Electric heat

[WA1GFZ]

I wonder if you changed the input could you make corn smash in a slim-o-tron?

[flintstone mop]

Hi Gang,
We are in western Pa....Penn Power..and on retirement. Very bad ju ju going here with the electricity rates. The folks who have all electric house/heat pump get a discount for winter. My cousin pays $130/mo for a house that is almost twice as big as mine. Summer time is another story, though.
My bills have been hangin around $140 per month. That's a real hot month for Aircon. What's going to happen this Summer? We were heating the baby's room with a $pace heater. I guess even those ceramic 115 volt heaters get that meter a spinnin' when used every night.
We heat with a pellet stove and used 2 1/2 tons so far ($230 per ton). The gas bill wudda been $400 per month during the deep freeze days Jan, Feb and part of March. And the so called normal Winter temps would have been $250 per month for nat. gas heat.

Fred

[WA1GFZ]

Today I just filled the oil tanks $900. I'll need a couple hundred gallons after Thanksgiving to get through next winter and a service call for almost $100.

[W1RKW]

What's the $/gal today??

[w3jn]

My chief accountant (wife) tells me our electric bill is now $80/month.  That includes heat, stove, ham shack, everything.  And since 1995 we've had a grand total of 5 minutes of power outage.

[WA1GFZ]

Bob, We got oil for $2.399
John our bill will go down to $80 this month. We hit about $120 in the winter with the past two rate increases. fc

[W3SLK]

First thing first.
Fred said:

We were heating the baby's room with a $pace heater. I guess even those ceramic 115 volt heaters get that meter a spinnin' when used every night.

Fred, those ceramic heaters are notorious for cracking and are a severe fire hazard. I strongly advise you to find something else to supplement your heat. I have been to numerous structure fires in the winter where the cause was an electric heater. Specifically, those little ceramic jobs. Please heed my advice!

Now, having been in my home since it was built in 2005, I went with oil fired/forced hot air. Due to my son's asthma, I couldn't have a coal burner, (which is the preferred method here in anthracite country). This year was pretty cold from Jan. to present. I spent a total of about $300 in heating oil even after I found I was being over-gouged by my oil co, (that is a story in and of itself). There is a lot to be said about well insulated homes.

[W3SLK]

Mark said:

A few weeks ago we had fuel oil delivered -- 233 gal at $2.80/gal.

Mark check to see if you are on a budget or auto delivery. I had my oil co. (Farm & Home) charge me about the same. Fortunately, they could only put in about 25 gal.
The going rate for delivery at that time was about $2.14/gal. I had a friend call them up and ask what their price was and they asked him if he was a current customer. He told them "No" then they quoted him $2.19/gal when they were charging me $2.79/gal and I had been a loyal customer for 11 years!!!

[Bill, KD0HG]

Do you easties use propane for heating?

[WA1GFZ]

Fred,
I agree on that heater. Go to home depot and buy a baseboard with a thermostat mounted in it option and run it off 120 plug. It will be lower wattage but safe as heck. A 6 footer at 120 volts should do the job.
judt put a good line cord on it and mount it on a wall. You should be able to do it right for about $50.
I put electric heat in the whole house for $600.
John,
Both our places have a lot of insulation and just running lights provides plenty of heat. fc

[The Slab Bacon]

This thread got my attention, so I called accounts payable (the war dept) to see what our electric bill was last month. Yowsa, Yowsa Yowsa, bend over buckweat, this one's gonna hurt!! It was $280!
Compared to around $175 for the same time last year!!

We have gas heat and get our gas and electric service from the same company. Baltimore gas, electric, and rip off company. This isnt bad enough, but they are gonna slap us in the face with a 50% rate increase as of mid summer. Hmmmmm............... Sounds like caveman style living is about to go into effect at my qth.

Actually the impending rate increase has been looming for the last year now, and has been part of the political B.S. that played into the gubenatorial race in this state. It was partially applied last year with the largest part of it (50%) to come after the election. Sort of makes you wonder. I personally despise the power company here for some of their unfair business practices, but I wont air it here.

It just doesnt seem fair that we (the people) and the taxpayers should be subjected to it as mercilessly as we are.

It will definately be woodolene stoves for supplemental heat next winter, and maybe a little dirty coal as well. One must do what one must do to survive !!

                                        The Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

Frank,
That is why I did R35 in the walls and R67 overhead in the new place.
Check your insulation. A great investment. I also need to finish the insulation in the basement. We will do about $1400 in oil for the year.
Electric now runs $65 to $120 a mo. or so.
It is the American way in yuppie land screw your neighbor.....

[k4kyv]

As a result of the sudden increased demand for ethanol, the demand for corn has shot corn prices up to some of the highest they've ever been.  In the last year corn prices have tripled or quadrupled).  This is really hurting farmers & ranchers who raise livestock, who are finding it very difficult to to pay for feed.  Also, it's showing up in our food bills, where the prices of anything that uses corn products, have gone up. 

That will be in my financial interest.  I lease cropland to a local farmer, and his rent payment is a fixed cut of his harvest.  In the past 20 years, his average yield has stayed about the same, but the dollar return I get from the crop has dropped - and this is not even taking into account the devaluation of the dollarette by inflation.  I don't know how he manages to stay in business with all the expense of maintaining the farm equipment.  The effective return per bushel of grain is a mere fraction of what it was 20 years ago.  I am hoping the sudden interest in corn will temporarily reverse this trend, until the bio-fuels fad fizzles as I predict it will in a few years.  If I get a doubling or trebling of my farm income I think I'll be able to afford a higher grocery bill.

[K3ZS]

The local gas and oil dealer's association in the State College, PA area have a virtual monopoly.   All gas stations, for years now, have all had the same price and when its changes they all seem to change within a few hours of one another.    I avoid getting gas around here when possible, saving the fill up for when I go out of town, it is usually cheaper.   The crooks also price fix heating oil.   As I have a heat pump, I only fill up with oil for auxiliary heat every few years.   Filling up this year, I called around and found all prices the same and about $2.89 in the local area.   One day, an out of town oil dealer advertised a much better price in the newspaper, I think it was about $2.39.   They were located about 60 miles away, but they got enough calls in this area to make it worth their while to drive the tanker truck here.    Next time I need oil I will check with them.

It seems like this is a broader problem.  Ripoffs are legal and sanctioned now.   I remember when usury in interests rates, price fixing, trusts and monopolies were illegal or strictly controlled.  Seems like we are reverting to the 1890's age of the robber barons.   It's time for a change.

[pwfallon]

Hey Frank,

What are paying for KwHr down in Conn??  Around here we have National Grid which is averaging about $0.172 / Kwhr.

Comparing electric and oil heat a gallon of #2 heating oil is equal to 138,690 BTUs. Assuming 85% efficiency(what my furnance does) then you should be able to get ~117,000 BTUs of heat.  A KwHr is equal to 3412 BTUs. So it would take (117000BTUs/3412BTU/KwHr)  => 34.3 KwHrs to deliver the same heat as the gallon of #2.  With my electric rate would cost me $5.90......

Sounds like the guys in PA are getting a real bargain for electricity when compared to New England.

Joe

[WA1GFZ]

hi Joe,
Gee I think we are around .22 KWH here in Ct. I agree with your numbers. You have to consider the cost of running the two motors in the furnace but still oil appears cheaper.
The thing I avoid it the cost of a furnace and the cost of keeping it running.

The beach place is part time QTH for now and the worse thing you can do to a furnace is have it sitting idle. I'm sure oil heat would be even cheaper down there with super insulation.
Still $8 a day for electric isn't bad since it only cost me $600 to install heat in the whole house. I bet a furnace set up would have been 10 times that.

My furnace is also about 85% but the heat of the exhaust makes me crazy. My next furnace will have PVC pipe for an exhaust. My furnace guy told me you have to run heat up the exhaust based on the size of the exhaust system for it to work properly. Also efficiency is measured with a system at operating temperature.
Most times my furnace runs about 20 minutes out of an hour unless it really gets cold. This heating and cooling  must effect the overall efficiency of the system.
I bet when you look at the big picture the cost ratio is much closer.
Also we pay about $100 to service the opec monster.
Electric is 100% efficient and no CO to worry about. fc