Home heating

[reader]

What do you heat with, and how much does your monthly heating bill run?

 

[elrohwen]

We have a 1400sqft townhouse heated with gas forced air. We usually pay about $90 a month in the dead of winter - rarely more. We keep the heat at 65 degrees, which is a very cold 65 degrees (MIL keeps her heat at the same temp, but I'm far colder in our house than in hers, so somehow 65 degrees isn't the same everywhere).

That price also includes gas to heat hot water and run the stove - even in the warmer months we typically spend $30 a month, so heating alone is only $60 a month I guess.

 

[reader]

Ok, I have a 1220 sq ft house, with gas forced air and gas hot water, but my heating bill has been well over $200 the past winter. I am not home most of the day, I wonder how much my ex cranked it? Or, do I have a problem somewhere?

 

[swimmer]

It is going to depend on your insulation, the outside temp, and the age/efficiency of your furnace. Any one of those factors can make a huge difference. Our 900sq foot apt with new gas furnace costs about $20 a month in summer, so just warming water and $120 a month in winter when we are well below freezing for entire months. My old place was less efficient all around and could cost upwards of $600 a month to heat with the same square footage and we never got it warmer than 50. Then again my parents live in a temperate area so spend less than $100 a month to heat a 2,500 sq foot home that is barely insulated with a new gas furnace. So you need to think about how drafty or insulated your place is, when was the last time the furnace was checked/cleaned professionally (that costs us $75 a year and money well spent) and how often do you flush/prime the pipes to keep it at the right water levels. But a key factor here is how cold it is outside, darn those people from Florida with their low heat bills! Re your question on the pilot. Call the gas company!

 

[TooPatient]

Natural gas -- forced air in 1700 sq ft house

Last winter probably cost $100 to heat during the cold months (2-3 months tops). Summer we really don't have to run the heat at all (airconditioning sometimes, mostly just open windows -- 3-4 months) but probably $10 or less when we need it. Spring/fall falls somewhere in between so right around $60 or so.


What REALLY dropped our bill was replacing the old garden window in the kitchen (aluminum frame, single pane, visible gaps in the sides) with a nice new fiberglass (filled with insullation) framed double-pane window. (our total gas/electric bill dropped from $250/month+ to about $180/month.

We also found that house had almost no insullation anywhere. A few rolls of insullation ($40 each) did the entire roof area of the house and that helped too. Really cut down on cold breezes and reduced the bill even more.

 

[MustangGal]

I have a 1500sqft house with gas forced air heating. It's also our water heater, in summer the bill is about $20, and winter it gets up to $65, so I'd say around $45 a month to heat. We keep it at 68 when we're home, 65 during the day. But, I do live in a desert, where the outside temps are never below freezing, and we have double pane windows.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Ok, I have a 1220 sq ft house, with gas forced air and gas hot water, but my heating bill has been well over $200 the past winter. I am not home most of the day, I wonder how much my ex cranked it? Or, do I have a problem somewhere?

How old is your home? What kind of windows do you have? Do you have window coverings/drapes/blinds on all the windows?

We've moved A LOT and I can say our rates varied upon all those.

 

[elrohwen]

We have a 1400sqft townhouse heated with gas forced air. We usually pay about $90 a month in the dead of winter - rarely more. We keep the heat at 65 degrees, which is a very cold 65 degrees (MIL keeps her heat at the same temp, but I'm far colder in our house than in hers, so somehow 65 degrees isn't the same everywhere).

That price also includes gas to heat hot water and run the stove - even in the warmer months we typically spend $30 a month, so heating alone is only $60 a month I guess.

I should have added that we live in Connecticut. In the coldest part of winter the high temps are around 20-30 degrees and maybe 10 at night. Our townhouse is an end unit, so we do get some heating from the unit next door (our garage stays 70 degrees year round, for example - warmer than our living room at times!) which helps.

 

[Loves Vintage]

I think we pay $400, maybe more, for oil, which fuels our boiler for radiator heat in CT winters. Maybe we should look into some window replacements. We generally keep the heat at low 60s during the day, maybe 65-68 (rarely on the 6, and I am ALWAYS cold. Oh, and DH has thermostat programmed to go down at night too.

 

[rhbgirl24]

2024 sq townhome. Forced air gas heat. We are running about $120 for all gas use. Hot water, gas stove, and heat.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Our home is a SFH, 3,100 square feet and uses oil heat (baseboard heating).

We haven't lived in our current home through a winter, but before we bought it I did call the oil company to see how many times the tank is filled in a year. Last year they refilled it 5 times. So 6 times per year x 275 gallon tank x $2.60 per gallon divided by 12 months comes out ~ $300 per month, year round. Obviously we'll be paying more in the winter.

We do have a wood-burning stove in he living room which I've started using (and love). Also, we've closed off over 1K SF (3 bedrooms and 1 bath) that we won't be using regularly until we have kids.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Our home is a SFH, 3,100 square feet and uses oil heat (baseboard heating).

We haven't lived in our current home through a winter, but before we bought it I did call the oil company to see how many times the tank is filled in a year. Last year they refilled it 5 times. So 6 times per year x 275 gallon tank x $2.60 per gallon divided by 12 months comes out ~ $300 per month, year round. Obviously we'll be paying more in the winter.

We do have a wood-burning stove in he living room which I've started using (and love). Also, we've closed off over 1K SF (3 bedrooms and 1 bath) that we won't be using regularly until we have kids.

NEL - Are you able to shut the radiators off in the rooms that you have closed off? For some reason, we were not able to, so DH put insullation right up against the radiators to "trick" them into thinking the room is too warm (I think) so the radiators do not actually run in those rooms. I can ask him more about this if you'd like. I guess they must make radiators that can be turned off in each room? Or maybe you have multiple zones, so it's easy to section off those rooms?

 

[soocool]

SE PA, 3000 sq ft home that is all electric (no natural gas in the area). At night we keep the house at 62 degrees and during the day 71 degrees. We have a heat pump with oil back up (we use oil only if the outdoor temps are below 20 degrees) forced air and an entire house humidifier which keeps the house warmer at a lower temps. We heat our water with oil and purchase about 500 gallons a year - this is much much cheaper than an electric water heater.

Since we have a heat pump our electric rates are reduced in the fall/winter/spring months. The highest winter bill is about $150.00 - that includes heat pump, stove, lights, well, septic, sump pump, refrigerator, freezer. Our highest summer bill was $250 this year where we had mostly 90+ degree days. Normally electric bill is less than $100/month. Total electric for a year is around $1300.00. Our electric bills are half of what our neighbors pay and they have straight oil and electric water heaters.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Our home is a SFH, 3,100 square feet and uses oil heat (baseboard heating).

We haven't lived in our current home through a winter, but before we bought it I did call the oil company to see how many times the tank is filled in a year. Last year they refilled it 5 times. So 6 times per year x 275 gallon tank x $2.60 per gallon divided by 12 months comes out ~ $300 per month, year round. Obviously we'll be paying more in the winter.

We do have a wood-burning stove in he living room which I've started using (and love). Also, we've closed off over 1K SF (3 bedrooms and 1 bath) that we won't be using regularly until we have kids.

NEL - Are you able to shut the radiators off in the rooms that you have closed off? For some reason, we were not able to, so DH put insullation right up against the radiators to "trick" them into thinking the room is too warm (I think) so the radiators do not actually run in those rooms. I can ask him more about this if you want. Or maybe you have multiple zones, so it's easy to section off those rooms?

Our house has 3 heating zones and we're lucky that one of the zones is for the exact rooms we don't need. Now that we're actually in the house, I'm seeing a lot of opportunities to make it more efficient (including adding some insulation and upgrading the windows).