Who kept track of their gas/oil/electric usage from before they heating with wood?

[JRHAWK9]

For the heck of it I went through our LP usage history from 2005-2014 and computed average gallons per day used in between all the fill-ups. The December/January area was obviously where we consumed the most LP and are the numbers I'm using here. Every duration between fill-ups for the December/January area was around 30 days, one was as short as 20 days. I took the gallons used and divided it by the number of days between fill-ups. We have a 75K BTU furnace, so I was then able to roughly compute the average hours per day the furnace ran every day over that duration based on how many gallons were used. 91,500BTU's/GAL and 75,000 BTU's/HR.......multiply GAL/DAY by 1.22 to get HRS/DAY.

House is a log cabin style with 32'x42' footprint (1,340SF) with loft, 25'+ 12/12 pitch tall ceiling at the peak and walkout basement. We lose a lot of heat out the peak, based on how the outside peak area never retains any snow or frost on the metal roof.



- 2005-2009 house was heated only by LP and was kept 68°, basement was not heated.
- 2010-2011 we started casually burning wood in the fireplace.
- 2012-2014 we started using the fireplace aggressively and heating the house enough to keep the LP furnace off while at home. We kept the house at 60° when there was not a fire going in the fireplace. We went through about as much wood a winter as we do now! We wasted a lot of wood back then. I was constantly adding wood to the fireplace to keep the fire just a roaring. The main living area was warm, but the back bedrooms, bathroom and downstairs were pretty cool, especially the basement. The combination of lowering the thermostat and burning wood in the fireplace made a good dent in the LP usage.
- The winter of 2014/2015 is the first year with the wood furnace and LP furnace usage has plummeted since then to a total of around 20-50 gallons a winter (depending on how often we go out of town). We've been using a total of 125-150 gallons a year since installing it between the furnace, clothes drier and water heater. Clothes drier and water heater seem to use about 75-100 gallons a year.

Those of you who have kept records from before heating with wood, compute and post up your pre-wood burning max average GAL/DAY usage between two fill-ups in the dead of winter. Curious as to how it compares to ours.

 

[brenndatomu]

We used about 700-750 gallons of fuel oil on average...and that is to keep the house 68* day/65* night.
Furnace of unknown efficiency...old coal-converted-to-oil furnace...

 

[JRHAWK9]

I guess I'm more curious of amounts used during peak usage month(s). During that time frame what you consumed over a known amount of days. Maybe it's not normal to be filled every 20-35 days like she (we) were doing back then. She, when we met, was on the "budget" plan for $310 a month YEAR AROUND to pay for the LP use. Nothing like paying $300+ in August for LP. Also keep in mind we found out years later she was being scalped by Amerigas. I ended up looking into it and they were charging her more per gallon than they should have been based on LP prices I found -HERE- . Their invoice upon delivery did not show a unit price, just gallons delivered. This is done on purpose. This is the whole reason we requested her LP record use going back to late 2004. We compared what she paid to what the rate was back then. They ended up refunding her the difference and we switched companies as soon as she received the refund.

 

[peakbagger]

At one point I had two 275 gallon oil tanks. I would fill up once year and usually would have 150 gallons left so I was plus or minus 400 gallons. I put in solar hot water and switched my boiler to cold start so it was cold for about 5 months a year and dropped about 150 gallons a year to end up around 250 gallons a year plus 1 or 2 cords of wood. I dropped some usage when I got my wood boiler but the big drop was putting in storage for my boiler a fe years after. I stopped buying oil after that and have been running down whats left in the tanks for five years. My minisplit mostly just reduces my wood demand which is around 3 to 4 cords. I could install several upgrades like a more efficient boiler and low temperature radiant emitters but hard to justify the expense. I generate more power than I use and carry a surplus year to year that I balance with the minisplit. At my low point in late winter I try to keep my surplus over 500 KWh.

 

[SpaceBus]

When we moved into the house Nov 2 2018 we stared with electric heat only and then tried the stove, a broken defiant I. The Defiant lasted two or three weeks and then we got a modern EPA stove. Unfortunately the house was rotten, destroyed insulation, and the 50 gal electric water heater was nearly dead. We used 3.5 cords and about 1,000-1,500 KWhr/month Dec 2018 - March 2018. This current billing cycle started the day I got the cookstove operational which has a DHW coil feeding a 40 gal stainless tank (uninsulated currently) feeding a small electric on demand water heater. For this cycle we have dropped to 11.6 KWhr/day vs 24.75 KWhr/day. Electric only, the first month, was 1,720 KWhr, or about 50 KWhr/day! The old electric water heater was a real power hog, perhaps the electric range as well. I haven't even put the baseboard heaters back up yet, they have been sitting in a closet since we started renovating.

 

[Mark cerel]

We have been heating with wood for 3 years. Before that we had two heat pumps with no propane back up. Heat pumps seemed to run 24/7 to keep the house at 64-65.

(Averaged with electric only)
December w/electric only- $350
Jan w/electric only- $450-600
Feb w/electric only- $400-450
March- 250-300


We have essentially eliminated heating with heat pumps unless we are gone for a few days. Stove keeps house extremely comfortable where heat pumps did not. Currently burning 4-5 cords a year. All wood is processed by me and at no cost other then fuel. Our electric bills have dropped by 60-70 percent a month! Saving hundreds of dollars a month.

 

[nomorecold]

I am probably not a very good model for this having a very leaky early 1800s Georgian going through a full reno while living in it but heres what I can say:

Last year on fuel oil and pellets, starting in October, I got a minimum of 100 gallons of fuel oil and a ton of pellets every month. ($500+ a month) On the worst month last year, I think January, I spent $450 or so on fuel oil (about 150 gallons) AND about $250-300 on pellets. (A little over a ton) This was keeping just the downstairs around 66 mostly with the pellet stove room being anywhere from 75-80. Reason I kept the pellet stove burning so hot, I was trying to get the heat to move to the rest of the downstairs we were using and not run the furnace as much. This was pretty much a failed attempt even after I opened the doorway from pellet stove room to hall from 3 feet to 5 feet. By the way, we weren’t even (purposely) heating the upstairs as the house was apartments and with a center hall had a closed in stairway with a door at the top.

This season I did away with the apartment style hallway and opened it back up to the original center halls up and down stairs. I am currently insulating the upstairs so I keep a 4x8 foam board over the stairway opening for now as we only go upstairs at night to sleep in the bedroom. It still holds 64-66 in the upstairs hall not trying to heat it and no insulation in one end of the hall which I am working on today. I have been going through wood pretty steady (Its a Hotblast EPA wood furnace) but haven’t even burned 30 gallons of fuel oil so far this year and only use the pellet stove when its under 15-20 degrees out. I have probably bought 10-12 bags of pellets since using the wood furnace.

Last year this time I would have probably already bought (to get me to the end of this month) 300 gallons of fuel oil at around $900 and 3 ton of pellets at around $750-800. I have probably burned a full cord of wood already this year through the Hotblast, maybe a little more. But, even if I bought the wood at $50-60 a face that only puts me at $240-300 worth of wood this year so far and I got about 8-9 face cord free just had to pick it up. Also we had single digits for about a week already this year that didn’t happen last year and we are in the teens now. So id say with the little bit of pellets I bought ($75) and fuel oil I used ($100) I am in $500-600 to heat this season so far (If I bought the wood I burned so far) versus $1600 or so last year. I know this is obviously a less than ideal heating situation still, but that should tell something!

 

[hobbyheater]

For us the time period would be the late 70's early 80's when we made the switch to wood heat ! Our annual cost for furnace oil was around $$ 1,000 a year .

 

[Socratic Monologue]

I don't have more detailed records, but we use about 300 g/yr of LP for furnace/DHW/cooking in 3000 sq ft house with wood heat (7+ cords/year). Above ground pool also had LP heater, which I removed and replaced with solar heat.

Previous owners, we were told by LP company, used 1,000 g+ per year of LP. They also burned wood (I don't know how much) in a furnace that was installed in such a way that it was likely doing little good.

 

[TCaldwell]

Nw ct. approx 6500 heating degree days, moved into house 10 years ago , oil boiler with dhw coil. 2700 sqft salt box style plus 1400 sqft uninsulated unheated full basement, records show 1200-1400 gal oil/year.
Installed garn in outbuilding, first year ran dwh through Oiler coil, same baseboard emitters, oil use age 100 gal , wood, 10 full cord.
The next winter installed indirect tank, oil boiler to cold start, maybe 50 gal oil and 10 cord .
A few years later, removed dwh from wood, now propane wall hung, installed tekmar outdoor reset with all tekmar thermostats,
Oil 0gal, propane 60 gal, 8 cord.

 

[jas702]

NW Rhode Island, 1970's -2400 sqft raised ranch1200 up/down (1/4 of lower level is unheated garage). First 3 years in house 450 g of oil and 3 cords of wood in older EPA insert stove per year. Oiler is 2006 biasi B10 with indirect DHW tank (80%+? efficient).
2 years ago my son was born, no more wood burning inside house (insert is in living room), went up to 800-900 G of oil per year.

In preparation for the Garn I removed DHW from the heat equation with a 50g Rheem HPWH (RI had a $700 rebate) It cools off the boiler room a bit but it seems to satisfy demand so far (only been 2 weeks).

New to me Garn is in barn, underground lines are in and plumbing is started.

 

[HitzerHillbilly]

First winter with an OWB. Last year we heated with a combination of a hitzer insert and our GEO. ThIs period last year was over 2800 KWH. This year is a touch over 1000 KWH. Total utility bill for a 2500 sqft house, unfinished basement, attached garage, and 30x40 pole barn......$128 this month. It’s usually running around $350. I’m interested to see how the rest of the winter goes.

 

[JRHAWK9]

On the worst month last year, I think January, I spent $450 or so on fuel oil (about 150 gallons) AND about $250-300 on pellets. (A little over a ton) This was keeping just the downstairs around 66 mostly with the pellet stove room being anywhere from 75-80.

Doing some quick/crude math on your worst month last year....

150 gallons fuel oil = 20,775,000 gross BTU's
ton pellets = 17,400,000 gross BTU's

38,175,000 gross BTU's over ~30 days = 1,272,500 gross BTU's/day = ~53,000 gross BTU's/hr, every hour over 30 days.
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On our worst month over those 5 years we averaged 11.4gal/day over 30 days. 1,043,100 gross BTU's per day = ~43,400 gross BTU's/hr, every hour over 30 days.
If I average those 5 years we averaged 9.2gal/day.......841,800 gross BTU's/day = ~35,000 gross BTU's/hr.


Well, at least I'm glad to see our place is not nearly as bad as a house built in the 1800's!