OT Home heating costs in cold climates

gwece

Member
Just wondering how much you folks in cold climates like the upper US or Canada, etc. have to spend each year to heat your homes. I'm in "balmy" Southern Illinois and usually heat with a wood furnace but keep LP gas as a backup option. Just had it filled up the other day....400 gallons cost $965. If I just used LP I could easily spent $1,800 or so each heating season at $2.35 a gallon!
 
This year it may be a little higher than normal because of the wind we have ben having. In a normal year we usually buy 300 gallons of home diesel which cost about $1100 if purchased in the summer. We also burn about 10 cords of wood per year and that cost is hard to figure because some of the wood is cut on our farm and some purchased for $700 for 18 cord loads. Thus the total would be similar to what you pay. In fact I believe that the average cost of heating in this area, in a well insulated home would be about the same as mine.
There will be some variations due to other factors such size of the home and how warm they keep the home. What others post should be interesting to read.
 
I cut all of our firewood. This is the only heat source we use except when the wood boiler needs to be repaired. The boiler does use some electricity to run the fan and the pumps and then there is the cost to run the chainsaw and the tractor. It is hard to say exactly what it costs but it is not too bad.
Zach
 
We have a electric heat pump with propane back up heat. Our monthly electric bill is about $200 for about 2000 kw and we use about 400 gallons of propane all winter. The electric bill is only that high for about 3 months and then it goes down in October and march depending on conditions. This is in a 1500 sq foot ranch about 40 years old, not a 100 year old farm house.
 
when it's really cold we can go through 5 gals. of fuel oil a day so at $3.50gal. it adds up, we are using more elect. heat than we used to
 
Way back many moons ago when oil prices went up and fuel oil went over fifty cents a gallon A friend went and got into heating with wood over fuel oil. One evening we were up at his place and he had the wood burner cooking and it was plum HOT in his house .He was bragging on how much he was saving by burning wood. Now he did not live on a farm and he worked in town , never owned a pick up in his life. Had no wood on his place . But he bought a wood burner then he bought a new 3/4 ton Cheve 4x4 bought two new Sthil chain saws a new log splitter and on the weekend he would drive 65 miles down to his inlaws farm and cut and haul four loads of wood back to his place . That old Cheve 4x4 got around 9-10 MPG and gas back then was about fifty cents a gallon . But he was saving money . He was and educated IDIOT that could not see that he was paying out more to heat his home then if he had just bought fuel . Then you take my one cousin her and her Husband bought one of the smaller Du Pount manson in Wilmington and the one time i was there Richard took me down to the boiler room and showed me the three 10000 gallon fuel oil tanks that were used and he told me that on a normal year that it took one and a half filling to heat that place.
 
That's all? I'd give my right n** to only pay $3000 a year in heating and cooling. My electric bill alone is much more than that - and I have a gas heat.
 
In a normal winter in NW Indiana we use about 250 gallon of LP gas and 3 cord of firewood. This year we are heating with baseboard electric, LP gas and wood heat. The electric and Lp gas are my big cost and firewood is only fuel and saw parts if any, I heat a 2,500 square foot home.
As for actual cost they vari from year to year and I do what ever I have to do to keep warm.
 
I burn 600 to 800 gallons of fuel oil per year on Long Island NY--have a wood stove for extra heat
3000 sf home with an accessory apartment upstairs.
 
When the fuel man was here in early December,heating oil cost me $934 I think it was. He was here again the other day,$614. He'll be back early February and early March.
 
I heat a 1200sqft house (full basement), and a 1000sqft shop (55*) along with dryer and water heater with natural gas for $88 dollars a month (year round budget).
 
If I used heating oil only instead of wood, say Id burn 250 gallons +_ a month it be $3.84 a gallon x 250 gallons= $960 times that by 5 months I'd be $4800, per year, give or take on how cold it is. I can buy a truck load of logs for between $650-$700 for about 7 cords, I cut, split and season it. I get some wood from my own woods, and some from the farm. The cost for fuel for the saws and splitter, tractor, atv isent that much, so it's hard to say exactly how much, but under $800 for the year I think. And I only use the oil once in a while, I haven't bought any oil since 2009.
 
Too much.Oil last time they delivered was $3.73 a gallon and that was if paid within 10 days.Through the course of the year i think they come 4 times on a average year.We have a oil fired hot water heater and also use programmable thermostats to lower the house temperature when we are away and sleeping.This is in NE CT.

Vito
 
In Minnesota with old farm house, my natural gas bill for the house will be around 300 a month for Dec, Jan, and Feb, and almost nothing in late spring , summer, and early fall. Another 100 a month for the shop on separate meter, but I use corn and wood pellets in the shop to supplement. I have the wood around here to make my own firewood if I got an outdoor burner, but I cant figure where I would get the time to make all that wood.
 
Heat with wood and oil back up, use about 80 gal. a year and around 4 cords of wood, we keep it warm as we want. I installed a electric plenum heater last year but I don't have it hooked up yet, the oil in the underground tank is getting old and I want to use it up. Then it will be wood with electric back up and oil backing up the electric that, is the way it has to be to get the cheap electric rate.
 
I would have to get out my electric bills from last year. Look at what my bill for the spring and fall when I'm not heating or cooling.

I don't use wood heat, I use insulation.

If I were to estimate just how much my electric bill increases because of heating it would be close to your $965.

I would also say that my air condition bills are close to my heating bil, perhaps a little less, but not that much.

I don't have cabin fever that bad, but I may just have to get my electric bills out and do some calculations.

I think all the people who burn wood, should include all costs of wood. The cost of a chain saw, chainsaw repairs, new chains, bars, gas and oil for saw, gas for truck to get the wood, cost of wood splitter, cost of your wood burner, increased insurance cost, increase property tax if you have a fireplace, emergency room visits, and hate to say "funeral costs." I know of 3 people who were killed cutting down trees. One person was actually a professional logger. A widow maker got him.

I live in Terrabile hut
George
 
We live in the country, but, several years ago
they ran a Natural Gas pipeline down our road,
and asked if we wanted to be hooked up.
Our Natural gas bill, on budget billing, fixed
rate every month, is $70 a month.
I note that our actual use, in the summer, when
heat is off, is $12, for water heater, and kitchen
stove. Our electric bill runs about 450 killowatts
a month, and is usually $75. We light only the
room that we"re in..The wife complains that we
"live like Moles" !
 
Don't talk burning wood to loud. Big brother is probably looking over your shoulder. Have a 1400 sq. ft. ranch style and get by on 400 to 500 gallons propane a year and lots of wood. Never kept track of the wood cut, cut as needed. What I burn in 3 month you probably burn in a month. I think water heater takes about half my propane.
 
We heat with wood pellets. The stove cost us $1800 3 years ago and we go through 5 ton/year @ 190/ton. Have fuel oil also. One 250 gallon has lasted 2 1/2 years. Will need a fill up in the next couple weeks. When the temp is above 25-30, the furnace doesn't run. Only keep the old, not very well insulated farm house set at 65. So about $1250/year not counting Pellet stove initial cost. In central Michigan.
 
hard to get far away from good ol wood heat here in s-ind ,love my fireplace , make love to my basement wood furnace too ,, lol ,, also have bathroom electric cable ceiling heat, and a hallway ETS heater,that charges during off peak times,, trouble is mosxt times we have 200 bux lectric bill ...
 
Well like Zach, We heat totally with wood. A wood boiler hooked to radient underfloor heat, a domestic hot water heat exchanger (40gal), and a suspended unit heater in my shop. Also have an airtight fireplace in the center of the house that we run when temp. and wind are where they are now. We have an unlimited supply of wood, close by. It costs me about $150.00 for fuel, bar oil etc. for the saws, splitter and the old Chebby woodgetter. I have worn out a couple of saws in my lifetime, and did by a new one, last spring. The Husky 357 was getting too heavy. I still use it for blocking though.
The house is zoned and there are circulator pumps and combustian fans on the boiler and fireplace, so I suspect It costs about $10 bucks a month for the electric to run them.
I am retired and enjoy being in the woods and cutting wood, so I don't place a value on my time. We burn about 10 cord of wood each year and haven't used any heating oil in 3 years.
Loren, the Acg.
PS, The wife and I stopped in to Lowes, yesterday, to pick up some things, and saw that they had firewood bundles for sale, @ $9.97 each. Wow! It would take 3 of those bundles to fill my boiler once for a 12hr burn. No one could afford to heat with wood at that price.
 
sir you are bang on with your post, have heated with wood only for 30 plus years, and if you figure saws,chains, gas, oil , maintenance, had to build a new trailer, had to repair the tractor , had to rent a log splitter, not to mention the hours put in, I shoulda went propane years ago wood heat is not FREE heat
just like living in the country is not FREE water & FREE sewage, we pay for it some where down the line
bob
 
The exception to that thinking is the fact that all the trees I've cut down I would have cut down anyway and burned the wood in a brush pile or used for fence posts.
 
I have 1400 sq ft house have taken every thing down to bare studs and inslated ,new double pain windows has full basement last mouth heat, bill,gas dryer gas cook stove gas water heater and gas heat $84.00 natural gas. I will guess At least $50.00 more this mouth this in south east South Dakota just one person in this house
 
We live in the Mission Valley of Western Montana and have a 2030 sq ft house all on one level with R50 in the ceiling, R19 in the walls, double pane windows, R38 in the floors, etc
We have a Quadrafire woodstove with a small blower in the living room and a backup propane forced air furnace. We keep the house at 65-68F. Over the time we have lived here (2003 to present) we burn about 2 cords of slab wood(~$90/cord deliveredfrom a local mill), one cord of regular firewood($125/cord) and no more than 250-300 gallon's of propane. Estimating our average propane cost at ~$2.00/gallon we've averaged about $805-905/year for heating costs not counting the electricity to run any furnace or the wood stove blower.
 
I think I'm a "little" north of you Gary.

We get the summer fill on propane. It's supposed to be cheaper, but I've never checked the prices for comparison. Our cost last summer was $274. I didn't write down how many gallons it was. Brian from FS delivers to us once a year. Linda cooks with propane, and we have a propane water heater that kicks on once or twice at night.

I've chucked a lot of wood in the furnace the last few days. We had -13 on one thermometer last night.
 
Switched to geothermal 13 years ago to heat my 4800sq foot home in Minnesota. Just got my December usage and added the numbers for 2012. I averaged $49 a month for both AC and heating. Worst month was $120. Not looking forward to our January bill. 26 below this morning and -28 yesterday. Shops are 100% wood heat.
 
I maybe paid mine all up front by installing geo-thermal for like 10 grand hooked to my existing propane furnace for back-up that I can run with a 5 HP generator if needed. The 3 HP geo pump took $392.73 for heating and cooling a 970 s/f house in SE SD. I wouldn't fool with wood for that cost. The circulating pumps and fan to distribute the heat/cool are not included in the $392,. Kids will probably get the price of the geo back when they sell the place, too!
 
Seems to me in places where the wind blows 40MPH with the temperature -30F and lots of tornados in the Summer most people would build underground houses to live in but looks like very few do.
 
We heat strictly with wood, 1200square foot new construction basement house only one side exposed, insulated very well. Al the wood I burn has been cut last year at my dads so just have to haul it here. One pick up load stacked lasts me a month. We also have free gas at our property which I will tie in once we build the top of the house and my garage. For now though wood is cheap.
 
Bob,
I'm retired, it's cold outside, and I have cabin fever. So I looked at 2013 electric bills. Keep in mind my house is 2000 + square feet. I built a new house around the old house in 1991. I put 20,000 brick on it. Over insulated, new anderson casements, new doors, 18 inches of insulation in ceiling, R20 walls, air tight.

I used 2013 numbers, starting January-April and November and December 2013. total electric bill $1025.50 My total electric bill from May to Oct is $291.60. This summer was unusal. If it got 85 in the day, at night the low may be 65, average 75. With brick, the inside temp stayed around 75 without the A/C running much.

So if I subtracted $291.60 from $1025.50, I would say it cost me $733.90 to heat my house for 6 months using baseboard electric heat.

There is no way I will ever think of using wood.

This past Saturday, I helped my boy put 67 bags of insulation in his attic. He said his heat pump would never shut off. He even switched it over to total electric. After the insulation, he said his furnace now cycles with the record cold temps.

In 1985 my dad passed. Mom couldn't figure out how she was going to pay NIPSC the electric and gas bill, which was around $500. Dad even used wood.

We filled her attic with insulation, insulated the floor. Next month NIPSC came out and changed her electric and gas meter. Her total bill dropped to $135. NIPSC thought she tampered with the meters.

Where I live, for the past 30 years, insulators will come out and for $.50 a cubic feet, blow in fiberglass. My boy said they wanted over $1/cubic feet to blow ground up newspaper. Almost 3 times that amount for fiberglass.

ALL I CAN SAY IS INVEST IN INSULATION BEFORE YOU INVEST IN WOOD.
George
 
Here in SD where the winds blows constant, I have a 100 year 4 square, 2 story farm house. Poor insulation and even poorer windows but well protected by trees. I have electric baseboard heat (on a separate meter as out coop gives a discount for heating) and a corn/pellet stove. Without the stove going I might spend around $1500 a season. With the stove going the electric drops to around $500 for the season. I have yet to run through more then 100 bushels of corn in a season so even at $7 corn, that's only $700 so i'm still ahead $300. The house is much warmer too when the stove is going. There are big plans this summer to finally upgrade my 100 year old windows and some new siding with insulation. I can't wait to see the difference!!!

Casey in SD
 
It depends on the house, the owner, and the winter. Last year my 25 year old 1600 sq ft ranch house in MN used $1300 total for the year for natural gas and electric. This year will be higher. A relative has an old farm house with poor insulation and fuel oil heat, it can cost over $600 a month to just to heat it.

Insulation is your best friend when it comes to heating and cooling. Natural gas cost the least to operate if it's available.
 

In southern NH I hear my 1,500 sq ft. well insulated 1800s farmhouse with about 600 gal. of oil and a pallet of coal, for about $2500.00. I spend about three minutes per day dumping ashes and ringing coal in.
 
Paul:

Yes, Brian brings my LP as well, and I normally just need a couple hundred gallons at summer fill and it IS a lot cheaper then. Just didn't get as much wood cut last year as I should have. We've got a bunch of dead trees marked and will be working on them soon.

Just wondering how much longer I am going to "enjoy" cutting wood. We ain't exactly getting any younger Paul (LOL). Should have listened to you 25 years ago and not have built this "Ramada Inn"! Take care! Gary
 
We burn LP. Here in West MN we go through about 800 gallons a year so we are normally under the 2K mark for cost.

Rick
 
Here in Western NE I have a all electric house and shop. House has in ceiling radiant. With all lights cook stoves hot water heaters (2) ref. deep freezes (4) AC. computers (3) space heaters (4), well , you get the idea.. average last three years $3800 or 317 per mo. Highest 490 lowest 200. House is 3500 sq. ft..
a141048.jpg
 
Geothermal adds about 25 bucks a month to my electric bill.1800 sq ft house.-40 windchill last night in ohio.Also free hot water that comes from the geo.
 
Here in West KY I heat and cool our 2000 sq ft 5 year old home with electric heat pump that has a propane furnace auxiliary and a gas log fireplace. We keep the winter house temp set on 78 degrees. Summer time is set on 76 degrees. House has 22' ceiling in main living area which makes it harder to heat. We average $150 per month + 400 gallons of propane. So about $2500-$2600 a year total lights/appliances/heating/cooling cost.

It's for sale too :)
 
My brush pile takes very little work. Use front loader to put a tree on dump trailer. Dump it and light it off. No splitting, no stacking, no cutting to a certain length. The last tree that fell down took me 35 minutes from start to finish to load it on a dump trailer. Bet you would spend more time making fire wood out of it

Dan, you could look at it another way too. You don't have to pay membership to go to a health club to work up a sweat.

Everyone can do what makes them happy. I'm happy with my heating bill.

George
 
Agreed. All the wood I've cut has probably saved me thousands I would spent while sitting on a bar stool on Saturday afternoon watching ball games. I could give it away and still be money ahead.....
 
I heat, cook and heat water with propane and average about 1200 gallons a year/ I generally buy a pre-paid contract in July or August. This year I paid $1.35 a gallon for it.
 
We're heating a 2400 sqft. ranch style house, built in 1973 and pretty well insulated. We used an add on wood furnace in addition to oil forced air heat. I used to use about 250-300 gal of oil at $3.70/gal. in addition to wood. We just changed to a 96.5% efficient propane furnace in addition to the wood burner. Looks like we'll use about 250 gal. of propane @ $1.49/gal. plus wood, so maybe $375. I cut my own wood, near enough to haul with a tractor and trailer, no pick-up expense. I've spent about $600 for chain saws and maybe $300 in repairs/chains over the 40 years I've heated with wood. I built my own wood splitter for $85, and I already had the tractor and trailer to haul wood. Heating expenses are less than $500 a year for us. Now, we're in Michigan with some of the higher electric rates in the US, partly thanks to tree huggers that convinced our legislators to mandate a fair % of our energy from "renewable" sources by 2015. So electric costs are far more than heating costs and there isn't much we can do about them, except read by a kerosene lamp.
 
I have a friend who was cutting and selling fire wood here about 2 years ago. I got him to keep track of his hours and he had the info on running and maintaining saws cause he kept tractor of that. If you took what he made off of one truck load it was about 7.50 after paying himself 7.25 and hour. Seems like a lot of work to make a profit of 7.50.

Rick
 
I burn coal. 1,800 s.f. Old farm house, not alot of insulation. It cost me about 2,000 per year for coal (10 Ton). My coal stoker runs 365 days a year because it heats my domestic hot water.
 
1300 sq ft, 1.5 story house, built in 1926, plus a 30 x 20 garage built in 2005 in Omaha. Natural gas, water and sewer are billed by same utility $118 every month for 12 months. Electric is $128 every month for 12 months.
 
I have a wood stove in the house(2200 sq ft),burn about 8 full cords every winter. Have also backup nat gas furnace in the house and Nat gas water heater
I Use only Nat gas to heat the 70 x 46 shop.
Electr heat in the pumphouse.

Monthly nat gas bill is around $140 in winter,.. $35 in summer.
Power bill is $ aprox $270/month in winter and +/- $140 in summer.
 
We heat with wood almost exclusively. I might put 20 gallons of diesel in the fuel tank for cool days when the wood is too hot. As it is we also spend about $600.00 a year on propane for a wall heater in one room and electric runs about $300.00 a month. I can't imagine what some people pay that have big houses and burn fuel or electric.
 
Old fortress of a farmhouse with no wall insulation that we moved into in late fall.I am burning wood in the kitchen to supplement the oil fired boiler in the basement.We used $940 of oil in December.Everybody wears layers and we have a small electric heater in the babies room.My wife was a cub leader with a furnace guy years ago and he is coming over when he gets back from his vacation to see if he can fine tune the system.I hope he comes when I am here because I have no idea how to operate the hot water system.
 
(quoted from post at 12:58:19 01/08/14) Old fortress of a farmhouse with no wall insulation that we moved into in late fall.I am burning wood in the kitchen to supplement the oil fired boiler in the basement.We used $940 of oil in December.Everybody wears layers and we have a small electric heater in the babies room.My wife was a cub leader with a furnace guy years ago and he is coming over when he gets back from his vacation to see if he can fine tune the system.I hope he comes when I am here because I have no idea how to operate the hot water system.

I take it that you are renting, but if you own, you can blow insulation in with a unit that has high pressure and a one inch tube so that you make small holes that are readily patched.
 
Central Illinois. My utility bill (including $30 for water and sewer) ran $150 for a 1,800 sq. ft. house, single level in the coldest month last year which was January. This is with baseboard electric heat in every room. I only went over $100 twice in twelve months. My house is well insulated with good windows.
1/13 $120
2/13 $100
3/13 $90
4/13 $75
5/15 $60
6/13 $59
7/13 $65
8/13 $70
9/13 $55
10/13 $60
11/13 $75
12/13 $90
I'm on a low rate because my house in all electric.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top