Oil Heating? (Bismarck, Minot, Rugby: big home, heat pump, tornado)

[MsFreud]

Color me ignorant, but being from the desert, I am unfamiliar with this.
We founda really pretty home in Larimore that we want to purchase. It is "Forced Air Oil Heat".
Called the local oil comanies- and figured with today's prices and the last residents consumption- will run $200 a month avg just for heat?! NOT including electric. The avg electric bill for that house is $112.
There is another house on the same street that has electric water heat, and it's avg bills are $135- which is heat and electric.

Is it possible to convert to electric heat? Seems to me that with prices the way they are it would be substantially cheaper. (There is no natural gas avail in Larimore) As it is already a forced air system, anyone have any idea of what kind of work/labor/money might be involved in that?

Thanks!

[marmac]

MsFeud-----------I will speak of my Minnesota experience with heating oil------------I don't know how I will pay the bill this winter.

I think you better double check as I doubt you will be able to heat your home for only $200 per month with the cost of oil.

Here is a solution a neighbor of mine found-----------------he checked into "off peak" electric and had an electric heating element installed with the furnace.

Going--"off peak"--the electric rates are way cheaper.

In fact, he said he was given a chart that showed it is cheaper to use the electric heat if fuel oil is above $1.70 a gallon . (It's over $4.00 per gallon now)

He stated it cost him $900 to add the el;ectric, but he said it nearly paid for itself the first year in his big house.

I would like it, but I have oil hot water heat.
I was told it won't adapt to a boiler system.

[MikeyToo]

Originally Posted by MsFreud

Color me ignorant, but being from the desert, I am unfamiliar with this.
We founda really pretty home in Larimore that we want to purchase. It is "Forced Air Oil Heat".
Called the local oil comanies- and figured with today's prices and the last residents consumption- will run $200 a month avg just for heat?! NOT including electric. The avg electric bill for that house is $112.
There is another house on the same street that has electric water heat, and it's avg bills are $135- which is heat and electric.

Is it possible to convert to electric heat? Seems to me that with prices the way they are it would be substantially cheaper. (There is no natural gas avail in Larimore) As it is already a forced air system, anyone have any idea of what kind of work/labor/money might be involved in that?

Thanks!

With the price of fuel oil skyrocketing, I definately would consider converting to a heat pump. If your looking at a forced air oil furnace, this can be done without a lot of difficulty. There are basically two types of heat pumps. One works with an outside air exchange and the other is called ground water or geothermal heat pump. Heat pumps kinda work like air conditioning in reverse. They can be used for cooling in the summer and heating in winter. The air exchange type works at maximum efficiency when the outside temperature is around 50 degrees F. The problem with the air exchange type is that as the outside temperature keeps dropping below 50, the efficiency drops. Eventually the unit has to generate heat electrically when the weather gets real cold, which it does in North Dakota. As for me, my choice would be the geothermal heat pump because it uses various systems of tubing that extract the heat from the ground (which hovers around 50 degrees) that is farily constant. The initial outlay will be more expensive, but as the prices for oil continue to rise, the payback will be sooner. There are open loop and closed loop systems. I would stick with the closed loop system as they are more simple. Also, with a geothermal heat pump, you would need a little space around your property to bury the tubing for a less costly installment. You could drill deep vertical holes to install the tubing, but that would be more expensive than just running coil loops at about 5-6 feet deep. The internet is loaded with lots of information on heat pumps, so if you were interested, I would do a little research on them to see if one might be right for you. Your only other option would be to put a heating coil directly into the plenum of your furnace. That may work if you can get a cheap electric rate. Where my wife and I will be moving(Lake Metigoshe), as soon as our house sells here in CA, we will be on total electric and the rates there are only about 2.5 cents per Kwh. I think they have gone up a little bit lately. The coal fired electric plants in ND, have produced some pretty good electric rates.

Good luck on you move!....

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by MikeyToo

Where my wife and I will be moving(Lake Metigoshe), as soon as our house sells here in CA, we will be on total electric and the rates there are only about 2.5 cents per Kwh. I think they have gone up a little bit lately. The coal fired electric plants in ND, have produced some pretty good electric rates.

Hi Mike

You have made a lot of great posts... I was wondering about the electric costs you mentioned...as we pay about 6.5 cents per Kwh with Xcel. I did see this article recently from the Bismarck Tribune about recent price rises from OtterTail Power company which I believe serves the area up there.

Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Otter Tail Power customers angry over sharply higher power bills


FYI we were up at Lake Metigoshe over the 4th (my first time there) visiting the state park there. We camped with relatives. Nice area and took a boat ride out for the fireworks. Lots of big homes on the lake now....not sure where some get the money. FYI There was a tornado on the northside of the Lake (Canadian side) a few days ago damaging a few docks and homes on the canadian side. Nothing of the american side I think.


Dan

[Sam_in_ND]

Originally Posted by marmac

MsFeud-----------I will speak of my Minnesota experience with heating oil------------I don't know how I will pay the bill this winter.

I think you better double check as I doubt you will be able to heat your home for only $200 per month with the cost of oil.

Here is a solution a neighbor of mine found-----------------he checked into "off peak" electric and had an electric heating element installed with the furnace.

Going--"off peak"--the electric rates are way cheaper.

In fact, he said he was given a chart that showed it is cheaper to use the electric heat if fuel oil is above $1.70 a gallon . (It's over $4.00 per gallon now)

He stated it cost him $900 to add the el;ectric, but he said it nearly paid for itself the first year in his big house.

I would like it, but I have oil hot water heat.
I was told it won't adapt to a boiler system.

Switch to an electric boiler. It saved me a lot.

[MikeyToo]

Originally Posted by DaninEGF

Hi Mike

You have made a lot of great posts... I was wondering about the electric costs you mentioned...as we pay about 6.5 cents per Kwh with Xcel. I did see this article recently from the Bismarck Tribune about recent price rises from OtterTail Power company which I believe serves the area up there.

Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Otter Tail Power customers angry over sharply higher power bills


FYI we were up at Lake Metigoshe over the 4th (my first time there) visiting the state park there. We camped with relatives. Nice area and took a boat ride out for the fireworks. Lots of big homes on the lake now....not sure where some get the money. FYI There was a tornado on the northside of the Lake (Canadian side) a few days ago damaging a few docks and homes on the canadian side. Nothing of the american side I think.


Dan

Thanks for the kind words Dan.....

Bottineau/Lake Metigoshe and surrounding area you would be on North Central Electric Coop. When we first bought our property, slightly over a year ago, their rates were 2.5 Cents Per-KWH if you had electric heat with a back-up system that wasn't total electric. Our back-up system is propane. All the rooms in our house have base-board heat as the primary heat source. Also, having the forced air furnace allows us to cool the house on those few hot summer days during the summer with the AC unit. If you don't have a back-up system, then your rate went up to 3.5 cents Per-KWH, which is still not a bad deal. About 1/3 of the cabins on the USA side of Lake Metigoshe are all season cabins/homes, so there is even activity at/on the lake during the winter months. Shhhhhh about the Tornadoes. I've told my wife that it would be a rarity to have a tornado where we will be living. She's lived in Shake/Bake California most of her life, but Tornados scare the heck out of her. Maybe someday will run into each other when we finally get moved.
Also, thanks for your input on weather in NoDak. It's been over 40 years since I've lived there, so am trying to psychologically adjust my thinking on the different weather. Here in CA we have two seasons. Brown and Green. As I'm sure your aware we are now in the brown season, the reason we have so many fires out here. Gets very very dry.

MikeyToo

[MikeyToo]

Originally Posted by marmac

MsFeud-----------I will speak of my Minnesota experience with heating oil------------I don't know how I will pay the bill this winter.

I think you better double check as I doubt you will be able to heat your home for only $200 per month with the cost of oil.

Here is a solution a neighbor of mine found-----------------he checked into "off peak" electric and had an electric heating element installed with the furnace.

Going--"off peak"--the electric rates are way cheaper.

In fact, he said he was given a chart that showed it is cheaper to use the electric heat if fuel oil is above $1.70 a gallon . (It's over $4.00 per gallon now)

He stated it cost him $900 to add the el;ectric, but he said it nearly paid for itself the first year in his big house.

I would like it, but I have oil hot water heat.
I was told it won't adapt to a boiler system.

I would be curious why they said you couldn't adapt to electric hot water heating? My brother in PA did the conversion some years ago. Also, recently on HGTV they showed how the process was done. Good Luck!!

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by MikeyToo

Thanks for the kind words Dan.....

Bottineau/Lake Metigoshe and surrounding area you would be on North Central Electric Coop. When we first bought our property, slightly over a year ago, their rates were 2.5 Cents Per-KWH if you had electric heat with a back-up system that wasn't total electric. Our back-up system is propane. All the rooms in our house have base-board heat as the primary heat source. Also, having the forced air furnace allows us to cool the house on those few hot summer days during the summer with the AC unit. If you don't have a back-up system, then your rate went up to 3.5 cents Per-KWH, which is still not a bad deal. About 1/3 of the cabins on the USA side of Lake Metigoshe are all season cabins/homes, so there is even activity at/on the lake during the winter months. Shhhhhh about the Tornadoes. I've told my wife that it would be a rarity to have a tornado where we will be living. She's lived in Shake/Bake California most of her life, but Tornados scare the heck out of her. Maybe someday will run into each other when we finally get moved.
Also, thanks for your input on weather in NoDak. It's been over 40 years since I've lived there, so am trying to psychologically adjust my thinking on the different weather. Here in CA we have two seasons. Brown and Green. As I'm sure your aware we are now in the brown season, the reason we have so many fires out here. Gets very very dry.

MikeyToo

Thanks Mike for the info....I thought it was Ottertail based on the news article but I was wrong. My wife's brother and family live on the westside of Bottineau and I am sure who they have. You know a whole lot more about heating/cooling systems than I do...so you should be fine shape. Yes there are year-round residences there... are you going to build there? I assumed from prev posts you have a lot. We took a boat from the state park boat dock then south under the bridge then the south end of the lake. There are lots of nice homes and very pretty area with lots of trees. They said water levels were down a bit this year has it has been dry (not drought-like). Enjoy! I know the folks in Bottineau were happy the Walmart came...just avoids a drive to Minot for some things.

yeah tornadoes of course are rare and the chances of one hitting right where you live are very very low so certainly wouldnt be concerned about it. You will have some adjustment to the winters...you were raised in the coldest part of the state though -- Rugby area. Best of luck again in the move and you will enjoy the green summers with all the water and the snowmobiling and skiiing in the winter.

Dan