Heating costs in Maine (Bangor: rental, how much, houses)

[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!

[Zymer]

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!

Ouch! $100/mo for phone? $350 elec?

OK, heat is frequently oil which can be expensive, but outside of the cities a lot of people either supplement or heat entirely with wood. A pellet stove is another good option. I'm currently 200 miles south of Bangor so the weather is a little different, but not much. I heated my 1200 sq.ft. house for less than $500 for the entire year, last year, using a combination of wood and pellets.

Total cost is a factor of how well your house is insulated and how much effort you want to put into keeping it warm. If you want to just "set it & forget it" then you're going to have to pay the price for oil, kerosine or gas (LNG or LP, depending on what's available).

A pellet stove requires a bit more maintainence- you have to fill it periodically and empty the ashes every so often, and occasionally clean the heat echangers. It also needs electricity to operate the blower motors (and thermostat, if you want to put one on it) so you'll want a decent battery back-up unit for it in case the power goes out.

A wood stove requires more feeding and more attention but some of the more modern "airtight" stoves can run up to 8-10 hours on a load of wood. A stove that incorporates soapstone would be one of the best because the stone continues to radiate heat even after the stove has burned low or even gone out completely. Being one of the best also means that it costs more to buy one. But, I think that heationg with wood provides a "homey" comfortable atmosphere that I really like.

The cost of heating with wood will vary depending on how much effort you want to put into it. The only dollar cost I paid last year was the few dollars worth of gasoline I put in my chainsaw. The trees were all free from people who wanted them removed, and I did all of the splitting by hand (I enjoy the work and it helps to keep me in shape, and healthy...I could go on about how I think that modern labor-saving conveniences are causing the general population to become fat and unhealthy, but that's probably a rant best left alone, or at least left to another thread).

If you don't want to cut your own trees or scavenge trees that others have cut (around here, people get their trees cut down and they get taken to the dump, wasted, I can just go and get them for the taking) then you can buy cordwood that you cut and split- you'll need gas for the saw, and for a hydraulic splitter if you want to be lazy.

If you don't want to do *any* of the cutting/splitting, you can get it delivered already done, you'll just have to stack it. Of course, that is going to cost more. (But, still cheaper than oil.)

Garbage/trash removal depends on whether the area you choose has pick-up or if you have to take it to a dump or transfer station yourself.

Electric? Can't say, but here I freak if it exceeds $100/mo...and that's with the A/C units, TV and 4 or 5 computers running most of the time.

Water/Sewer costs will depend on where you go. In a city you'll have it, otherwise a lot of people have wells (electric for the pump) and septic systems. I don't know how often a septic tank needs to be pumped, I've been here for 7 years and have never had it done.

Don't know about phone costs- a lot of that depends on what kind of plan you get. I think I pay $50/mo for unlimited calling, both local AND LD.

[Zymer]

I should note that part of the reason I use wood is because I like it, I like to cook with the woodstove, and sometimes the pellet stove keeps the place too damn hot sometimes, even *after* I hooked up a digital thermostat to it. My pellet stove is one of the smallest, cheapest available (England Stove Works, floor display that I got for 1/3 the price because the instructions were missing...but easily downloaded from the factory website).

One of these days I'll buy one of those expensive, pretty Harmon stoves...but not yet.

[Elcarim]

Boy, can I relate to that electric bill! I just got the lowest bill of the year, and it was $214. The highest so far was $420. We usually average $250-450 every year.

I think we'll probably end up exchanging high electric bills for heating bills, but it will be such a nice trade-off!

Great break-down as usual, Z!

[doozer]

Thanks for all that info! The thought of saving money with the "do-it-yourself wood route sounds great, however I dont know if it will be feasible. I will be working alot, have 2 yourg girls and the wife will also be working, so low maintenance is the key. We are looking into renting a house in the portland area, it seems most of the houses I see on the internet have oil heating systems, so I wanted to get an idea of the cost. I know there are alot of variable, but I have no idea what it costs for oil, 25 dollars a month or 300 a month? I havent got a clue.

Thanks for the info, and by the way to all the people on this forum, THANK YOU!!! I have learned so much from you all, I only hope that everyone I meet up there is a nice and helpful as everyone is here. The information from everyone on here is priceless! I cant wait to get out of Florida, I am just miserable here. The thought of living in Maine just gives me that warm-n-fuzzy feeling! (unless its just that burrito I had last night)

Thank You!

[Zymer]

I think oil is currently running $2.50 to $3.00 per gallon?

Overall cost per month can vary considerably with the amount of space you need to heat, how warm you like it, and the weather.

There are probably some calculators on the net, somewhere. Try to find what is called "average degree heating days", it's a calculation that the oil company uses to figure out when to deliver oil to their customers who are on an automatic delivery program.

There are also plans where you can spread the cost over the entire year instead of just paying for it in the winter, it averages it out. Call some of the companies in the area you are looking at for estimates.

Also note that your domestic hot water may also use an oil burner that may be seperate from the heat, unless you have HWBB (hot water base-board) heating.

[midwestmom]

I've seen rental ads that mentioned those floor level heating units that run along the wall. I've lived in apts that had electric versions and didn't heat the room very well. Seems like the ones in the rental ads are like mini-radiators - I think they mentioned radiant? heating. We did much better with those old fashioned higher standing radiators with water. Are they around? Central heat has worked well too but I've seen more ads with those baseboard units.

[mollysmiles]

We converted one of our wood burning fireplaces to gas 2 years ago. At first I didn't want to do it, I like the smell and atmosphere of the wood, but we still had/have the other fireplace burning wood, so I gave it a try. I love it! I didn't think I would, but I do....it's very efficient cost wise, and we used less oil those last two winters. It's thermostat controlled, so I don't worry about the house becoming too warm

[msina]

Radiant heat is heating coils set into the floors I believe. Baseboard heat is usually hot water run through pipes set into the baseboard units. The old steam radiators (the big cast iron units) can be found in many of the old houses, they do give a wonderful heat and are great to dry your mittens on.

[Elcarim]

Doozer, if you do a search on the forum for heat/heating/utlities - you'll find a lot of older threads on this same discussion. You may find more specifics on cost in some of them. I asked the same question a while back and seem to remember a few people sharing their yearly averages.