Keeping Warm This Winter. Gas? Oil? Coal?

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320KWh/month is really little by USA standards I guess. Speaking for myself I can tell that we use around 400KWh/month and we are very energivorous people by Italian standard.
It's a mixed up world :) anyway if you're planning on solar, just take it off of your mind, use it only for water or space heating, it will never repay for itself is used for electricity, a wind turbine is much more efficent! A few days ago I asked for a solar roof as Italian government and our electric company, Enel, are giving big tax discounts and net metering with a bonus. Even with all these features and a 75% discount from the country the panels will repay in 15 years (and my parents are in one of Italy most sunny zones!) so that wasn't a good idea at all.
 
We have a Lennox Pulse furnace installed in '94, works like a charm. Just received our gas/electric bill yesterday. We're on the budget plan, and time-of-use plan as well. During on peak time we used 123kwh @ $.20260, and off peak was 338kwh @ $.05365. Our gas rate is $.62034 per therm, we used 50.1 therms for cooking, water & space heating. Actual dollar amount used was $108.24, the budget amt. billed was $148. Also, per state law they can't charge sales tax from Nov. thru April. One final item, does anyone here know of anyone who uses coal for home heating use.
 
HMMMM.

I'd say this is the way to go. These waste-oil burners I believe must not be located in residential spaces.
Availabe in forced-air and hot-water versions.
And then there is the issue of how does one transport the oil?
Supply, however should be easy, between mechanics, garages and oil-change lube & filter joints. Oh, and the occasional greasy-spoon conrer fast-food restaurant.

I have seen more and more automotive related places using these types of things.

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Since we have deregulated electricity in Houston, we are paying about 13.1 per Kwh.

When they built the So. Texas Nuclear Power Station they told us it was going to make electricity cheap. Well, it hasn't. It took a few years after it was built to get it online. Then they started adding surcharges to cover the cost of replacing the fuel in 2030. Then they started charging for disposal of the old fuel in 2030. All the time the rates kept going up and up.
Now just don't you know that they will charge for this again in 2030. After all who will be around to remember that they already once collected for this?

The deal with our deregulation is that the Houston area power providers are "for profit" companies. In Austin and San Antonio they are not for profit public utilities. So, those cities are paying around 8-9 cents per Kwh. The rates only continue to go up and up. Remember, they sold us the deregulation plan as it would "save us money". Hmph!

Whenever the government tries to sell you something and includes the line "It will be better for you", or "It will save you money" just remember that this is their way of telling you that you are about to be screwed!
 
oil / steam

I have oil fired steam boiler with a tankless in the boiler for domestic hot water. You could say I get "free" hot water in the winter. :) I just filled my oil tank before the price went up, THANK GOD, as it was it cost me around 500.-- to fill most of it. I hope to only have to fill it two more times this winter, but that will all depend on how cold it is. I may very well have to fill it four times this heating season. Last year only three times, but we had very mild temps through mid-Jan.
 
home heating

I have natural gas forced hot water baseboards, 4 zones plus a slave hot water heater that runs into a 50 gallon electric water heater which acts as storage. Never run out of hot water. The slave has a pre-heater for the cold water entering, brings the temp up 40 to 50 degrees above the input cold water is. We have damn cold water here in the winter, measured last year it was around 35 degrees out of the faucet. Two gas fireplaces for backup when power goes out. Notice I said when not if. Have a backup generator that runs on regular gasoline, enough for the furnace, 2 refigs, 1 freezer plus a couple of lights. Going to be an expensive winter here I feel
Jon
 
*WHACK* Thank you sir, may I have another? It's a tankle

~plus a slave hot water heater that runs into a 50 gallon electric water heater.

Would you please explain this.
Do you mean a tankless coil to produce hot water for the taps?

Thanks!
 
I am so happy that I don't have to spend the winter months in Sydney and Brisbane any more. There is a lot to be said for the tropics. I don't have to worry about heating and, since I detest airconditioning, I get by very comfortably with regular ceiling fans during the wet season. There is nothing worse than walking from a pleasant 35 degree heat into a place that's been cooled to 19 degrees centigrade, it plays havoc with my skin and sinuses too. Least of all do I miss the winter energy bills, as we used both gas, electricity and wood for heating a 45 square home in Sydney. On average we would pay approximately $380 each for electricity and gas over the three months winter billing cycle. Usually, during the rest of the year we'd pay about $280 for electricity and $230 for gas every three months.
 
Gas!

Hi,
when we was living in flat we had an independent natural gas fuel furnace...

Now that we've moved into a independent house we still use gas (but the GPL heat power is lower than th Metano one)

Either in the old home than now we're always have been owning Riello furnaces! We're very very satisfied of them!

Electricity here is like a stole! Depending on price fascias, you can rise up to 13€cent/KWh... and even if you're the most careful user, 2500-3000Kwh/year is a medium rate of consumpion over here...
Electric bills here are not lower than 100euro (bills are bimestral), but I know of people spending up to 500-600euro per bills so 3000-3600 euro fo electricity costs for a family in one year!

Esatto Gabri! Even after the new evironement oriented line of the nowadays Italian governement, the pay-back of the solar board is after too many years... And as I said many times here the hot-cold fill seems to be forbidden!!! So even here the sunny shining more days than what happens in Germany, funny you found more solar plants over there than here!!!

Now though we're warming up the upper floof with furnace and living floor is helped with the fireplace... at end it creates alwasy that warmer atmosphear...:-)

BYE
Diomede

PS: right, Italy is sunny days in summer! Winter exists here either, and northern regions suffer alwasys more cold than southern ones, where anyway the winter is not so cold but very very damp!
 
Energy Bills

Electricity bills this past summer were high,after getting a 350.00 bill I quit using the central air and used window units to cool only the rooms we are using,it dropped to 300.00,I've changed all the bulbs to CFL and hang clothes to dry,except towels. My water heater and stove are gas and so is the central heat,but after last winter I capped of the gas line,there was a leak I never could locate,it is in the garage with plenty of ventilation,so the only heat we have used so far is electric space heaters only for a hour or so in the morning,I open all the blinds on the west and south side of the house and it warms up during the day,I got my new gas bill today and it jumped from 13.04 last month to 29.93 this month,that is 18.000 ccf from 3.000 ccf last month,how can that be with no change in gas usage,I'm going to keep an eye on the meter readings,I think they just guestimate it for the time of the year,last year it went up to 120.00 using the gas central heat,I quess thats not bad considering what people are paying up north. Mark
 
slave hot water heater

No its not a tankless system. A slave water heater is basically another zone on the furnace with its own circulator pump that runs the hot water from the furnace through what looks like a regular hot water heater except the water from the furnace is what heats the water in the tank through coils that are inside the tank. This dumps into the electric tank. I added this extra electric water heater into the system so I could shut off the gas furance in the summer, produces way too much heat just for hot water. Keeps the a/c from running all the time and actually is cheaper in the summer to run the electric versus gas. Summer time electric hot water runs about 10 - 16 dollars a month. Winter the bill drops down to 4 - 7 dollars a month, gas is making all the hot water, this just acts as a storage tank or when we fill the jacuzzi in the bathroom, which uses about 90 - 100 gallons.
Jon
 

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