Heating costs, options (Woodland Park: houses, water heater, buy)

[backpacker71]

As I currently live in Los Angeles I don't know what cold is. I am in the early planning stages of a relocation To Woodland Park. I see a lot of stoves in some of the homes that appear to burn wood or pellets? How are most homes heated there? Is one method better than another? What are average heating costs for say a 1300 sq foot home reasonably insulated? Does a fireplace help with heating?
Thanks for any info.

[Mike from back east]

I live in COLO SPGS, where most heating is by natural gas, and can't really speak to how most homes in WP are heated. All that being said, our house has two gas fireplaces, which came in handy during a furnace malfunction in the Dec 2006 blizzard.

I'd hazard a guess that wood / pellet stoves are good choices for homes up in the higher elevations, especially as backup heat to central systems, and in some cases as the main system. My sis back in MD heats her home with a wood stove; they had a sheet metal guy build ductwork around the stove as part of the central forced hot air system. Looks odd, but works fine.

[Carrera32]

We used to have both wood stoves and a pellet stove in one of my homes in the East. The pellet stove, in particular, was great (for some reason the wood stove inserts to my fireplace just wouldn't draw properly). The only problem with a pellet stove is that you have to have to have a dry space to store the bags of pellets. Once they get wet, they're worthless. We used the pellet stove to heat a large 600+ sq ft space over our garage that also had a cathedral ceiling and lots of windows. It was used as my wife's home office and she never complained about being cold (a first!).

[PokerMunkee]

We have an old 30 year old gas furnance in our 2,400 sq ft house (built 1985). I have two fireplaces and a water heater that use gas. My bill in the summer months (May-September) is under $30. In the colder months, it can get over $200.

Electricity is pretty cheap. I'm always under $45/month. Water/Sewer bill is around $40. Property taxes are cheap, I pay about $1,600/year.

A lot of older houses in Teller county have pellet/wood burning fireplaces. I suppose it's cheaper but it's a PITA, IMO.

[Matt314159]

We use a gas furnace at nights and to take the chill off in the morning. During the day, the house is heated by a thermostat-controlled pellet stove. I grew up with a wood stove, and while nothing beats that for ambiance, I love the convenience of just dumping a bag of pellets in instead of bringing in wood every day. The one advantage of a wood stove is that it's the one heat source that'll work in a power outage, though here in town we don't experience that much, and when the power does go out, it's never for very long. Both wood and pellet stoves will heat a house unevenly though - some rooms and areas of the house will be colder than others.

One big thing that'll help with heating is the house and lot design. The difference in our pellet usage on a sunny versus cloudy day is huge, the sun does a lot to keep our house warm (and it's usually sunny up here, so this is a big factor). If we had a heavily treed lot like many here, our heating costs would be much higher. On a cloudy, single digit day, we can go through around one bag of pellets (at ~$4 per) in one 24 hour period. If it's sunny with similar temperatures, that same bag will last two or three days. We buy the pellets a pallet (50 bags) at a time; there's a company in town that'll deliver for free.

[backpacker71]

Great replies guys. Thank you

[Carrera32]

If you get a pellet stove, you can also get a backup power source (car battery, I believe) that can be hooked up to provide backup emergency power to run the pellet stove's auger in case the electricity goes out.

[Matt314159]

Originally Posted by Carrera32

If you get a pellet stove, you can also get a backup power source (car battery, I believe) that can be hooked up to provide backup emergency power to run the pellet stove's auger in case the electricity goes out.

This is true, but you'd need a large backup battery for any real usage. I have a 1500VA UPS connected to my pellet stove, and it provides around 15-20 minutes of run time. This is plenty to get the stove cooled down and shut down gracefully to prevent smoke from pouring into the house, but isn't enough to use it to actually heat the house.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I live in COLO SPGS, where most heating is by natural gas, and can't really speak to how most homes in WP are heated. All that being said, our house has two gas fireplaces, which came in handy during a furnace malfunction in the Dec 2006 blizzard.

I'd hazard a guess that wood / pellet stoves are good choices for homes up in the higher elevations, especially as backup heat to central systems, and in some cases as the main system. My sis back in MD heats her home with a wood stove; they had a sheet metal guy build ductwork around the stove as part of the central forced hot air system. Looks odd, but works fine.

I found my pix of my sister's wood stove. Note how the sheet metal box encloses the sides, top and back of the stove. A bit gangly looking, but it heats the house nicely because it's cut into the main heating ductwork.

[hollyt00]

Definetely check on that insulation! We have an older house (19teens) and there's no insulation. Our heating bill has approached $400 in the winter.