How are you going to deal with the doubled cost of heating this winter? (live, costs)

[rotorhead]

Down here in SE Alaska there is no natural gas, it's either heating oil, propane, or electric unless you're heating with wood. We heat primarily with an oil-fired monitor. Last winter we filled up at $3.13/gallon, but this year we're ordering early at $4.56. Fortunately, one tank (about 300 gallons) gets us through pretty much the whole winter.

We have a woodstove, but the house is so tight it has problems with backdrafting. Seems kinda silly to have to open a window so we can fire up the stove.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by jinj

A lot of the Alaska oil is exported OUT of the US, there isn't a shortage, and this doesn't affect these prices.

Not true. Of the oil Alaska produces 0.5% is sold to Siberia, 1% is sold to South Korea, 1.5% is sold to Taiwan, 2% stays in Alaska, and 95% is sold to the lower-48.

[SuValley]

Our primary heating is diesel....even with a 5 Star Energy rated house, you can burn a lot of diesel with the (poorly designed!!) system we have now. We are in the midst of hooking up to NG and are putting in a wood stove as well. I cannot go another winter with heating bills pushing $600 a month.........

[akck]

Originally Posted by Sakari22

oh, ok.....when your winters only get down to about 50* at the coldest, then you really don't have a need to know about all those different heating methods
so do most of ya'll have wood stoves AND pellet stove??

I'm guessing most people have only one or the other. Our house came with a wood stove when we bought it on the main floor, but an oil furnance is the main heating source. We decided to add a pellet stove this year to heat the basement where the family room is located.

I'd guess that most homes have an oil/gas furnance or electricity as the main source of heat. Those with furnances likely have a wood stove or fireplace as a supplemental heating source. Those heating with electricity likely have a monitor oil stove or wood stove for their supplemental source. What's happening now is that the supplemental heating source is being used as a primary source because of the cost.

I think this next winter you'll hear about more people wearing sweaters and coats in their houses. Where's global warming when we need it?

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by akck

Where's global warming when we need it?

Down here in the lower 48.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

Down here in SE Alaska there is no natural gas, it's either heating oil, propane, or electric unless you're heating with wood. We heat primarily with an oil-fired monitor. Last winter we filled up at $3.13/gallon, but this year we're ordering early at $4.56. Fortunately, one tank (about 300 gallons) gets us through pretty much the whole winter.

We have a woodstove, but the house is so tight it has problems with backdrafting. Seems kinda silly to have to open a window so we can fire up the stove.

Just bring outside air to the stove through a 4" metallic clothes dryer pipe. Have a manually controlled damper on the pipe, next to the stove. The stove I am having installed has an optional outside air adapter that attaches to the stove, the stove's air damper by the ash door controls the air coming from outside and into the stove. The pipe coming into the house from outside is connected to that area of the stove. This stove won't use air from inside the house when rigged as noted.

[Bruce 01]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

Just bring outside air to the stove through a 4" metallic clothes dryer pipe. Have a manually controlled damper on the pipe, next to the stove. The stove I am having installed has an optional outside air adapter that attaches to the stove, the stove's air damper by the ash door controls the air coming from outside and into the stove. The pipe coming into the house from outside is connected to that area of the stove. This stove won't use air from inside the house when rigged as noted.

When my house was still a one room, 20 x 24 cabin, I had to do something similar because the space was so small the stove wouldn't draft properly.

I cut a hole in the floor right underneath the stove. There is no cellar so it went directly into the unheated, ventilated crawlspace. I made the hole rectangular and put a standard floor register over it to keep the little critters out.

[Rance]

OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel.

OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.

Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.

Can't buy it? Tough! Eat your oil!

Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled filet of camel rump!!

[Bruce 01]

Originally Posted by Rance

OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel.

OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.

Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.

Can't buy it? Tough! Eat your oil!

Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled filet of camel rump!!

. .

[SuValley]

I read somewhere that a Saudi prince was quoted as saying "I fly jets, my sons will ride camels"

I was just adding up the energy costs as they would stand if it were cold, and it scares me silly. Wood stove gets installed next Tuesday, NG is hooked up and we are about to go rounds with the heating contractor over the conversion. I make deliveries to many places in the area due to my work, and can tell you that there are people out there looking at 2K a month in heating bills. Yikes! That $1200 is going to be a drop in the bucket, if it ever materializes!