Most Reasonable Home Heating Sources (Bangor, China: condo, how much, big house)

[Jellybean50]

I was going to title it "cheapeast ways to heat the house," but i figured everyone would say "there's NO CHEAP way" lol...

Since i'm looking to buy a house or condo in Maine for year-round living, should the heating source of the house be a big part of my choice?

Oil is very high there, i hear electric is also; i also hear that i should have an alternative source of heat such as a fireplace or woodstove, and possibly a generator.

I know it will depend on the size of the house, the insulation, etc. I already heat my home in Jersey with electric, and use Central Air in the summer - so i'm used to those bills. If i get a reasonable house with reasonable taxes, i supposed i'll just expect my heating bill in Maine to be my 'worst bill.'

[Maineah]

There is a formula for harvesting firewood from the land where if you own a certain size hardwood lot you can cut enough wood yearly (as a primary source you'd need 10 cords or more) to heat your house and never run out of wood. I thought it was 10 acres but it may be 25 I can't remember.

[kellysmith]

I believe productive woodland in Maine produces 2 ton of fiber a year per acre. That's counting every wood stem, some of which die out early as the forest matures. I've heard foresters say a really good stand will grow a cord per acre a year. I'd bet a typical woodlot that you just go in and cut without a forester managing what's cut would average at least a half cord of wood per year if you took all the trash wood as well as good hardwood. So if you burn 5 cord a year a ten acre woodlot would suffice, but you would want to cut it with tree growth in mind, not just take the best trees you have standing.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Jellybean50

I was going to title it "cheapeast ways to heat the house," but i figured everyone would say "there's NO CHEAP way" lol...

'cheap' like 'expensive' is rather subjective.

... Since i'm looking to buy a house or condo in Maine for year-round living, should the heating source of the house be a big part of my choice?

We like having multiple options.

This way we can choose which fuel we wish to use from day to day.

I first built our house plumbed to use propane to heat our radiant floors, with electric as backup. Then added a woodstove for heating the radiant system. We did one year fueled with peat, last year we heated the entire season using woodchips that I got from the DOT for free.

We still have more than a year's worth of woodchips stored.

This year we are focusing on mostly using coal.

I like having a primary method, multiple secondary methods and a selection of tertiary fuel methods.

So that as economic changes happen I can remain fluid.

... Oil is very high there, i hear electric is also; i also hear that i should have an alternative source of heat such as a fireplace or woodstove, and possibly a generator.

I have not used oil.

... I know it will depend on the size of the house, the insulation, etc. I already heat my home in Jersey with electric, and use Central Air in the summer - so i'm used to those bills. If i get a reasonable house with reasonable taxes, i supposed i'll just expect my heating bill in Maine to be my 'worst bill.'

You will not require A/C in Maine.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Maineah

There is a formula for harvesting firewood from the land where if you own a certain size hardwood lot you can cut enough wood yearly (as a primary source you'd need 10 cords or more) to heat your house and never run out of wood. I thought it was 10 acres but it may be 25 I can't remember.

10 cords is a bit much.

I think half that much would be plenty.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

10 cords is a bit much.

I think half that much would be plenty.

Not for a big house!
I know a woman who heats a farm in Hebron with an outside wood boiler and she uses 10 cords a year.
I used five cords the winter before last burning it just as supplemental heat not primary. I'm on target to burn another five this winter as supplemental and will burn close to 500 gallons of oil on top of it.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Jellybean50

I was going to title it "cheapeast ways to heat the house," but i figured everyone would say "there's NO CHEAP way" lol...

Since i'm looking to buy a house or condo in Maine for year-round living, should the heating source of the house be a big part of my choice?

Oil is very high there, i hear electric is also; i also hear that i should have an alternative source of heat such as a fireplace or woodstove, and possibly a generator.

Forget the fireplace--you can't heat a home with an open fireplace. I would imagine if you buy a condo, there might be rules governing what alternative heating source, if any, you might be able to have, and where if anyplace you might be able to store the fuel.

Originally Posted by Jellybean50

I already heat my home in Jersey with electric, and use Central Air in the summer - so i'm used to those bills. If i get a reasonable house with reasonable taxes, i supposed i'll just expect my heating bill in Maine to be my 'worst bill.'

Whether or not you can afford those bills, you might want to consider whether most of the people in the town you pick can afford to pay those bills. Else some years hence they may all move away, leaving you in a ghost town. It's happened before in history that a place becomes no longer viable economically and is abandoned. Many places in the Northeast could succumb to such a fate from a lack of jobs and rising energy costs.

If I move to Maine, I hope to have some off-the-grid way to supply myself with heat, electricity, and water for at least two weeks in the case of a natural disaster like the Ice Storm of 1998: http://bangorinfo.com/Focus/focus_ice_storm.html I seem to remember reading that power was out to some places in Maine fora week or two at least.

That can mean no heat, no lights, and even no water, if you get water from an electric pump in a drilled well. (I don't know if it would also cut off town water.)

And then the other thing is, if you have back up and your neighbors don't--I guess you could have a few dozen house guests for a week or two.

[Submariner]

Our house is only 2400 square foot with 12 foot ceilings.

Last winter we burned the equivalent of 3 1/2 cords of wood.

This year? I don't know maybe a bit more, can't tell for sure until after we are done and I do the math.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Forget the fireplace--you can't heat a home with an open fireplace. I would imagine if you buy a condo, there might be rules governing what alternative heating source, if any, you might be able to have, and where if anyplace you might be able to store the fuel.



Whether or not you can afford those bills, you might want to consider whether most of the people in the town you pick can afford to pay those bills. Else some years hence they may all move away, leaving you in a ghost town. It's happened before in history that a place becomes no longer viable economically and is abandoned. Many places in the Northeast could succumb to such a fate.
If I move to Maine, I hope to have some off-the-grid way to stay in my home for at least two weeks in the case of a natural disaster like the Ice Storm of 1998: Bangor In Focus: The Ice Storm

I don't think you're far off the mark with that statement. When it gets to the point where fuel is $8.00-$9.00-$10.00 a gallon the only people who will be left here are the very wealthy who can afford $12,000 a year in oil to heat their homes and the people who heat entirely with wood. If we had been smart in the 70's we would have kept building nuclear power plants and New England would be heated with electricity at this point for much less than what oil is costing us. With the electric heat would have come electric cars. Think of how much development would have come if we had just not been such wussies about nuclear energy. We can thank Hollywood for The China Syndrome.

[Jellybean50]

I like my electric heat because i like stress-free heating - as far as no problems with a main heater, fuel delivery, etc. And yes - i know i wont need A/C - yayyy!! I like having my one big bill a month - tho i do have a propane fireplace and a woodburning fireplace.

I try to live as stress-free as i can, becuz i worked for the USPS for 19 years and had as much stress as i care to have for a lifetime. I dont know how much wood i'll be able to do, not much alone since i have two bad knees - tho once i get set up i may be OK. And yeh in a condo i'm sure i'll have more restrictions. I'm trying to choose areas that have been populated towns for quite a while. Hopefully i will have good luck.

(One cottage i'm looking at is 420 sq feet, i dont imagine it would cost too much to heat it!)