Thread: How are you heating this winter

Heat Pump, other Electric

I have a fireplace as well and will use it on occasion.

I have the heat set at about 68 and I generally turn on the fireplace for an hour or two in the evening. The fireplace heats it up nice and quick. Other than that, I walk around in sweatshirts because I can't afford the heat.

-Jeff-

Natural gas.

We have a gas fireplace as well, but even with the blower, the thing sucks. We made the mistake of using it a few hours the first winter we were here and it practically doubled our gas bill; the thing is like a frickin' afterburner. I might as well burn money, it would give us more heat and probably be cheaper. We haven't used it for almost three years now.

I don't remember running the furnace at all last winter. Keep house at 65deg. Wear sweats during the day and hug my wife all night. Keep plenty warm.

I am not using heat right now. Not until it gets cold. Still in the low 50's. I'll wait until the teens or sub-zero hit then turn on the gas, not. I hunted on a rancher's place this year who waited until it was 6 degrees in his house and -23 outside last winter before he started using wood. He told me he was not going to wait that long this year. Took him nearly two weeks to thaw his cabin out.

I voted other for a woodstove.

We burn wood almost exclusively, with the thermostat set on 55 so the pipes don't freeze if we're not home. The fuel oil in my tank is over 2 years old and there's half a tank left!

I use gas logs to heat my house... Propane.

My home was built in 1924. I've done major updates, but it's still hard to heat. I've insulated the attic and the crawlspace... but there's nothing in the walls. I've got a central heat/air conditioner, located outside... but the it's really expensive to run in the winter.

Natural Gass... my wife feeds me beans all winter. hehe

I really need to some insulating, but we have vaulted ceilings, great idea out here in winter wonderland! Duhhh. One month last year, my gas bill was $300!!!

Zhur

Propane running a boiler and one gas fireplace. We have had nights and mornings under 10 degrees already so we have been running the fireplace in the evenings.

Propane here. I usually have it off in the day. Just me here and unless the back is acting up cold don't bother me that much. It's not been all that cold here though.

Natural Gas Furnace. But we have an 80's contemporary style house with lots of angles and vaulted ceilings and little in the way of insulation. So we mostly heat the rooms we use with electric space heaters.

I have 2 fireplaces which we rarely use and then only for atmosphere, as the are counter pruductive in a drafty house...all the warm air gets sucked up the chimney.

The house I am currently renting has a Natural Gas furnace. Though I have it set to 60 to keep expenses down. I just wear more clothes when I get cold.

Here on our little island, the electricity occasionally gives up the ghost, usually in the middle of a cold snap or a snowstorm. When that happens, none of the usual home-heating mechanisms work, including pellet stoves, because they all rely on electricity for regulation.
Up here, everybody's basic heat source is electricity, but, as one could infer from the previous paragraph, also everybody has at least one wood stove. We have two, and wood is our primary heat. We don't use our electric baseboard units at all.
Our library stove is small, and handles things from 60 degrees (outside) down to about 40. It takes about four hours from no fire at all to getting even the back bedroom up to 70 degrees (inside).
At 40 outside degrees, we switch to the big living room stove. That takes us down to about 35 (outside) and 70 (inside).
Below 35, we use both stoves at once, and that handles things down to the 20s (which is as cold as it ever gets here, and not for long at that).
We have 3/4 of an acre of wooded land, and we lose the occasional tree. That gives us at least a cord of wood, and sometimes as much as two. The rest we buy, delivered and stacked in our shed, at $115.00 per cord. We use between five and seven cords of wood a year.
It sounds expensive, but it's about 2/3 the cost of electric heat, and it's a useful amount less than either oil or propane too.
And wood heat is dry and toasty, up here in this wet climate. Much nicer than any other kind, we think.

delivered and stacked in our shed, at $115.00 per cord

I wish it was that cheap around here. Closer to $200 if I were to have it delivered and stacked.

I'd love to rip out the useless fireplace we have an replace it with a useful wood stove. I just have no clue how we'd keep the kids away from it though.

Originally Posted by Todd

I'd love to rip out the useless fireplace we have an replace it with a useful wood stove. I just have no clue how we'd keep the kids away from it though.

I put one of these gates up about 2 weeks ago and so far it has kept our very active 2 year old away from the stove.

HearthGate

Here in Orlando, when it gets down to 45-50, like last night for instance: I prefer a cute blonde, and an extra blanket... Gets down to 63 or 64 in the house... brrrr...

During the day? Pushing 80 today. Open the windows and turn on the ceiling fans!!! NICE.....

I voted "It gets cold in winter???"

JeffWard

We use Propane. I built our home so it is well insulated. I am hoping Propane will follow the drop in Oil prices as it was getting pretty tough to pay for last year.

I considered a wood burner when building but as this is my retirement home and ability to collect, split and carry wood diminishes with age we elected not to install one. I am pleased with that decision because I no longer have the stamina to handle wood.

Our lows right now are in the 20's but we will get between -16 and -20 later in the winter.

We also lose electrical power on occasion so have an efficient Gas Fireplace for atmosphere and night time plus generator to power the central system for daytime use.

We had a 5 day power outage a few years back and the Fireplace kept us above 60 degrees during -10 degree nights.

I had been heating the garage during winter but have decided to drain the water and leave heat off this year. I installed a standard home heating system in it so can heat it up in about 20 minutes when indulging in reloading or other super important tasks.

I live in a motorhome with a poodle named "Charley". There are two roof-mounted A/C-Heat Pumps and two Propane furnaces. No cute blond for me so I use the furnaces at night. Runs about $50 a Winter month here in the Tampa Bay area.

I live in a condo. The units to the east and west block the wind and the garage is on the the north. The southern exposure has a big window. The gas furnace hardly ever runs as the heat bleeds in from the adjoining units and the sun keeps the living room toasty. Right now, the furnace is set at 68 and the temp is reading 72. High 20's outside.

Originally Posted by JeffWard

...I prefer a cute blonde, and an extra blanket...

Jean's a slim brunette, but otherwise I agree completely, and even with toasty-warm me next to her she needs the extra blanket.

Originally Posted by dourdave

I live in a motorhome with a poodle named "Charley". There are two roof-mounted A/C-Heat Pumps and two Propane furnaces. No cute blond for me so I use the furnaces at night. Runs about $50 a Winter month here in the Tampa Bay area.

I expect your propane furnaces cost a bunch less than Jeff's blond.

The wife and I were fine with cuddling and blankets for the last few years. But now with the new baby, we need to keep her room warm along with all the rooms where she will be crawling. That damn gas furnace will be earning its due this winter.

Originally Posted by TOF

We use Propane. I built our home so it is well insulated. I am hoping Propane will follow the drop in Oil prices as it was getting pretty tough to pay for last year.

I just paid 2.79 a gallon to fill my 100 gallon propane tank...