Reality check again please: Your home heating costs

[petek]

I'm getting scared LOL: We moved in November 15th and received our first partial monthly bill yesterday from that date up until November 28 (13 days worth of gas). According to our bill we used 240 cu meters of natural gas at 35 cents minus a 4 cent something or other type of "credit" ..so basically 32 cents per cu meter. Regardless of that I went over to moms and her bill for the entire month she used 288 cu meters (48 meters more) for 30 days with her T.stat set at 72 (yes 72 she's still old school). I know this house is bigger than hers by about 1000 sq ft, that she has a mid efficiency fairly late model forced air Carrier and we have an original 1957 Hoffman hydronic boiler with baseboard radiators. I've been keeping the house about 70. On top of that the temperatures during that period were unseasonably warm and it only got really cold these last 4 days. So last night with flashlight in hand when I heard the boiler kick in I ran outside to the meter and wrote down the reading, then when the boilers gas kicked out I went outside again and checked it.. 3 cu meters for about 25 minutes worth of gas or 96 cents for every cycle.. whoa. Looks like I might have to start putting pennies away for a new higher efficiency boiler..groan.

 

[petek]

On the bright side though, there's always a bright side!! I have this super (to me anyways) workshop downstairs which also houses the boiler and hot water heater and it's ever so toasty and warm, the whole basement is. I love it. Can't wait to post pictures, even if it is a bit of a mess right now cause I can't decide where to put everything. My original thought was to turn the basement bedroom into my vac and small appliance emporium but now I'm leaning to just keeping it all here in the workshop and letting that bedroom be just that..

 

[tomturbomatic]

Pete, Have you checked the attic insulation? Is there a flue damper on the boiler? Is it working? Could it be modernized? You need an expert to come out and see if improvements could be made. Maybe you could turn back the gas valve to lower the input in all but the coldest weather so less heat goes up the chimney.
Best wishes,
Tom

 

[petek]

Hi Tom: well there are a few things that can be done. First off the woodburning fireplace in the livingroom was converted to gas logs (not an insert) with an everburning pilot. The code states that these types of gas log fireplaces must have the damper locked open and so it is. I'm planning on shutting it down and closing the damper. We seldom ever used the fireplace in our other houses. The home inspector upon inspection found that the attick above the bedrooms only had 8 inches of insulation whereas todays standard is 12 so a few bags of pourable should fix that. Lastly the previous owners had all but 3 windows replaced with new efficient ones. The 3 that weren't are in the 3 bathrooms, one of which wouldn't close properly and you could feel the leak. I bought some of that 3m shrink film for windows and patched that for now, has made a difference. Still in all it's a 49 y.o. gas boiler and I would have to assume that the new ones are bound to more efficient. Overall though I'm liking this heating systems, it's very quiet, no air blowing around. I'm going to get a heating contractor in to explain it all to me for maintenance etc. and I've also signed up for a maintenance contract with the gas company.

 

[retroguy]

I have a heat pump....

So the difference between summer and winter isn't much. The heat pump runs both seasons. And thats all we really have in DC, it's either hot or cold. Little, if anything between. That said, I've never gotten an elec. bill less than $300. It's obviously a lot more in hotter months. Oh well. What can be done? Boil? Freeze? I think not! =)

 

[toggleswitch]

Still in all it's a 49 y.o. gas boiler

I got rid of my HOMART (by Sears brand oil-burning steam-producing boiler (installed after 1946) to install a Burnham brand boiler with a Riello oil-burning head. MY BILLS WENT DOWN TO HALF, immediately.

I pay $168 year 'round (12 mos) on the budget plan for a 7 month heating season. My boiler also makes domestic hot water for the taps (using fuel-oil). The house is a 1.5 story cape-cod style with 1,200+/- square feet above-grade. The basement is also occasionally heated with a hot-water loop off the boiler.

Perhaps your gas utilty will do it (upgrade) for free if you threaten to convert to oil.

 

[toggleswitch]

The electric bill (which includes cooking and cooling) and the other things you'd expect is another $194 year 'round.

The dryer uses natural gas as a heat source, which is aobut $13 per month. Most of this is for the "privledge" of having such service ("meter charge"

 

[petek]

Toggles; speaking of oil fired furnaces. One of the houses we looked at on first arriving had one, with the oil tank also in the basement fed from an outside filler. I was very surprised because it was on one of the swankier streets and the house was probably built in the mid to late 60's. I thought those things had been put out to pasture long before that, at least around here, I've never seen an oil burner. The finished basement had a noticeable oil smell as well. So far the house still hasn't sold and the price is right but it needs a lot of upgrades like the soffits etc being the old wood type, paint peeling off etc. so that would also scare away a lot of prospects like it did me.

 

[hoover1060]

here in Chicago

I have a natural gas forced air furnace, which the central AC also runs off of in the summer.
Other gas appliances in my house include the water heater, dryer, and stove.
In the warmer months(april-sept) I pay about $25 a month for gas, the main users there are the stove, water heater, and dryer.
My summer electric bill can hit $70 using the central AC, which I usually keep set at about 77 degrees.
In winter I keep the furnace set at 71 all the time. I have a programmable thermostat, but have found that keeping the house at one temp as opposed to changing it while I am at work or asleep is actually a little cheaper.
My November gas bill was $56, not bad considering I've had the heat on mostly since the end of September.
I have two ceiling fans that run constantly. One upstairs in the hallway, the other in the kitchen. I have a cathedral ceiling, so they help circulate the air,

 

[petek]

Well I just went upstairs and turned off the gas log pilot and closed the damper. I was gonna light a cigarette to see how much smoke was whoosing up there but made a pact that this house is gonna be NO SMOKING and so far we've been successful. All smoking is done in the garage or outside. But back to the story, when I looked up the flue I could see all the many many cobwebs fluttering in the breeze upwards, my warm house air bleeding towards the heavens..so it's saying closed. Maybe I'll light it for Christmas, don't want to be too much of a Scrooge hahahaha
Jeff, this house also has a cathedral ceiling spanning the livingroom, dingingroom. There isn't a ceiling fan but there is a Mr.Slim a/c mounted way up there so I should try running it on fan only to blow some of that heat back down.

 

[hoover1060]

buy some fans Pete!

I run mine on medium speed during the summer, low during the winter.
They really help circulate the air!

 

[toggleswitch]

It still amazes me how inexpensive utilites are outside of my area.

My mouth STILL drops to the floor in an all-electric house. You just DON'T do that here.

Well, unless you have a tiny 800+/- square foot seasonal cottage on a cliff overlooking the ocean or the Long Island sound, where an oil tank or a bottled-gas tank would potentially harm the extremely delicate eco-system

 

[hoover1060]

my house...

Steve, my house is 1600 sq feet... highest gas bills in winter have been right about $200...
In the winter, electric bill goes down as low as $15 a month.

 

[exploder321]

We have a Heat pump... It sucks... We have almost $190 a month bills to heat a 1750 sq ft house...Ughh

 

[DADoES]

My grandmother's last gas is $18.69. Gas is only for space heating and cooking, and at that she has just one small old-style open gas heater and doesn't cook very much any more. Her electric is $103.28, which is at a fairly high rate for this area. That includes water heating, dryer, refrigerator and upright self-defrost freezer, window unit with heat, and a small portable heater she uses in the bedroom (plumbing codes no longer allow gas jets in bedrooms). She uses the window unit for heat more than the gas, unless weather gets cold enough to need both. Her house is ~60 years old, wood-frame, double-wall construction but no insulation between. My dad did put insulation in her attic back in the 1970s. All the windows were replaced a couple years ago, for however much that helped. She needs pretty high temperatures to be comfortable, electric got up to $250 last winter.

There's no gas (or propane) in my house. The last electric bills were $214.58, $154.05, and $102.52. It dropped dramatically due to getting a problem on the A/C-heat pump fixed (auxilliary heating element stuck on). The last (lowest) bill included the extra cooking & hot water for dishes & bathing (house guests) at the October wash-in. Should get the next bill in a couple days, it'll be (should be) a little lower again I think.

 

[sikiguya]

My gas (heat) bill for all of November was only $75. Which is pretty good since we have had some cold weather already in Chicago. We have a 3400 sq ft house with a huge cathedral celing with large windows as well. We do have a programmable thermostat that we keep at 70 during the day and 68 at night-we are very comfortable and not cold.
We also have a Venmar Heat Recovery Unit on the house with a whole house air filter (air exchanger). It seems to be very efficient and hopefully we have healthier air.
The one we have is medical grade and is a Grade 1 medical device in Canada.

 

[toggleswitch]

SHOCKING HOW LOW!

 

[jaxsunst]

I have a 2300 sq/ft split-level built in 1968. It is all electric, with the heat coming from a heat pump upstairs (installed in 1996) and the ORIGINAL Singer Electric furnace downstairs. It also has the original cabinet style water heater in the laundry room. It is unusual for me to have an electric bill over $200 year around. Sometimes it may go as high as $250 during extreme hot or cold weather, but that is usually once or twice a year.

We are a family of 4 (7 if you count the cats), and I do between 9 and 12 loads of laundry a week with a 1992 Kenmore matched set.

 

[petek]

Heather..that's outstandingly low..what kind of furnace do you have? I saw those Venmar units at HD not too long ago, we don't have forced air heating so that's a wash.