I'm one of those electric heat guys. Today the latest bill came in the mail. It was the lowest bill we've ever received in almost 20 years of living in this house, a few pennies over $150. Usually the December bill is $500-600, heading towards $$700-900 for the next three months. Burned less than a ton since October 1.
All you folks with oil heat, I know you're disappointed that you're not saving money by burning pellets this year. But I'm saving $$$ hand over fist, and The house is 75 deg instead of 65-66 deg.
Thank you,hearth.com for all the guidance and techy know-how. What a great resource. You've saved me so many dollars, and we're so much warmer.
Agreed on all points! I'm in a very similar situation. First year in an early 80s, 1500 sq ft house, with electric baseboards. Our first January resulted in an $380 electric bill! Much lower than yours but still shocking to me! That was no heat in two out of three bedrooms, the house at 48 when no one was home, kitchen and living room at 64 when we were home, and bedroom at 67 at night. After further reductions we got it to about $280 for Feb and March. Oh, and about $100/mo in kerosene ($4.89/gal at a local station) for our 23k BTU heater that got the living room and bedroom to a comfortable temp in the evenings and on the weekends. AND, we burned, I'd estimate a half cord of old, wet wood, plus some store-bought wood and some biobricks in an old VC Vigilant (which got replaced with the pellet stove). That probably amounted to probably another $200. So all that money just to be uncomfortable for three months, and having my wife complaining nearly constantly about being cold. Being warm... yeah, that wasn't in our budget!
Now the pellet stove burns 24/7 even when it's in the 50s outside. House is actually comfortable. Still use the kerosene heater to bump up the 2nd level living room and 3rd level bedroom a bit (pellet stove is on the bottom level of a three level split-level) when my wife gets cold but it's only needed really for 30 minutes at the most. We also run a small oil-filled electric space heater in the bedroom to keep it at 70 at night (the base board is at the head of our bed... potentially unsafe and definitely uncomfortable to use). Last month's electric bill was $133, we burned just about $100 in pellets and about $10 in K1, but we were comfortable! The house stays between 68 and 70 (stove room is about 6 degrees warmer). As the temps fall in the next few months, the pellet use will go up certainly, but it will not be nearly as much as we'd be spending on electricity.
My next investment will be one of those heat pump electric hot water heaters. Take advantage of the pellet heat in the winter and cool/dry the lowest level in the summer. I'll let the technology improve a bit before I buy. My current unit is only 3 years old, bought by the previous owner.
Bags, that's an interesting bit about geothermal. I've got a good friend with a neighbor that installed geothermal in their newly built home. Worked great in the summer to cool, and also worked well in the shoulder season for heat, but they ended up with a $500+ electric or propane bill (can't remember which) during January-March last year. Of course, last winter was absolutely brutal, but still... I would have expected better.
Such a great resource here. Thanks to the reading I've done here over the years, I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I finally bought a house: wood or pellet heat depending on the house. This lead me to finding a good deal on a place with electric heat which would have probably scared a lot of people away.
