so, how cold was it?

[cac4]

Now that winter is over, and my first pellet-heating season is winding down, I'm trying to asses the actual pellet needs for the future. I did start a little bit late...but it seems to me that it was a colder than normal winter, too. But I don't actually know that for a fact. I do remember the weather man giving snowfall stats...and it was "snowier than normal", but not record-setting. I haven't heard any actual "coldness" stats. Anyone following degree-days, or any other hard-numbers to say just how cold it was?

I'm sure it probably won't make too much of a difference, either way. Looks like I was right: 3 tons is the number. (replacing 600 gallons of oil. "Magic!!" )

 

[mnkywrnch]

I not sure about degree days but your right about those numbers it took me 4 ton to replace 800 gallons of oil.

 

[daydreamer]

Here is an article about the winter, I don't know how close this is to you.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2009/03/20/news/4618281.txt

 

[JoeS]

I agree, this seemed to be one of the coldest winters in quite some time. It wasn't the bitter cold but a prolonged period of below normal temps that started in October and lasted all winter long. It will be interesting to hear from the experts where this winter ranks on the all time record books. I burned over 5 1/2 tons this winter.

 

[OU812]

I think we got of easy. It only dipped below the 30's for about a week here and it didn't rain much at all. The last couple of nights I have been running the ceiling fans to cool down the house. I guess that is why California is having a drought though. Too bad we couldn't get some of that that water from the floods in North Dakota.

 

[Bigjim13]

I agree, this seemed to be one of the coldest winters in quite some time. It wasn't the bitter cold but a prolonged period of below normal temps that started in October and lasted all winter long. It will be interesting to hear from the experts where this winter ranks on the all time record books. I burned over 5 1/2 tons this winter.

I would agree, here in Southern VT it definitely seemed to be a colder than usual winter. IT seemed for most of January and February the Temp didn't get much above 20*. Bought 3 tons of pellets as it was our first year and thats what we were told by the dealer we would need. Next season I will be buying 4 tons.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Heating Degree days at Albany Airport, about 15 minutes from my house.

From 7/1 to 3/21/09

Current year: 5657
Last year: 5235
30 year average: 5400

The last few weeks have been warmer than normal and have sugar coated the numbers a bit.

Matt

 

[slls]

Not sure about pellets, stopped burn in early December. With oil it is about $40 a more than average this year for me. I have noticed the temp more or less averages out each year, really not much difference.

 

[drizler]

Heating Degree days at Albany Airport, about 15 minutes from my house.

From 7/1 to 3/21/09

Current year: 5657
Last year: 5235
30 year average: 5400

The last few weeks have been warmer than normal and have sugar coated the numbers a bit.

Matt

I laugh when everyone says we had a warm winter. I work the midnight shift and get outside a lot. All this "but we never had the week solid of -30 is missing the point. It hardly ever went below -20 but between the second week of December and mid February it hardly ever failed to hit the minus's all night long most of the time. It was a damned freezing, extremely windy winter in the NE. We hardly used the snowmobiles at all this year and it wasn't for lack of snow for a change. It was just so darned nasty that everyone wanted to hide by the stove most of the time. Global warming my arse.........
I almost forgot, we still did it on just over 3 tons of not so great pellets and a little bedroom electric space heater use.

 

[Wet1]

Heating Degree days at Albany Airport, about 15 minutes from my house.

From 7/1 to 3/21/09

Current year: 5657
Last year: 5235
30 year average: 5400

The last few weeks have been warmer than normal and have sugar coated the numbers a bit.

Matt

It's not that the last few weeks have sugar coated the numbers, I think slls nailed it on the head when he said it all averages out pretty close over time.

Yes this winter was a little colder. It was actually January that made it colder than usual in New Endland, but several of the other months have been warmer... so it does average out somewhat over time. The difference in HDD from one year to another is typically so small that the difference in pellet usage should be within a few bags.

For instance... Looking at Groton, CT for Nov-Apr 2006/2007 (typical 6 month heating season) there were 4830 HDD (base 65F), for that same time period for the 2007/2008 season there were 4884 HDD. If I used exactly 3 tons (150 bags) during the 2006/2007 season, I would have averaged about one bag of pellets for each 32.2 HDD. So to make up for the colder 2007/2008 season, I would have used about 1.68 bags of additional pellets for that colder season. We don't have all the data yet for the current season, but even if it turned out to be say 200 HDD colder, that's still only about 6 additional bags of pellets for the season given my example... certainly not a huge difference.

 

[www_godzilla]

I know it was colder this year here in Portland. The coldest it got here in Portland,which is on the ocean, was -25 degrees. Inland actually had one day that was -50 degrees. We had a lot of below zero mornings this year. Our highs for the days were very cold too. I know the week of January 1st didn't get out of the single numbers for almost a week. My sante Fe wasn't in yet. Next year

 

[Steveo]

How cold was it? I was really really really cold here in Poland Maine. I have lived in New England all of my life and after this winter I really thought about moving south. The good news is that my house has some good insulation. I just barely burned three tons of pellets this year and that was keeping the house over 70 degrees when I was home.

 

[drizler]

How cold was it? I was really really really cold here in Poland Maine. I have lived in New England all of my life and after this winter I really thought about moving south. The good news is that my house has some good insulation. I just barely burned three tons of pellets this year and that was keeping the house over 70 degrees when I was home.

Stevo, thats a sure sign you are gettin old ya know.......................................