Heating costs in Maine (Brunswick, Eastport: credit, buy, live)

[msina]

there is heating assitance available to those that are low income. through the state and through a grant from the country of Venezuala. Don't know if it helps you but it has helped many through a tough winter.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by doozer

I apologize if my post sounded negative, I should have read it beofore I posted, it seems to come across that way. I promise, Im not a mean person

Ive always been good at putting my foot in my mouth. Things dont always come out the same as the sound to me in my head!

I was just looking for a few poeples scenarious to give me an idea, thats all.

Dont hate me Molly!!

well, all right, but don't let it happen again

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by doozer

My wife and I are probably going to be moving up to Maine from Florida soon. I am just trying to get a handle on wht the utilities may cost up there. Especially the heating in the winter. From what I can tell alot of people have oil based heating systems. Living in Florida for so long, all I really know is central heating and air. just electric heat pump here. Most of my power bill is running the air conditioner about 10 months out of the year! What can I expect to pay up there to heat a 1000-1500 sq ft house in the winter?

The last 2 months here, our power bill has been the highest ever. 350.00 a month, all because of the air cond.

Also, I will list my other utilities and see how they compare.

Power 350.00
Phone 100.00
water/sewer 65.00
Garbage pickup 45.00 (a quarter)

Just trying to get an idea of the basics and what I can expect.

Thanks!

I think the answer to your question is a lot easier to come by than by asking this list.

You can call one of the two major utilities in Maine and ask them what the average electric consumption is for households in Maine. The average cost per kilowatthour for electricity in Maine is around fourteen cents, including energy cost and transmittal costs. I think you will find the average electrical cost is around $70-80 per month. Of course your cost will depend a lot on how big the house, how new the appliances, how many of them there are and so forth.

Electric heat is rated differently. Electric heat is no more or less expensive than any other kind of heat, provided the house is built for electric heat and the amount of electric heating appliance area is adequate for the space being heated. A lot of older homes were retrofitted with electric baseboard units that were too small for the area, and the houses themselves were far too poorly insulated to begin with. Electric heat is rarely used because the added cost of building for it outweighs the economics of using another type of heating appliance that will be very efficient with less insulation and engineering of the dwelling envelope to begin with.

Oil is the primary source of space heating in the northeast. You could call the Maine Oil Dealers Association and ask them how much oil the average house uses. I'll bet that they will tell you that the statistical average is around 8-900 gallons of number 2 heating oil per year.

We have three "monitor" type heaters in this house, which was designed around using them. They were exceptionally inexpensive and easy to install, and provide all the heat and more than we could use. I get the 275 gallon tank filled three times per year right now, although I have used more in previous years when the weather was colder. Last year I actually used around 600 gallons in total. I have one Monitor, and two Toyostove units, for a total BTU output of 50,000 btus. Since kerosene is quite a lot more expensive than number 2 fuel oil, I don't consider these heating units to be an awful lot less expensive to operate than a modern oil burner. But since I designed this house around them, I saved a LOT of the cost of installing forced hot water heat, with largely the same result.

Telephone service is expensive no matter how you do it, and no matter what anyone says. We have ONE telephone service provider in Maine, and that is Verizon. Verizon is in the process of selling their hard wired business to Fairpoint Communications. I have no idea if that is going to be good or bad, but some time ago, I severed relations with Verizon entirely, and now my telephone service is from Vonage via the cable and Internet. Less than $20 per month, with 500 minutes of long distance anywhere in the US and Canada, which is far more than we would ever use. So for $100 per month, I have high speed Internet and telephone and cable tv.

Hope this helps a little.

[dmyankee]

I find that many people are going with the monitor/toyo options because of easy installation and efficiency.

In order to upgrade an oil fired furnace in Maine now, you need a chimney inspection. That could very well lead to an expensive new chimney. Forced hot water is the best, but also the most expensive to install.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

... Telephone service is expensive no matter how you do it, and no matter what anyone says. We have ONE telephone service provider in Maine, and that is Verizon. Verizon is in the process of selling their hard wired business to Fairpoint Communications. I have no idea if that is going to be good or bad, but some time ago, I severed relations with Verizon entirely, and now my telephone service is from Vonage via the cable and Internet. Less than $20 per month, with 500 minutes of long distance anywhere in the US and Canada, which is far more than we would ever use. So for $100 per month, I have high speed Internet and telephone and cable tv.

Hope this helps a little.

There is only ONE ma bell in Maine?

We use Mid-Maine Comms. As Verizon does not go here to this part of Maine.



According to the Maine.gov website the following is a list of all phone companies serving Maine.

China Telephone Company South China, Maine

Cobbosseecontee Telephone & Telegraph Company Gardiner, Maine

Community Service Telephone Company Winthrop, Manie

Hampden Telephone Company Hampden, Maine

Hartland/St. Albans Telephone Company Hartland, Maine

Island Telephone Company Warren, Maine

Lincolnville Telephone Company Lincolnville Center, Maine

Maine Telephone Company Standish, Maine

Mid-Maine Communications Bangor, Maine

Northland Telephone Company South China, Maine

Oxford Telephone Company Lewiston, Maine

Pine Tree Telephone & Telegraph Company New Gloucester, Maine

Saco River Telegraph & Telephone Company Bar Mills, Maine

Sidney Telephone Company
Somerset Telephone Company
Standish Telephone Company
Tidewater Telecom
Union River Telephone CompanyUnitel, Inc.
Verizon Maine
Warren Telephone Company
West Penobscot Telephone Company
UNICEL

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

I find that many people are going with the monitor/toyo options because of easy installation and efficiency.

Those do look neat.

I was hoping to meet someone who has one though, so far we have not met anyone around here who has one.

We used a Rinnai when we lived in Italy, it was okay.

... Forced hot water is the best, but also the most expensive to install.

That may well be your opinion.

But isn't it really depending on the situation and what the person wants, to determine what is 'the best' for him?

We are fairly happy with our maytag unit.

[msina]

Great info forest,.. as usual thanks

[dmyankee]

If you can live without a basement, a lot of new construction is done with heated slab and everyone I know with it is hooked. If well insulated you can get through a season on maybe a couple of tanks of #2 if that.

Monitors are super. I know of some sporting camps that even have these tiny ones even installed in the bathrooms. Makes all the difference. A 40k unit might use 150 gallons per month and keep the place toasty. All it takes is a small generator to get you through a power outage.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

There is only ONE ma bell in Maine?

We use Mid-Maine Comms. As Verizon does not go here to this part of Maine.



According to the Maine.gov website the following is a list of all phone companies serving Maine.

China Telephone Company South China, Maine

Cobbosseecontee Telephone & Telegraph Company Gardiner, Maine

Community Service Telephone Company Winthrop, Manie

Hampden Telephone Company Hampden, Maine

Hartland/St. Albans Telephone Company Hartland, Maine

Island Telephone Company Warren, Maine

Lincolnville Telephone Company Lincolnville Center, Maine

Maine Telephone Company Standish, Maine

Mid-Maine Communications Bangor, Maine

Northland Telephone Company South China, Maine

Oxford Telephone Company Lewiston, Maine

Pine Tree Telephone & Telegraph Company New Gloucester, Maine

Saco River Telegraph & Telephone Company Bar Mills, Maine

Sidney Telephone Company
Somerset Telephone Company
Standish Telephone Company
Tidewater Telecom
Union River Telephone CompanyUnitel, Inc.
Verizon Maine
Warren Telephone Company
West Penobscot Telephone Company
UNICEL

You are correct, except that all of these others are small, local telephone companies and they all interconnect with Verizon that owns all the lines and switches that enable communication beyond the local communities that they serve.

Essentially, there is only ONE telephone company operating in the state that allows communication beyond the local community.

My parents had AT&T for ALL of their telephone service up until last week. It was costing them $80 per month for local and long distance service on a flat rate basis, including servicing their telephone lines in the house. They paid an extra fee to AT&T for interconnecting to Verizon's lines so that they could call long distance. That AT&T was providing them service was a myth: the service was actually provided by Verizon.

Union River Telephone Company is also a local service provider as are the others. But the interconnecting lines and switches belong to Verizon.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

I find that many people are going with the monitor/toyo options because of easy installation and efficiency.

In order to upgrade an oil fired furnace in Maine now, you need a chimney inspection. That could very well lead to an expensive new chimney. Forced hot water is the best, but also the most expensive to install.

Having used the Monitor/Toyo brand kerosene fired heating units for seventeen years now, I am thinking that they may not be the best solution that they are hyped to be. What I have found is that the bearing races in the blower motor of the Monitor brand heaters are really pretty cheap and fail after about four or five years of use. There are relatively few really qualified repair technicians who know how to fix these machines and fewer still who repair them using other than original, cheap bearings which means that they will need to be repaired again.

In addition, I have found that the burner assemblies in these heaters are not as good as they were originally, and they have a tendancy to fail just out of warranty. The result is that after owning six of these Monitor heater for use in one commercial building, and two at home, I no longer would buy a Monitor heater for any use at all.

I also own two Toyo heating appliances for use at home, and two for use in a commercial building. They are actually a much better appliance, provide more heat, much more quietly and seem to have none of the quality problems that the Monitors have shown over time.

Now, while I like these heating units, and have found them to be very efficient in my house which was designed around them, I am not sure that they are a lot less expensive than any other type of fossil fuel based heat. They all use electricity,a nd without electricity you are cold. They are much like running a 250 watt light bulb, and Kerosene is not an inexpensive form of fuel oil.

In the next house we will be doing something else, and we may have a solar hot water/radiant floor system, or perhaps a ground source heat pump depending on water supply once we drill a well on site.

The next house will not consume oil or a petroleum product for any purpose, nor will we be burning wood or wood products as a main source of heat.