That does seem high but I can only compare it to my house. Ours was built in 1970, it's almost 4000 square feet and we have natural gas which in my area of NJ is much cheaper than gas. I've never paid that much to heat my home and I also have 2 gas hot water tanks (50 gallons apiece) and a gas dryer.

Heat pumps are efficient as long as the outside temperature is above a certain temperature - and I don't remember what that is. But when the outside temperature drops below that then the back up heater comes on and that's an electric resistance heater which can also cause high bills.

Have you called a few HVAC companies to get their opinions? Or a home energy audit?

Just to confirm - Do you have insulation laying across your attic floor?

oops - correction - I meant to say that natural gas is cheaper than oil in my area!

Yes natura;l gas is best.We have radiant heat in floors love it.its tubing with water running through it.

We use propane, with electric back up. Put in a new system within the heater that uses off peak electricty. Could you call the electric company and find out if they have the off peak program, and if it can be tied into the heater. Could propane be cheaper? Just a thought. Also the type of installation makes a difference. Does your electric company do a energy review--many do and it should be free.

We too have oil, 1000 gallon tank and we use about 500 or so to heat a 4,000 square foot house. I think that we were actually under that last year. We have a pellet stove as well, and it heats the family room and kitchen perfectly. We usually buy our oil in July or August, DH monitors the price pretty closely.

When we bought this house 16 years ago it cost us about $350 to heat it all winter....without the pellet stove!

All of my utilities together don't add up to that much. I live in the midwest and that may be part of the difference. At my last home my electric bill during August was $220 for that month. This new home has never been more than $125. Newer homes are really fuel efficient.

Except for the high start up cost, geothermal gets my vote.
Next in line would be a heat pump with natural gas backup.

Pooh Bear

We had always heard horror stories about heat pumps, but that's what we've had for almost 17 years and have been very satisfied, warm and comfortable, too. Our house, though only 1500 sq. ft, is totally electric; we signed up for the electric companies' budget plan and have never had a monthly bill over $130. It's adjusted monthly if needed. This month, it was $100, and our area has had some very cold temperatures the last few months, and in the heat of summer, I couldn't survive without A/C; when the temp. is 90 or above and the humidity is high,it's a necessity, not a luxury.

Seems as if an energy audit would be wise.

I'd be lost on how to heat a house, as we've used a wood stove exclusively for the last 15 years. I don't even know what kind of heating systems are available out there.

From the costs I'm seeing, I'm glad to pay the little bit that we pay for wood!

What temperature do you keep the house at and how old is the house? Those numbers don't make sense. 2002 is not an old boiler. My circa 2005 4000 sf house uses 800 gallons of oil a year and we are in Maine. We have hydro-air using oil (a boiler that uses hot water to heat air that is distributed through ductwork).

Geothermal is great, but very expensive to have installed. Natural gas is the most efficient. Oil is better than propane. I would hire an energy auditor before you make the leap. They can run the numbers and tell you what the increases in efficiency will really buy you in savings and how long the pay back will be. If your house is really leaky you might not gain much savings. They can also do a blower door test (and other testing) to look for the places you are losing heat.

I have a 2 storey house that is slightly smaller than yours - 2100 sq. ft. My heating bill for February will ablut $400; Location SE Wisconsin. Our winter weather is much more severe than yours. I heat with natural gas. I do not have an high efficiency furnace. The furnace was installed in the winter or 1975-76 and has a bonnet efficiency in the range of 65% to 75%. The fan control is adjusted to keep the fan running until the heat exchanger cools to the range of 95 F to 105 F. (If the fan shuts off too soon, heat stored in the heat exchanger is vented up the chimney. This is a small effect.) Running the fan longer combats stagnation; That's where hot air rises and the ceilings and upper floor gets hotter than the lower part of the downstairs rooms. There has been times in the coldest weather when I have set the fan to run continously. Many thermostats have a switch to do this. Depending on the layout of the house, ceiling fans may help move warm air down.

My heat demand is affected by wind. (2 storeys are more affected by wind than single storey because the wind velocity is the lowest next to the ground and increases some with height.) Not knowing the construction of your wall, I can only tell you about factors that affect heat loss. Wind has two effects: It wipes away any heat that manages to conduct to the outside of the walls, but the larger factor is "windage". When the wall are not wind-proof, the wind moves air through the walls and literally blows the heat our of the house. Back when my house was built, we added a very inexpensive feature that the builder said was the most bang for the buck. We added a tar paper wrap over the entire house before the siding was put on. This was supposed to slow down wind infiltration and I believe it does. It cost only $50 to add this 35 year ago. Today, there are superior constructions.

Changing from an oil heater to a gas fired one will not change the BTU requirement, only the cost of the fuel. However, if you move up to a high efficency furnace, you can make a savings without remodeling the house. Olser furnaces typically had bonnet efficiecies in the range of 65% to 70%; The remainder of the heat went up the chimney. Modern high efficiency furnaces can run between 90% to 95% efficient. The Chimney is not used. Combustion air and exhaust both are run in platic pipes through the side of the house. If you have a gas hot water heater, a liner must be put in the chimney for the heater alone. In cold weather, the heater alone is not enough to warm the chimney sufficently and the moisture in the exhaust from the water heater will condense inside the chimney. Combustion gases, noteably, CO2, disolves into the condensate forming an acid that will corrode an ordinary flue.

If the walls of your house are not insulated, this will create a big loss. Adding insulation will have a large effect and in addition to reducing heat demand, it will also reduce air conditioning demand in summer.

I could not get a good look at the roof in the picture, but it appears that you have good attic insulation. (Snow melts prematurely on the roof with poor attic insulation.)

You have a lot of glass area and if the windows are not covered with storm windows, a savings will result if these are added. When storm windows are added, insure these have small vents at the bottom. Two cuts in the bottom of the storm frame having a width of a hack saw blade makes an adequate vent. Make the cuts about 1/4 inch deep. Space the cuts at about the 1/4 and 3/4 width of the window. The purpose of these vents is to permit moisture to escape and to drain any liquid that forms on the window sill. When vents are missing, frost and ice builds up on the inside of the storm glass and tends to wet the window framing.

Adding storm doors to entryway doors help and will add life to the finish of the main doors. Modern doors are better insulated than construction of 30 years ago. A storm door has less effect on a well insulated main door than one that is not a good isulator. However, in my part of the world, just about every house has storm doors.

I happened to be looking for something on my City's web page. Ran across a Green Loan, money loaned by the city to reduced energy waste/usage.

Windows, heat pump, roof were some of the items included. If it's something you need anyway (which I really need the windows) and you can get a 3 year loan to pay it out, everyone wins.

You might check it out, there were income restrictions. I fall well within the $100,000. per year. -:)

I would be in flamingo heaven in your pretty pink house.

THanks for all the recommendations.

JemDandy, thanks for the thorough explanations.

Last year at this time, we replaced 12 of our most drafty windows and went with high-efficiency replacement windows. We saved the original windows on the front (for aesthetics). The remaining windows had the storms repaired and re-installed (and caulked).

Last year (Summer 2010), we had the exterior painted and the painter applied 40 tubes of caulk to every crack and crevice he could find.

I would have thought those two items alone would have dropped our oil bill a LOT.

Three years prior, we spent way too much money putting andersen storm doors on the three exterior doors. On the fourth door (the front), we put up a wooden storm door (for aesthetics). The four storm doors made quite a difference.

We've now added weatherstripping, had the boiler tuned, and we've closed off our sunporch for the worst of winter. The boiler is an 80% efficient Utica from 2002. It's a good unit.

The attic is insulated. The walls are not, but house has 5/4" planking on all exterior walls, heavy tar paper and then cypress clapboards. Inside, there's a scratch coat, brown coat and finish coat of plaster, or about 1-1/4" of plaster. In other words, it's an unusually thick wall, inside and out, with dead air space between the two.

The house was custom built by a man who owned the local lumber yard.

A heating bill of $600 is obscene for this house. Without the sunporch, we're heating less than 2,000 square feet.

There are a couple big problems: 10' ceilings on the first floor and 9' on the second floor. The other problem is my husband. He keeps the heat at 70 degrees, which is pretty darn toasty. He grew up cold, and he refuses to be cold now (in his old age). He's 58 by the way.

Today, a trustworthy heating contractor came out. He recommended a high efficiency gas-fired "on demand" boiler, which he says will cut heating costs to $150 a month. I'm in a neighborhood of like houses, and two of my neighbors - suffering the same conundrum as me - said they went from $600 a month heating bills (oil-fired boilers) to $160 a month or less.

As much as it pains me, I think I have to do this. Cost: $7,500.

Rose

We watch Holmes on Homes all the time and learn so much about all manner of stuff home related. I was surprised to learn just how much you lose if your ducting is not taped at each and every connection point and screw hole, sealing all duct work is essential, other wise you are paying big money to simply let the conditioned air just blow out those leaks and not go to the areas they should be going to. That will be one of the first things I will have looked at and make sure that the proper metallic tape is used which is not that silver gray duct tape we all use for everything, that stuff is not proper for actual ducts.
Even if a system is changed out and the existing duct work is not inspected and fully taped there will be significant loss.
On a recent show we watched they recorded with instruments over 20% increase in heat flow through the grates after having the ducts inspected and taped.

We have a 4000 sq ft house and use natural gas forced air our highest gas bill this winter was this last one which was $110. In summer here in Houston it gets very very hot our unit is all electric and I think our highest bill was in the $400 range. We could definitely befit from some more insulation and having the duct work fully checked for leaks.

Your house is absolutely beautiful and I love your color choice.

2 more ideas - To battle your high ceilings, where the heat all hovers (hot air rises), might you consider ceiling fans that would push the warm air back down to husband level?

You can also insulate behind all switchplates. That helps amazingly.

Can you blow insulation into the walls? We did that on a 1950's brick ranch. That and new windows made a world of difference in comfort.

Our new (2001) house is so tight I can't hear a car pull up in front. Our DOG can't hear anyone at the front door until the doorbell is rung.

Our two-stage (natural gas fired) forced air furnace keeps an even temperature and feeds humidity into the house. Your DH would feel warmer if the air were humidified. Our gas bills for Dec. and Jan. averaged $277; daily temps averaged 20 degrees. Thermostat is set at 68 days and 64 overnight. Two 50-gal water heaters and a clothes dryer also use gas.

The house is 2900 sq ft, single story, brick and stucco w/nine-foot ceilings and two cathedrals. Lots of big windows and french doors (Pella). We're a couple miles from Lake Michigan, north of Chicago.

In about three years you'll have paid for the new boiler in savings -- spending $450 less per month in winter. The payoff may happen even faster if oil continues to rise in price. But, using radiators, how do you humidify -- or cool in summer?

I'm sure the consultant gave you plenty of ideas, but if that's his best plan, I'd say go for it. It will actually pay for itself in less than two years if you will be saving $440 a month. Ouch--sure hurts though, doesn't it? It will probably be cleaner, too.