficient, but the radiators are slow (even if they're aluminium ones) at warming up the place and they heat less evenly than radiant floor (not counting that I love walking barefoot). Hopefully we also have electric heat pumps /aircon, so most of the times when it's not that cold we can run those because they're very efficient (cop=4,10) even if electricity prices are sky high.

 

[petek]

Speaking of Italy..I was friends with an elderly Italian couple who came to Canada back in the 50's or early 60's. One winter day we were sitting in their kitchen drinking coffee and I said to the lady (about 80 years old) that wouldn't she rather be spending the winter back in sunny warm Italy. She said absolutely no...it wasn't warm, it was always cold and damp in the winter and drafty LOL.. .Here I always thought of Italy as warm and sunny in winter...

 

[maytagbear]

Forced air gas here,

but the furnace is ancient, and no more than about 60% efficient. Landlord pays for the furnace, but I pay for the gas. Only truly warm places in here are the shower (gas hot water) and bed (wanna join me?).

It is better with the new windows and insulation (2003), but it's still cold in here most of the time.

A friend who is a skilled home handyman is going to rehang and re-weatherstrp the door, but he can't get to it before next week. My landlord is useless for stuff like this.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[frigilux]

Forced air natural gas here in Minnesota. Natural gas water heater, as well. I have a Lennox Pulse furnace which is supposed to be very efficient. Don't recall the exact efficiency number, though...

And yes, I have two carbon monoxide detectors in the house.

 

[seeitrun2006]

Winter heat source

Heat pump w/ a natural gas back up. Also will supplement with our fire place. The gas back up will kick in when the outside temp. drops to 32 degrees.