Anyone here have oil heat?

[tulip]

We had oil heat when I was growing up; our house was about 1200 square feet, an 1878 farmhouse (i.e. no insulation!). But it's in North Carolina so it wasn't so cold for long stetches. As I recall, we had to get a fill-up once a year. Often, after a fillup, the heat would stop working because in filling up, all the sludge at the bottom of the tank would be stirred up and then clog things up.

I'm delighted with my efficient electric heatpump. I keep my house at 62F at night and 64 or 66 during the day (I work from home so the heat's on alot) and this winter my electric bill for everything has run about $100/month, and it's been cold. Next winter I'll have my wood/coal stove working so I expect that to fall significantly.

[sundial]

GLC, I'm surprised you're not doing the pellet stove or solar energy heat source.

[greycoral]

Just filled up today with 170 gallons. So we used 105 gallons in 5 months. It was $335.

[Crankin]

I have gas heat now, but in my last house, which was 2300 sq. ft., we had to fill up every month in the winter, with a 250 gallon tank. But, it's much colder here. We keep our heat at 68 and 58 when sleeping. Back then, it was at 58 for most of the day, until I came home from work, when it was programmed to go up to 68.
We also had a "balanced budget" payment, where we paid the same amount each month, agreed to in September. Of course, if the price of oil went down, you were screwed.

[sfa]

The part of our house that is heated by oil is a little over 1000 sf and in the most recent month, which was also the most consistently cold month in a long time, we used 151 gallons of oil. Our house is old and drafty. We keep the thermostat at 66 - 67 degrees. I don't have any of the delivery notices from previous months so I'm not sure what our general usage is.

Sarah

[GLC1968]

Thanks for all the input guys!

I guess having good insulation, a small house and a mild winter all work together to allow us to burn so little. We have a 1700 ft home and we have burned 30 gallons since October. Not bad, huh? We've used about a cord of wood, so that's about $200. $260 total when you count the oil.

Sundial - we can't really do solar heat since the sun doesn't shine enough in the winter here! And we opted against a pellet stove since without the logging industry, it's not self-suffient. We do plan on putting in a newer wood stove (more effecient one) once we have the cash, but for now, the one we have works pretty well.

[sundial]

Pellet stoves here are burning corn! It's too bad you can't harness solar energy. I didn't think about you not having enough sunshine.

We could harness wind and solar energy at our little hacienda. Just have to start researching it to find the best design. Hope we don't end up with those creepy 3 prong wind turbines that could sail away in a tornado.

[tulip]

If you live near corn-producing areas, then that might make sustainable sense, although I question burning a food source. But corn is renewable compared to trees an coal, as long as you don't cut down forests to grow the corn. The town next to my old town had a corn silo for all the people who had corn stoves. This was right outside of Washington, DC, not out in Iowa! Smelled like popcorn in the winter.

I have a stove that burns coal and wood. Next winter I will burn both if I can find a source for high-quality anthracite coal. Such coal comes from Pennsylvania, as I understand it. While not right down the street, it does get delivered by train. Anthracite burns very slowly and very hot, and you don't need much in a small stove. Renewable it is not, however.

[OakLeaf]

Just have to start researching it to find the best design. Hope we don't end up with those creepy 3 prong wind turbines that could sail away in a tornado.

I don't know anything about it really, but these are purdy.