Whoops. One more correction. A 60 watt bulb uses 60 joules per second .
Last edited:
Home Heating Costs
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
- Start date
$3.15/gal propane. $.20-.40/kWh. $375/cord oak delivered. Thankfully our winters are relatively mild.
Gas water heater, heat, furnace, and clothes dryer.
Summer is less than 20 therms. Winter is 100-120 therms.
$.084 a therm, so that comes out to somewhere around $100 a month in the winter.
Summer is less than 20 therms. Winter is 100-120 therms.
$.084 a therm, so that comes out to somewhere around $100 a month in the winter.
1000 gallons of home heating oil annually for hot water and heat for 2600SF/family 5 left at 66F. Cost is about $1.6 - $2.00/gallon dependent on time of year.
I have a tired 1976 Well McClain boiler.
We also supplement with about a cord of found(side of road) hardwood in a efficient wood stove that makes kitchen, living room and office area at least 75F.
I have a tired 1976 Well McClain boiler.
We also supplement with about a cord of found(side of road) hardwood in a efficient wood stove that makes kitchen, living room and office area at least 75F.
OK, but what does it cost each summer month to cool a house in Texas?
A few points about heating vs cooling.
1) Cooling generally requires a much smaller temperature differential. 95 outside to 70 inside is a 25 degree delta. Vs 0 outside and 65 inside, a 65 degree differential.
2) Cooling is generally done with a coefficient of performance (COP) of about 3.0. 3x more BTU is moved than is used to run the equipment.
3) SEER ratings for air conditioners are another way to express COP.
4) Other than heat pumps, heating has a COP below 1.
It's not lost on me that the electrical power plant and distribution losses do match the BTU consumed of any "old school" heat pump to near parity with simply burning fossil fuels directly for heat (or cooling). Although some modern mini split systems have a COP of 3.75! However, it is good to remember the temperature differential required. As this is the driving factor behind energy use. The North East and Mid West corridor is the area of the country that uses the most energy. Northern homes use far more energy than Southern homes.
Last edited:
Berry interesting.
Well its early in the morning and haven't analyzed this much. I am going to get my info together on gas. I have and know my electric usage and also the electric company portal for our home stats but not gas.
One thing for sure, after seeing that it cost over $3500 heating a 2600 sq ft home in New England, well I have to agree with you! (ps I lived for over 4 decades on Long Island NY so know about water heat vs southern AC)
$3500 is more then we pay in property taxes on our 3000 sq ft home built in 2005. We have gas heat on the main level and heat pump on the second.
Just about evenly split sq footage = 1500 sq ft on each level.
This is our electric and our latest bill for August 18 to Sept 17, You can also see the winter usage as the second floor is a heat pump.
Ill try to get together the gas bill/see if I can do it online.
I do methodically have my two thermostats programmed perfectly for avoiding as much as possible the peak usage hours in winter and summer.
Electric is based on peak usage (summer time) 4 to 7 PM - (wintertime peak is the mornings) and AC units at their highest of 78 degrees. Peak usage is averaged at roughly $12 KWH
Off peak is only .05 cents Below is two central AC units running 24/7 everyday of the warm whether months, we never open the windows, keeps the house more dust free and just, well, comfortable. Think total tonnage is around 5 tons (just guessing)
Last edited:
By way of comparison, my (admittedly efficiently designed and configured, 16 SEER 2 compressor AC and white barrel tile roof/white walls, with solar attic fans) 2500 square foot, 4bed/2bath/3car South Florida home never uses more than 750 KWH of power per month. With August being the worst month. That's 2559106 BTU, or the equivalent of about 19 gallons of heating fuel.
Last edited:
Solar attic fans. Great idea. I have not seen them around here. I have seen plenty of 120 V wired ones.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I used 1,310kWh in August thanks to a window A/C unit. My regular usage hovers around 800.
This brings up another point that is not clearly understood. Rooftop solar power, of a reasonable size, can cool a well configured Southern house on the hottest of days. The return on a well chosen investment is about 5 to 7 years. Rooftop solar cannot heat a Northern home in the dead of winter. Hours of sunlight play a role, as does the declining efficiency and effectivity of heat pumps as the temperature plummets.
Burlington, VT, for example, only receives 2.15 hours of solar panel usable sunlight per day in December. Contrast that with nearly 7 hours of PV sunlight available in July in Jupiter, FL.
Burlington, VT, for example, only receives 2.15 hours of solar panel usable sunlight per day in December. Contrast that with nearly 7 hours of PV sunlight available in July in Jupiter, FL.
First if you use propane and don't own the tank you are crazy. You pay more per gallon even if they wave the tank rental fee.
We have all electric heat pumps in DE. The issue is when the heat pump needs to defrost. It runs in A/C mode for a few minutes and electric booster coils are turned on so air from supply is warm. They are on a 70 amp breaker. So hopefully they do not run very long or often.
We have all electric heat pumps in DE. The issue is when the heat pump needs to defrost. It runs in A/C mode for a few minutes and electric booster coils are turned on so air from supply is warm. They are on a 70 amp breaker. So hopefully they do not run very long or often.
We have a high efficiency air source heat pump, run it down to 0°f, works great. We burned wood one winter, saved 400 dollars a year removing a fireplace and woodstove from our insurance policy, that will pay for electricity for the heat pump for 2 of the coldest winter months, not worth the hassle of burning wood for us.
We use about 3 cords of wood, 300 gallons propane and 200 gallons of #2 oil in a 200+ year old house with 50 year old insulation.
I've been using a Monitor heater for our heating needs for the last 25 years. Most years I use somewhere between 125-150 gallons of ULSD so usually around $300-$400 per winter at current prices. Our house is about 1400 sf but since it's just me and my wife now we usually have a couple rooms shut off in the winter reducing the heated space to approximately 1000 sf. I keep the thermostat on the heater set at 70 except when it gets really cold outside then I sometimes bump it up 72. This keeps the main living area about 70 and the bedroom stays around 65-68 which we like it a little cooler in the bedroom. The first 15 years was heating about 1000 sf in the Charlotte, NC area and the past 10 years have been roughly 1000 sf in the Bowling Green, KY area.
Fortunate to live in a more mild climate so heat pump can carry 95% of the duties during heating and cooling season. We might have 10-15 days per year the strip heaters have to kick in to pick up the slack - I haven't nailed down when they kick in but its somewhere in the high 20's.
~20 year old - 1/1 ground floor condo with units on 3 sides (each side and above) - summer heat seems to hang around in the ground because even after a few 50 degree nights the a/c is still is cycling regularly to maintain 74. New Lennox 14 seer heat pump installed March 2019.
My average budget billing has ranged between $81-$88/month - right now it is $81/month, not sure when GA Power is going to adjust it again but I am currently at a $70 shortfall with them so unless my next bill is hugely lower have a feeling its going to adjust upward at some point. Tacking on all the added fees, taxes, etc. I am running about .145/kwh, please note it would be .135/kwh but I opted in for a solar program that is supposed to use my additional .01/kwh to support and grow solar power in Georgia.
~20 year old - 1/1 ground floor condo with units on 3 sides (each side and above) - summer heat seems to hang around in the ground because even after a few 50 degree nights the a/c is still is cycling regularly to maintain 74. New Lennox 14 seer heat pump installed March 2019.
My average budget billing has ranged between $81-$88/month - right now it is $81/month, not sure when GA Power is going to adjust it again but I am currently at a $70 shortfall with them so unless my next bill is hugely lower have a feeling its going to adjust upward at some point. Tacking on all the added fees, taxes, etc. I am running about .145/kwh, please note it would be .135/kwh but I opted in for a solar program that is supposed to use my additional .01/kwh to support and grow solar power in Georgia.
All electric heating forced air furnace, I'm on a $212 equal payment monthly budget for electricity. Current rates are $0.0874 kw/h the coldest month I use about 4000 kw/h of electricity in a month however I run a 5kw construction heater in my detached garage to keep it around the freezing mark. With all the fees and taxes 1000kw/h costs rougly $100mo obviously going down slightly with more usage.
Similar threads
