Yikes: $2.85 a gallon (Scranton, Penn: fit in, sale, houses)

[I LOVE PA!]

Originally Posted by TheHighHat

I Love Pa,

We are thinking of changing to electric heat with some kind of back up whenever we move. What do you think?

the hat

The Hat...this is my second home in NEPA with electric heat. When I purchased my first home 14 years ago, propane and oil were much cheaper and everyone thought I out of my mid for purchasing a home with electric heat. Most of the pocono summer homes were only equiped with electric heat, the cheapest to install. Then the craze hit to switch to propane - not only the propane insert for the fireplace, but many people installed the propane heaters that installed on the wall. (Someone I know had their dogs tail catch fire but I digress!) Anyway...we were happy with just electric. Propane in many houses caused the paint to yellow, almost like a smoker lived there. I didn't like that and the electric was affordable for us as our home had high ceilings with a loft and 2 bedrooms upstairs. It was easy to heat because all the heat rose, keeping the bedrooms comfortable without turning on the heat and downstairs comfortable too. The thing I love about electric heat is that EVERY room has its own thermostat. That is great for the bedrooms. We got quite used to this, and wanted it for our second home. I have no regrets. I still don't have a propane insert, when I do have a fire, we use wood and it is only for the beauty and atmosphere. It is a small fireplace and doesn't give enough heat to use it for heating purposes. We keep the bathrooms toasty with the doors shut, the bedrooms at 50 with the door shut. We like to sleep in a cool room, easily changeable if it is too cold. Our home is for sale and we will get electric heat again if we build, and the way it is looking now...I might have to avoid homes for sale that have oil or propane heat.

[I LOVE PA!]

Well...that said...I just read on WNEP, Cannel 16 web-site that electric rates are supposed to go up 34% by 2010. Don't know if that correct as it was on Talkback 16. Not the smartest bunch of posters there....
Then we'll all be in the same boat.
My brother just installed a pellet stove that burns corn...it is supposed to be maintenance free, but he says he spends a couple of hours a month cleaning it out. I could live with that.

[mathjak107]

electricity is already up 20% as of last year. here in tafton we went from .08kwh to .10 per kwr. without taxes

[MermanMike]

HVAC is my family's business, although I am not much involved with it...my Dad says that electric will definitely continue to be the cheapest option...especially considering how cheap it is to install it. If you are building new construction on a site that you need to dig a well, then try to bargain with the well driller to dig you an extra well or two to use with geothermal heat. That would be by far your cheapest option, and relatively eco friendly to boot. More expensive on the install, but you'd make it back.

The corn is a neat idea...I'll be interested to hear how he likes it after spending some time with it...I have heard the main drawback is that needing to store large amounts of corn attracts lots of rodents. Do you know how he is storing it? The stoves are supposed to be a lot cleaner than a wood stove, if you're used to cleaning one of those out.

[ff18wife]

Just ordered oil for Friday delivery...up to $3.159/gal. Paid $2.999 on 11/29. Same company. This is crazy.

Although I have to say I think I spent more on propane last year in our old house which was 1/3 the size this is. It has 3 100 gal tanks. I had to fill them at least every 4-6 weeks.

[I LOVE PA!]

MermanMike...that's interesting about the rodents...YIKES! My brothers stove is in the basement, which is really the first floor level of the home as Hideout homes tend to have their basements almost totally out of the ground. He has plenty of space for storage as the basement is over 2,200 sq feet. As for the rodents....I wouldn't doubt that would be a problem, I'll mention it to him.
Geothermal heat...now that is interesting. It's amazing that there is that much heat down there, especially when well water is ice cold!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by I LOVE PA!

Well...that said...I just read on WNEP, Cannel 16 web-site that electric rates are supposed to go up 34% by 2010. Don't know if that correct as it was on Talkback 16. Not the smartest bunch of posters there....

HEY, HEY, HEY! Just who are you implying is "not the smartest bunch?"
I enjoy posting on there daily just to irk people who get headaches trying to read my rants. LOL!

[I LOVE PA!]

Originally Posted by SWB

HEY, HEY, HEY! Just who are you implying is "not the smartest bunch?"
I enjoy posting on there daily just to irk people who get headaches trying to read my rants. LOL!

I lurk there too Paul!
I'm just so surprised you can tolerate the slaughter of the English language on Talkback 16. Honestly, you have to admit; 8 out of 10 comments on Talkback are left by people who appear to have 3 brain cells and used up 2 on their last post. No puncuation, no capitilization.... I always have to defend the truck drivers when they start picking on them though! Hubbie is a truck driver. And a good, tax-paying one at that!
WNEP also has quite a few typos in their articles. Very surprising for reporters.

[newjerseybt]

I just read in the Wayne Independent that some pre-paid oil customers got burned.

The suppliers went bankrupt and a bunch of people lost their oil and their money. Here Ye!, here Ye! ..Here comes the judge! Here comes the judge! ...for you 60s fans.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by I LOVE PA!

I lurk there too Paul!
I'm just so surprised you can tolerate the slaughter of the English language on Talkback 16. Honestly, you have to admit; 8 out of 10 comments on Talkback are left by people who appear to have 3 brain cells and used up 2 on their last post. No puncuation, no capitilization.... I always have to defend the truck drivers when they start picking on them though! Hubbie is a truck driver. And a good, tax-paying one at that!
WNEP also has quite a few typos in their articles. Very surprising for reporters.

I actually don't judge people based upon their grammar, punctuation, etc. If I did I'd probably have no friends, heyna? I just have a hard time understanding why folks in NEPA who post on Talkback 16 Online attack me when I try to defend minorities (I won't tell you my alias on there, but any idiot could figure out who I am). For example a lot of people who are posting about the recent shooting spree in Williamsport are making it out to be a "black" issue, and I take offense to that as someone who has African-American friends who are morally-upstanding people. That's like trying to say that AIDS is a "gay" issue, even though there are probably more heterosexuals infected with the virus globally than homosexuals or bisexuals. I started a thread on there several months ago praising Lewisburg for holding some sort of anti-hate rally to promote gay tolerance, as well as praising WNEP for airing the story, and I was slammed into oblivion by folks who thought I was condascending for implying that I wasn't respecting their "Christian" rights to hate people. (Even though MY Christian denomination preaches NOT to hate people).

If nothing else posting regularly on Talkback 16 Online makes me appreciate the mental prowess that God has blessed me with in life. If that message board is an accurate cross-section of NEPA's mentality, then Lord help us!