high cost of heat this winter

90Xjay

90Xjay

New member
With all of the warnings about high fuel cost this winter, I am planning on burning more firewood than normal in my wood stove. That means the next weekend or two ole 90 will be working his Stihl chainsaw pretty hard.
I was just curious how some of the folks on the board who live up north of the mason dixon plan on dealing with the crunch, ie: insulating, stocking up on propane early...

just concerned for my fellow jeepers..
 

I hear ya', 90!! I'm glad as he** I put in the woodstove! She's served us well that last 2 winters, so I'm sure she'll do fine again. I tend to over-stoke it all the time, anyway, so I can't see this winter being any different (mudwoman could tell you some good stories - I hate to be cold!!). We live in an all-electric double-wide, so, hopefully, the fuel costs won't jack up our electric bill any more than it already is!! :shock:
 
Word has it that LP won't be as high as natural gas. Could be all crying wolf, but I haven't heard this one for a while. I'm thinking we'll fire up some electric heaters since it's likely the electric will be cheaper than the gas.
 
shwoing off my other toy :) (pics)

A buddy of mine who lives up in northern BC, Canada is installing the ultimate way of heating his place for free. I'm not completely sure on how it works but it has something to do with drilling really deep into the ground and exchanging water with the natural heat produced underground. I'm not sure if this heat is coming from underground hotsprings or just the warmer temperature being so far down....but it's free for as long as it's warmer down there. I don't know how much this is gonna cost him to get installed but I'd imagine it's expensive.
 
Up in NY we would have definitely rocked the fireplace. But now that we are in South FL I am not too worried about it.
 

Oh yeah, I have seen those being installed up north before.
It is called Geo-thermal heating. It uses the fact that the earth is a constant temp, I think 58-65 when you dig down to a certian depth. If it is 15 degrees in your house, you pump liquid coolant down tubes buried in the ground and it heats up to the warmer temp and pump it back into your home into radiators for the heat. I've heard it works great in cold climates and that you still need a small suppliment heat to enhance, but the energy use for the main system is next to nothing.
Great idea.

BTW, here is a good link to the concept of geothermal heating/ac

http://www.climatemaster.com/ResGeo.htm
 
I live in northern virginia, and it gets mildly cold here. When I bought my townhouse, it had a 10 year old set of gas logs in the basement. Those broke and I replaced them with vent free gas logs, and am amazed at how well they work. They heat my whole 3 story townhouse.

With a traditional wood fireplace, something like 90% of your heat goes right up the chimney, but these guys burn clean and can be set anyware (provided you have a gas/LP hookup. You can even get them with a fake fireplace around it if you don't have a traditional one.

While they do use gas or LP, they are 100% efficient, and don't use any electricity. Another benifit is that they don't seem to take all the humidity out of the air the way my heater did (had to run a humidifier all the time).[/url]
 
My grandfather is 86 and refuses to heat with anything but wood, he can't understand why anyone would want to pay when all it takes is a little work to be free. I think it's a pretty good analogy for life in general.

Though here in Phoenix, where the trees dont loose their leaves until late January and I can run with the top down and doors off comfortably all winter long, we usually don't use heat until late December or January. Though the natives have already started using heat, they're a crazy bunch.
 

I hear that, I will be chopping wood for the next couple weeks, I cut down two tree's on my property last spring, should split real nice!
 
GeoThermal heating is very expensive around here, but a good alternative. Not only does the single system heat AND cool your home, but it's also your source for heating your water.

They go down around 150ft. when installing it vertically, I've seen them blow the holes with air.
 
We already have snow in the mountains and it's making its way down the mountain fast!
With the rising costs of natual gas and heating oils I had a new heat pump installed in our home.
so hopfully the cost of running it compared to heating with gas will make it worth it for me.
 

A heat pump will save you money, But on the real cold days, Start a fire if you have a fireplace or stove.
Once the auxlilary heat kicks on, usually when its colder then 30 deg. F.
That will kill your electric bill. A home of 2000-3000 sq. Ft will have about 15kw of backup heat.
That draws about 55 amps, or quarter of your total service.
Geo-thermal also have backup or auxilary units installed.
THey will work great untill the real cold sets in, Then the electric coils turn on.
 

Heat? I dont have heat in myt dorm room. Of course, I am in Daytona Beach. Sorry had to. actually my parents are on the Jersey shore and hey have no special plans at all. Don't know if it will afect them in anyway tho.
Mike
 
Yes, Michigan, the feeling's forever... :D

Well, there's always this, which just got here in the mail today :)
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But besides that... My dad's always been hardcore on the woodstove... My parents place is a 2 story colonial, with a woodstove insert in the fireplace in the familyroom... Keep the ceiling fans on, and the woodstove stoked, and the furnace hardly ever has to come on... They just installed a new furnace last season too, really efficient, so they're gonna be fine, dad's been bringing wood down every time he goes up north...

As for me, and the place I live, we have a going-on 30 year old gas furnace in a ranch style house... It breaks often, and I grow weary of fixing it... With all the computers and servers here though (we're a bunch of computer geeks/heavy metal musicians), keeps the place pretty warm, despite the antique windows... No special preperations, we've got me to repair the furnace as it breaks down (along with the washer, dryer, fridge, computers, water heater... lazy freaking roommates :lol: ), but I do fear that Luke's gonna get a hell of a surprise when it really starts to get cold up here this winter, and he gets the gas bills rolling in...

As for me, I love the cold... Keep the house above 55, and I'm a happy camper.
 
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