Heating choice (buying a house, employment, buying)

[dano04631]

I know this has been discussed ad infinitum, but when doing a forum search I couldn't find anything exactly like my question. Is there any one consensus choice as to what's the best way to heat your house? I'm talking strictly dollars and cents. The cost of heating is our number one concern for buying a house - we have a lot of different needs and wants, but all of them are moot if we can't afford to heat the house.

[Maineah]

All wood cut off your own land is by far the cheapest way to go. About 30-40 acres of a woodlot is enough to cut all the firewood you will need on a year to year basis forever.
That said the vast majority of people in Maine still use oil with some kind of wood supplement or backup. We're considering buying a woodlot and going with all wood or a majority of wood. Oil is nuts! Electric heat did the same kind of peaking in the 80's. No one would touch electric heat in Maine until recently. I believe oil will be the next "taboo" heating source.

[maine4.us]

Small house + wood heat = reasonable heating costs. Like he said, oil is the next taboo. If you buy in the city, you would need 30-40 acres in the country to cut enough wood for the winters, unless you bought seasoned wood. I suspect it will be much more expensive as people move from oil to wood. Supply and demand will not be denied.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by maine4.us

Small house + wood heat = reasonable heating costs. Like he said, oil is the next taboo. If you buy in the city, you would need 30-40 acres in the country to cut enough wood for the winters, unless you bought seasoned wood. I suspect it will be much more expensive as people move from oil to wood. Supply and demand will not be denied.

So true. Wood lots will be the wave of the future around here for the next several years....now is the time to divide up Gram's old family lot and sell it off for the wood content.

[Submariner]

Wood is plentiful, as is peat.

Both are cheap.

[tapestry]

Originally Posted by dano19606

I know this has been discussed ad infinitum, but when doing a forum search I couldn't find anything exactly like my question. Is there any one consensus choice as to what's the best way to heat your house? I'm talking strictly dollars and cents. The cost of heating is our number one concern for buying a house - we have a lot of different needs and wants, but all of them are moot if we can't afford to heat the house.

To everyone who knows about home heating, notwithstanding about the wood heating, if you were buying an existing home, which method of heating of the below-listed 3 would you choose to be the least expensive way to heat your home:

1) Oil
2) Gas
3) Electric

Thanks, everyone, for your input on this....Dano and I are very confused as to which heating is the best (i.e., least expensive).

....Sue

[jim65970]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Wood is plentiful, as is peat.

Both are cheap.

hello mr beekeeper....how you keeping ?
first time i'm hearing about 'peat'....i suppose it is sold commercially...have any more info on this commodity ?
i.e. price...type of heat & burn
thanks in advance
best
jim

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by tapestry

To everyone who knows about home heating, notwithstanding about the wood heating, if you were buying an existing home, which method of heating of the below-listed 3 would you choose to be the least expensive way to heat your home:

1) Oil
2) Gas
3) Electric

Thanks, everyone, for your input on this....Dano and I are very confused as to which heating is the best (i.e., least expensive).

....Sue

The least expensive methods of home heating, are those which are free.

[tapestry]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

The least expensive methods of home heating, are those which are free.

I realize that, Mr. Bee, however, chopping wood is not really feasible for Dan and I....nor is the peat.....I mean of the 3 major types of heating: you know -- gas, oil or electric....

Thank you!

....Sue

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by jim65970

hello mr beekeeper....how you keeping ?
first time i'm hearing about 'peat'....i suppose it is sold commercially...have any more info on this commodity ?
i.e. price...type of heat & burn
thanks in advance
best
jim

Peat is the primary heating fuel of Northern Europe. Both among homes and electric power plants.

North America has the world's largest Peat bog resources, and less than 1% is being harvested.

Maine has a lot of peat bogs and fens.

Sphagnum moss grows up to 30 inches each year and adds that new growth onto the top of each bog / fen each year.

Peat can be sustainably 'mined'; as is happening in Northern Europe and in Canada.

Locally here, a few years ago, an investor bought a few hundred acres of one peat bog and wanted to begin a sustainable harvest of peat. He was going to employ 30 workers. However during the application process and public meetings the public out-cry was huge. The public fought the idea of local employment in a 'green' sustainable agriculture business. So it was shut down.

For fuel you can purchase peat. We have purchased it.

We heated our home in Scotland using peat for the years that we lived in Scotland.

Now here in Maine I harvest my own peat, from a bog on my property.

Per pound of peat, the Btu given off ranks right between a pound of wood, and a pound of coal.

Historically peat has been considered a 'fossil' fuel, and chemistry-wise peat is thought to be an intermediary step between bio-mass and coal.

Although they now have discovered an enzyme that eats bio-mass and makes coal. Which lends to the idea that coal may not truly be millions of years old after all.

Peat bogs in commercial production can be harvested again every 6 to 8 years.

One of the wet areas that I have on my land, I have transplanted sphagnum moss onto, in the hope that I can develop it into a peat bog.



Peat: a 'green' sustainable 'fossil' fuel.