How are you going to deal with the doubled cost of heating this winter? (Fairbanks: how much, house)

[Woof]

I'm perennially attracted to beautiful cold weather states, but I'm thinking that it's not likely I'll be heading to one on my nomadic journeys for another few decades ..... heating oil will probably be at least $5 per gallon this coming winter down here in the Lower 48. New England and the northern tier are already squawking in fear and outrage.

Maybe coming years will be much worse, oil production has peaked just as demand is growing exponentially.

I suppose Alaska has an edge in terms of wood fuel, the amount of timber is still so much larger than the population. And your oil rebate checks are probably going to increase quite a lot.

Do most of you on this forum heat with wood? I guess even wood will go way up in price, along with other heating fuels.

[Glitch]

I heat my home with natural gas. Those "oil rebate checks" are actually Permanent Fund Dividend checks. A portion of the oil royalties are put into the constitutionally protected Permanent Fund every year, which is then invested. The dividends from those investments are then averaged over a 5-year period, and those who qualify receive their PFD check.

Forests in Alaska (except in the panhandle which is a temperate rain-forest) are four times less dense than the forests in the lower-48.

Oil production peaked in 1989 only because we haven't been allowed to develop new sources since 1977, such as ANWR, or the National Petroleum Reserve, or off the coast. The Trans-Alaska pipeline could easily handle 2+ million barrels per day if Congress were to allow oil development in Alaska on federal lands, but since they won't we're only putting out around 750,000 barrels per day.

[akck]

Our main source of heat is oil. Last year, we decided to use our wood stove more, buying a load of wood. We still had some outrageously high oil bills. This year with oil likely above $5, we are getting a pellet stove for the basement. That plus the wood stove for the upstairs will hopefully keep the oil bill down. We figure if we use the same consumption as last season, we'll spend over $5,000 for the winter. If we can keep consumption down, the pellet stove should pay for itself in two years.

Besides oil most homes are heated with electricity or gas (natural or LP). Wood is used as a supplemental heat source. Of course, cabins in the woods likely do use wood as the main heat source.

[Sakari22]

so, if you heat with natural gas about how much does your bill usually run you per month....if you don't mind me asking?
...and what is a pellet stove?

[akck]

A pellet stove is a stove that burns compressed wood waste for heat. The pellets are about the same size as rabbit food pellets. You get the pellets in 50 lb. bags which can then be loaded in a hopper. The pellet stove then regulates the temperature of the room by feeding pellets to the fire. The advantage of a pellet stove is that it will run all night, while a wood stove goes out when all the wood is burned. The disadvantage is it needs electricity to do this, so if you have a long power outage, no heat.

[warptman]

The fuel has always been around 5 bucks a gallon out here in the YK Delta, more in the villages. The mid winter help from Chavez helps out a lot to everyone out here, nothing like 100 gallons of free fuel. Now the fuel is around 5.80 a gallon for the spring barge, I'm sure it will rise again this fall on the last barge. Its dumb how they raise prices mid winter out here when they paid for the fuel on the last barge before freeze up.

[jinj]

Originally Posted by Glitch

Oil production peaked in 1989 only because we haven't been allowed to develop new sources since 1977, such as ANWR, or the National Petroleum Reserve, or off the coast. The Trans-Alaska pipeline could easily handle 2+ million barrels per day if Congress were to allow oil development in Alaska on federal lands, but since they won't we're only putting out around 750,000 barrels per day.

A lot of the Alaska oil is exported OUT of the US, there isn't a shortage, and this doesn't affect these prices.

[Rance]

When I built my house I had it sprayed with urethane insulation. I can heat the entire 2 story place with my natural gas oven! But I do have one gas monitor heater I heat with. With the hot water heater, stove and monitor...it runs me about 70 bucks a month in winter. So I should be ok.

[Sakari22]

Originally Posted by akck

A pellet stove is a stove that burns compressed wood waste for heat. The pellets are about the same size as rabbit food pellets. You get the pellets in 50 lb. bags which can then be loaded in a hopper. The pellet stove then regulates the temperature of the room by feeding pellets to the fire. The advantage of a pellet stove is that it will run all night, while a wood stove goes out when all the wood is burned. The disadvantage is it needs electricity to do this, so if you have a long power outage, no heat.

oh, ok.....when your winters only get down to about 50* at the coldest, then you really don't have a need to know about all those different heating methods
so do most of ya'll have wood stoves AND pellet stove??

[icarian]

Originally Posted by Rance

When I built my house I had it sprayed with urethane insulation. I can heat the entire 2 story place with my natural gas oven! But I do have one gas monitor heater I heat with. With the hot water heater, stove and monitor...it runs me about 70 bucks a month in winter. So I should be ok.

A LOT of Interior and Bush residents would "kill" for double/triple/quadruple of what your monthly heating bill is. The price of Fairbanks heating oil (and the fact that a significant portion of our electrical generating capacity comes a petroleum burning generating plant) has the majority of the residents worried about the coming winter. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner online comment pages are filled with these concerns. Of course, I have yet to hear anything about bringing new coal burning generation capacity online (from the Healy coal fields) as far as a long term plan??? An example that has been thrown out there is that the Governor's proposed $1200 rebate equates to an economic stimulus/disposable income for those down south. For those in the Interior, it equates to a month or month and a half of heating/power bills. For the Bush, I can only imagine the impact it will have on them.

And no, it doesn't affect me since I live on a military base, but it does for another 80k or so folks in and around Fairbanks. I don't envy them. Sucks, Ray...my heart goes out to you and those in the same or worse boat.