Home space heating discussion NON poilitical!!!

[MS Fowler]

As the weather begins to cool down, we ( at least those of us in places where we have seasonal changes) are faced with heating our homes for the cold-weather months.
Like many houses built 25 or so yeasr ago, I live in an all-electric house--no gas service, and no oil. The house is well insulated, ( R19 walls, and R38 roof) and the heat pump does OK until we get below zero and then the electric resistance heaters come on. I have used a kerosene space heater to take the chill off the lower rooms, and circulate that extra heat throughout the house using the fan in the heat pump's Air Handler. With the increased coats of both electricity ( just doubled here in MD--we were payinmg sub market rates for some years), and kerosene, I am looking at options.
However, wehen I look at various energy websites, it appears that electricity is still the best value. Look at the cost per BTU and the efficiencey, and it appears to me,at least, that electric heat is still cheaper.
Part of me says that cannot be true. Otherwise why would people spend so much $ to cut their electric useage? Why all the wood stoves, and pellet stoves?
Can someone shed some light on this?
I was thinking of using a small propane heater becasue the smell of the kerosene is starting to bother me--even with a fresh wick and fuel. But why buy propane if electricity is cheaper?
I need some solid facts- as opposed to what passes for facts in OD political discussions

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

As the weather begins to cool down, we ( at least those of us in places where we have seasonal changes) are faced with heating our homes for the cold-weather months.
Like many houses built 25 or so yeasr ago, I live in an all-electric house--no gas service, and no oil. The house is well insulated, ( R19 walls, and R38 roof) and the heat pump does OK until we get below zero and then the electric resistance heaters come on. I have used a kerosene space heater to take the chill off the lower rooms, and circulate that extra heat throughout the house using the fan in the heat pump's Air Handler. With the increased coats of both electricity ( just doubled here in MD--we were payinmg sub market rates for some years), and kerosene, I am looking at options.
However, wehen I look at various energy websites, it appears that electricity is still the best value. Look at the cost per BTU and the efficiencey, and it appears to me,at least, that electric heat is still cheaper.
Part of me says that cannot be true. Otherwise why would people spend so much $ to cut their electric useage? Why all the wood stoves, and pellet stoves?
Can someone shed some light on this?
I was thinking of using a small propane heater becasue the smell of the kerosene is starting to bother me--even with a fresh wick and fuel. But why buy propane if electricity is cheaper?
I need some solid facts- as opposed to what passes for facts in OD political discussions

It depends on your local electric prices Michigan partially relies on Natural Gas to produce electricity so electric prices are competing for highest in the nation. Geothermal is the hot item here dollar for dollar its the best thing going systems are coming down in price and you get an all electric rate. My house heating/electric bill should be around $750mo but with Pellet Stove and wood heating I keep it to half that, if I had a Geo system my total bill would be less than $100.00 as soon as I have $15,000 in loose change I am making the switch.

[raymr]

Is a wood stove an option? There are lots of styles available. My dad heated most of his house with one - they are very efficient but a little messy to clean up.

I have done kerosene and after a while, a dusty film shows up on everything. I'm not a fan of burning large amounts of fossil fuels inside, especially in a well-sealed house.

[Matt L]

Illinois used to have an all-electric rate. Not since January 2. I suspect that MS is in the same situation, although all-electric rates here went up more than 100%.

Unless you're getting a subsidized rate, electric heat will be expensive. Regardless of how your electricity is generated, you are competing with natural gas plants because electricity is very fungible. It should be obvious that it is more expensive to make heat for the electricity than for the heat itself.

[123c]

Where I live, power is $.0185kwh, so electricity is the way to go here.

http://www.douglaspud.org/Service/AboutYourPowerRates.aspx

[Hatterasguy]

Ours is about $400 a month on gas. When my dad used the wood stove in the basement its $50! The wood stove is a ton of work, but its damn affective! Its a massive wood burning thing that heats water as well, built around the turn of the century.

[catmandoo62]

i'll agree there.wood stoves are a ton of work.it depends on how much work you are willing to put in to save that money.

[aklim]

This is all caused by the Democrats.

No wait. It is Republican in nature.

Wait, Wal*Mart is to blame.

OK. Seriously, how long do you plan to stay here? For a couple years, I'd leave well enough alone. As to wood, do you plan to run in and out in the winter to dump wood in the fire? Do you have access to wood for free? If not, it might not be a good deal. Also, you must be willing to sacrifice hours of your time to save a few bucks.

[kerry]

My brother in law once owned a house with a big central gravity air furnace originally designed for coal. It had been converted to oil. He took the conversion out and went back to coal because he found it much cheaper. Of course, someone had to feed the furnace.
Back in the 60's I used to work on a coal burning boiler that had a screw feed from a big hopper.
Don't know what the economics of coal are at the moment.

http://www.blaschakcoal.com/html/home.htm

It's interesting that they mention the political implications of burning coal.

[mgburg]

MS FOWLER:

First off, you're in a "sealed" home and you're burning stuff?

Before you post one more time on this forum....

G E T

Y O U R S E L F

A

C A R B O N - M O N O X I D E

D E T E C T O R !

T O D A Y !

THEN, we'll talk facts...

(It's much better talking to someone that can respond than to their survivors!)

Go on! Get to the hardware store and get a real detector!

NOW!

(Geez! Some people just shouldn't be allowed to play with matches!)

[peragro]

My parents run a wood fired boiler that supplies radiator heat through the house. I.e. it heats the water/antifreeze solution and it's pumped through the house into baseboard radiators. The boiler could easily be converted to propane or some other means of heat source. Best of all, it's in an outbuilding about 50' away from the house. Piping goes underground.

It's kept their house pretty warm through Ky winters over the last 10 years or more. They're getting to the point where they're not able to stoke the fire 2x daily so they're looking into heating/cooling via mini-splits (heat pump) and maybe converting the wood furnace to propane and supplementally heating with that in the winter.

They're living in a 150 year old redone log cabin out in the middle of nowhere.

It depends on how long you're going to stay in the house, but there are lots of options for heating.

[Jim H]

Kerosene - 1 gallon = 135,000 BTU (approximate)

Electrical energy - 1 kWh = 3413 BTU

135000/3413 = 39.55 kWh or (1) gallon of kerosene

Energy cost: $0.1000 kWh = $3.955

Use your own costs for Kerosene and electrical energy.

If Kerosene costs less, it is less expensive to use for heating.

[MS Fowler]

I hear you on the CO monitor.
There is no space for a wood stove.
Electricity, propane amd kerosene are the only options I can consider at this time.

[t walgamuth]

If your house is small, there are some spiffy little propane fired through the wall furnaces available....one place that has them is Grainger.

YOu could just dump heat in the space that way and run your furnace fan to distribute it.

Also some direct vent fireplaces produce up to maybe 50K btu of heat. That could be used the same way.

Around here resistance electric heat is the most expensive way to heat.

Tom W

Bush hates fireplaces.