Holy crap! Found my father's oil records from the late 70's!

[EatenByLimestone]

This is for a house just under 1000 sq ft...

winter of 77-78 - 1228.8 gallons
78-79 - 1188.3 gal
79-80 - 926.7 gal.

80-81 he went to coal.

2 years ago I think the oil company said he burnt around 700 gallons. Last year I inherited the house, did some insulation work, and burned just over 400 gallons. This year will have finished insulation, replaced the remaining original windows, the wood has been drying for 2 years and will be freed of it's btus. We'll see

Matt

 

[burntime]

Yep, I insulated the attic and replaced all the windows in my house. Insulated the sill plates too. I actually had someone a few years back from the gas company "checking" my meter. Guy said they send them out when consumption does not seem right. He saw something like 6 cords in the front yard and milked the clock for another hour telling me gas theft stories...

 

[midwestcoast]

At least some of those were mighty cold winters as well. I'm a little young to remember, but I've heard stories of a -30°C Christmas in '77 in Southern Ontario.
Anyone know what oil went for in those days? Don't imagine it was too cheap during the OPEC crisis.

 

[Jags]

Yeah Midwest - around here is was 78/79. Cold like nothing I have seen since the first year and the second was blanket after blanket of snow with some wild winds to boot. Roads would be closed for a couple of days at a time in the country. No way in- no way out cept for snowmobubbles. It got to the point that a group was going door to door for the old folks to see if they needed meds or anything from town.

1200+ gals for 1000 sqft sounds like he was pouring it into a pan and lighting it on fire. Thats a bunch of consumption right there.

 

[smokinj]

1000 sqft. a small stove should run you out of there......keep the summer gear handy....

 

[EatenByLimestone]

At least some of those were mighty cold winters as well. I'm a little young to remember, but I've heard stories of a -30°C Christmas in '77 in Southern Ontario.
Anyone know what oil went for in those days? Don't imagine it was too cheap during the OPEC crisis.

Around .90/gallon. I also found magazine articles saying a cord was going for as high as $150 in urban areas and had jumped from $35 to 100 just about everywhere else. One article said coal was averaging $70/ton but I found receipts showing just under $100.

Considering wages and efficiency increases, it looks like the cost of heating has gone down in the US.

Matt

 

[begreen]

Nice going with the insulation Matt. With those improvements, you could run the 30NC outside and still be warm in the house.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The NC is in the basement. The few times I fired it up last year it put some major heat out... straight into the basement walls.

My father had a bonnet over the coal stove (where the nc sits) and blew the hot air through ductwork into the house. I don't remember being cold. I need to adapt it to take heat off the NC. I'm hoping the big firebox on low will burn nice and long... and clean.

Matt

 

[begreen]

My father had a bonnet over the coal stove (where the nc sits) and blew the hot air through ductwork into the house.

of course you do know that code prohibits that type of installation....

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Didn't know that. Good thing I'm insulating the walls well.

Matt

 

[benjamin]

The NC is in the basement. The few times I fired it up last year it put some major heat out... straight into the basement walls.

If you can insulate the outside of those basement walls that heat will come right back out of the wall to the inside, instead of being lost to the outside. Insulating the outside can be a royal PITA though.

Nice oil consumption. I'm sure my children or grandchildren will have the same reaction if they see how much gas and diesel I burn in a year. I'm guessing it's pretty close to that 1,000-1,200 gal range.

 

[btuser]

My first year in our house we burned 1600+ gallons. Next year was 1350, this year was just a smidgen over 1100 gallons. I'm going to hit the diminishing returns pretty soon, but I'm hoping to get down to the area of 800 gallons. Any less than that and we would have to close off areas of the house for the Winter months. Either that or teach the girls to load the stove if they wanted a hot shower!