Average Heating Bills? (loft, vacation home, buying)

[PoohBrown]

I keep hearing/reading about the high heating costs for Pocono homes in the winter....how high are they?
What's an average heating bill for a 2500 sq. ft. house during the winter?
Is electric, gas, or oil the better way to go if you were building a new home?

[Summering]

Many homes are done with electric heat. This is because most of the homes were vacation homes. Both of my Pocono homes were electric ....one being ceramic heating, electric radiant. The other electric baseboard.
I had a three level home of 2100 approx. sq feet and that cost me about 300 to 350 in the winter. We put in a pellet stove. Which we loved.....but, you must read carefully the cleaning instructions as every so often it must be taken apart in areas and throughly cleaned. So it cost me 100 or more in pellets for a month, and saved me 100 in the cost of electric........LOL!
At least I got to see a pretty flame, and the heat was toasty warm.
I like electric only because when we go away for months at a time, I have no worry that the oil furnace will freeze up at a line or have a nozzle stop working on the oil furnace. Both are two common things.....both have happened previously to our daughters home ,and our home in NJ.......also, my Moms oil furnace. One thing with electric is........no clogs and no freeze ups.
Also, when we go away........we can leave on only the rooms with water ...the baths, and kitchen. The rest can be turned off to 55........
In the summer the AC will cost you only about 130 or so most likely depending on the floors you are using it on, whether you have loft ceilings etc. I did have loft ceilings but used it mainly for one floor.....
Heating is not cheap...........a neighbor changed from electric to oil just before oil prices rose up. Then.........I don't think there was much of a savings at all.......Oil is high now. Alas, I think the utility costs will have to be always figured in ......just can't hide from it at all. They are high

[greentown]

I don't think heating costs are high only in the Pocono's, it's everywhere. We have a four bedroom home (three floors) and use oil baseboard hot water. For 2006, the total cost was $2,191. The total for 2005 was $3,050. (We are not on any type of pre-pay plan). Our original heating when we built our house in 1986 was a wood-burning stove with electric baseboard backup. It was very cheap while we had free firewood, but it is extremely time consuming and once you have to start buying firewood, it isn't worth it. We installed the oil heat about ten years ago and are very happy with it. NOTE: It is VERY important to have your furnace cleaned and maintained regularly, because it will clog on the coldest night in January when you are home alone with four kids!!

I believe most of the builders around this area recommend oil heat. We had looked into propane, but that is even more expensive than oil.

[I LOVE PA!]

My home is 1600 sq feet. It is all electric, I run 4 air conditioners in the summer and heat with electric all winter, my budget is $206. a month, totalling $2,472.00 for heat, air and electric for a yr. I don't think that is bad at all.

[Summering]

Yes, no matter what.........the cost of heat has to be added to your monthly expenses. Just can't live without it.
I had oil for 22 years. Sometimes it worked ok, and sometimes not. We did get maintenance always. One Christmas morning on the coldest below zero day, it did not work. Many times over the years at 2AM on a cold windy night the line would have to be unfroze.......( later on we learned to block the outdoor tank with some fencing) Electric tape never worked all that well, and once made the covering black and charred. Daughters tank had all the same issues, with the same things happening. Plus, not good if an oil company doesn't have the winter grade. She changed to a new company and never had the freezing issues anymore.......they told her they use a special grade.
So be it as it may......my electric.......for whatever it costs.....doen't give me anything to worry about. Plus, it is very clean..........oil did some damage over the years with soot and other issues.
I think the builders probably promote oil now..........but..........
for cleanliness, and less worry I'd just stick with this electric.

[I LOVE PA!]

This is my second home here in the Pocono's with electric heat. After purchasing the first, people said I was crazy, that I should put propane in and not use the electric. Well, I was happy with it and wanted it for my next home. I also like that you can go on a budget with the electric company and don't ever have to dish out $600 or so dollars to fill the oil tank.

[MermanMike]

Ground-to-air geothermal heat is by far the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to go for heating your home in a cold climate. The initial expense of installing it is considerably higher than the other systems mentioned above, but it will eventually pay for itself. The thing is that you need to drill additional wells on your property, probably about 3 depending on the size of the system. That is expensive. But, say your heating bill for the winter was $3,000 with electric heat, it might be smething like $500 with geothermal. And, no toxic emissions, etc.
Google it. Ask your contractors.

[nocturnal rooster]

rediculous. I go broke paying for heat so i freeze.

[bldginpa]

We had our options regarding the heating system in our new home (now being built). We could have had anything we wanted...oil, propane, hybrid propane/electic, electric. After doing the research, we selected electric. Oil isn't cheap any more, nor is propane. We are putting our $ into better insulation and a hi-efficiency system.