Heating Oil - How much do you use? (apartment, homes)

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by amazer98

A gas stove is super-easy... no labor... but is more expnsive to run.

Compared to a gas stove, a wood stove is way better. A gas stove puts out heat occasionally due to the thermostat, so that the house is constantly swinging to warm and then to cold. I got rid of my gas stove a bunch of years ago, and replaced it with an EPA rated wood stove. This monster now provides steady even heat over the long term.

[SensiblyScented]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

Compared to a gas stove, a wood stove is way better. A gas stove puts out heat occasionally due to the thermostat, so that the house is constantly swinging to warm and then to cold. I got rid of my gas stove a bunch of years ago, and replaced it with an EPA rated wood stove. This monster now provides steady even heat over the long term.

Ok no one hit me because I am trying to understand this whole how to live in the North thing, but when you guys are talking stoves are you talking ones that you have in your basement that heat the house, or are you talking a stove inside the main part of the house?

[starwalker]

Our oil company used to have a 100 gal minimum delivery but when we ordered this year, it was 50 gal, which was what we got.

We still have not used up that 50 gal, heating an older 2 BR mobile, BUT we leave the thermostat set on 55 at least 95% of the time and use a kero space heater and a small portable propane heater to heat the room(s) we are in. We have, I believe, filled one propane grill tank thus far and I use about 5 gal of kero per week in the kero heater, which I turn on when my fingers get cold.

We are deliberately being economical, as since the first of the year, sales are down all round and all three of my income streams have taken a hit.

[SensiblyScented]

Originally Posted by starwalker

We are deliberately being economical

No shame in being economical no matter what the situation!

We don't pay for our utilities on base, but I still try to teach my kids to save electricity and I don't run the dishwasher unless it is full.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by SensiblyScented

No shame in being economical no matter what the situation!

We don't pay for our utilities on base, but I still try to teach my kids to save electricity and I don't run the dishwasher unless it is full.

Good job! When my eldest was doing a lot of babysitting on base, it seemed like most folks paid no attention. Since when she was at home, she was living with kero, propane and 12v solar lighting, she was well trained to conserve and so she noticed and commented -- a lot -- about the base dwellers habits. Even the kids she watched razzed her about turning off lights! LOL

We turned her experience into a teaching moments... talking about the shock to the budget those families or kids, when they grew up, would have when they had to live "on the economy."

I am still trying to figure out why my electric bills are so high -- in terms of KWH -- the $$ follow and we pay more here per KWH for electric than I have anywhere else... but what I have yet to figure out is why so many KWH comparably. the only difference is a pump for the well, and if it is THAT bad, we need to see about alternatives for it.

We are working on getting a wood stove in also, but the cost of the appropriate stove pipe is the sticking point. we have the stove... We will still have to buy wood when we don't have the time and energy to scavenge or harvest from friends' land, but a much scrap as I have from wood working projects is bound to help some!

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by starwalker

I am still trying to figure out why my electric bills are so high -- in terms of KWH -- the $$ follow and we pay more here per KWH for electric than I have anywhere else... but what I have yet to figure out is why so many KWH comparably. the only difference is a pump for the well, and if it is THAT bad, we need to see about alternatives for it.

Other than a hot water heater set up (which the majority of mobile homes have) obviously contributing to an electric bill, I have yet to have anyone adequately explain to me why a mobile home's electric bills are ALWAYS higher.

I use more resourses in my house than I ever did when I lived in my mobile home - by far, and my electric bills are never as high in my house as the my bill in the mobile home was (and at the time, our public water source pump was connected to my house).

I know many in mobile homes who feel the same way.

Have you had the meter tested?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by reloop

To thy own self be true (although truthfully, a cardboard box is probably less drafty than the old windows in my humble abode). Just saying...

There are methods that you could employ to get rid of draftiness.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by SensiblyScented

Ok no one hit me because I am trying to understand this whole how to live in the North thing, but when you guys are talking stoves are you talking ones that you have in your basement that heat the house, or are you talking a stove inside the main part of the house?

My wood stove is in the living room. My living room/dining room/kitchen is one big open area. It heats right up to the second floor through a big open conduit stair. Right now, I am heating the upstairs hall, the bathroom/ laundry, and the tv room. I am not heating the family room downstairs or the two BDRs of of it, or the master bdr up stairs. But I could, if I really wanted to burn wood.

I have a wood stove rated at 2200-3000 sq ft., and 97,000 BTU. I bought the house with heating with wood in mind. I don't need any fans to get the heat moving except the convection fan that is part of the stove.

When its really cold, which its supposed to be this Sunday(day or night temps below 15 deg F), I put up removable flexible insulation panels on the windows. The house is pretty well insulated but it has a lot of Anderson Windows all over.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by reloop

Other than a hot water heater set up (which the majority of mobile homes have) obviously contributing to an electric bill, I have yet to have anyone adequately explain to me why a mobile home's electric bills are ALWAYS higher.

Insulation.... Insulation.....INSULATION!

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by reloop

Other than a hot water heater set up (which the majority of mobile homes have) obviously contributing to an electric bill, I have yet to have anyone adequately explain to me why a mobile home's electric bills are ALWAYS higher.

I use more resourses in my house than I ever did when I lived in my mobile home - by far, and my electric bills are never as high in my house as the my bill in the mobile home was (and at the time, our public water source pump was connected to my house).

I know many in mobile homes who feel the same way.

Have you had the meter tested?

No...is this something that Bangor Hydro does?

It is really odd; I started the turn the water heater off thing when in NC and it made a BIG difference in the KWH and the bill. here, not so much...