Not oil, but propane. $2.53 a gal. Filled up two weeks ago.

No, my house is all electric and thankfully my provider has only increased the charge .005 cents per KW so far so my bills have only been about $5 per month higher than last year.

Our provider is a co-op that burns Powder River Basin coal.

I lived in New Jersey for a couple years and the house we rented burned oil and I hated it.

We have few options where we live and electric is even more expensive than fossil fuels - we tried for a permit when we built our addition for a woodburning stove but couldn't make it fly. I miss the concentrated warmth of a woodburner in the winter. Need to have windows kind of open even in a snowstorm to sleep comfortably.

we used to when we were on the farm

We used to use oil heat too, but it's been years since we fired up our 1950s furnace. I don't miss the smell and soot. And our furnace is in the center of the house - no basements here. When we had a new roof put on, they removed the chimney, so we couldn't use it now, even if we wanted to.

I do recall not that long ago, listening to a news story from Alaska about how much fuel costs residents there. 1 woman said her fuel bill was around $1400/month - but this was awhile back.

seagrass....How long will a tank last?

One gallon of propane has 90,000 BTUs of energy. One gallon of fuel oil has considerably more, almost 140,000 BTUs, so a gallon vs gallon price comparison is not useful . One gallon of fuel oil provides heat equivalent to a bit more than 1.5 gallons of propane, assuming both are being used in appliances of comparable combustion efficiency.

World market conditions have driven up the prices of fuel oil (which is the same as diesel) and natural gas in recent months, not so much for propane. Most of the time, prices are such that fuel oil is a less expensive energy source than propane.

" We have few options where we live and electric is even more expensive than fossil fuels "

I suspect the electric heating you're referring to is from the old fashioned resistance type devices, like toasters and electric ovens use. Even in New England, heating produced by modern electric heat pumps, which can produce comparable levels of heating with at times as little as 25% of the power a resistance unit would use, is likely to be less expensive than from using fuel oil.

Coal is first on the list of power sources that will be discontinued for power generation. Similar steps afoot for home heating, where combustion appliances will be phased out. Most Americans will have primarily heat pump heating in 30 years or less.

Nicole - depends on how cold it gets. This tank is certainly good after the New Year. Neither one of us minds the chill, but we do have to prevent our pipes from freezing.

Elmer - we live very remotely and all of our neighbors are seasonal, summer people and most of the properties around us were built with baseboard electic heat. They close their houses, drain their pipes and set their thermostats to minimun in the winter. DH is the Mayor of our beach road and has a key to almost every house - he troubleshoots for people in the off-season. We have an old furnace that keeps chugging along...There is an ongoing rage against a proposed windfarm in the sound between Cape Cod and Nantucket. We got used to seeing windmills when we lived in Europe, but NIMBY - you know? Don't tell multi-millionaires in Chatham they're going to have an eyesore from their view...

The house I grew up in suburban Chicago originally used oil. Apparently, back in the day, oil was considered to be the clean, modern alternative to coal. Probably more so with natural gas, but gas wasn't freely available (hook up whenever you want). The homes in the tract development were divided: one side of the street had all natural gas but the other side (where we lived) only had a gas hot water heater (go figure) but oil heat and electric range and dryer. My dad requested a change over to gas heat but the gas company put us on a waiting list. It wasn't until I think the mid-60's that one could change to natural gas without any special consideration or waiting list. My grammar school had a large tube boiler that was dual fuel - gas and oil. There were two large in-ground oil tanks. I don't know what triggered a decision to switch to oil or gas. Eventually, they didn't switch and stayed on gas. Those in-ground tanks eventually deteriorated and were removed at considerable expense with soil clean up.

I remember a coal bin in the house I lived in when I grew up in northern Ohio. Dad had to go down into the basement to stoke it in the winter. It was a dirty, smelly thing. We have a fuel tank in our basement now...our furnace is from 1991. We always talk about replacing it with natural gas but there was a very long moratorium on new gas services where we live because of infrastructure problems so we're not there yet...

At the end of October, we paid $5.29 per gallon at the riverhouse which is not our primary home. The cost per gallon is $1 more than the cost last February, so about 20% increase. We used a little more than a tank- of 245 gallons last winter. . We are not at the house during January and February, but the thermastat is set to 60. The burner is high efficiency, new, and clean. . The house is well insulated and has high efficiency windows and doors.

As far as I know and it has been my experience that heat pumps are not effective heat producers when the temperatures dip to 15 or below with wond chill. They cannot keep up even with thermasta set to 60. In future years there will be many cold uncomfortable people tryng to stay warm. Heat pumps need back up systems.

Happy - we live with very furry, insulated Australian Shepherds and they can keep us warm in the winter. Never had one reluctant to leave the house in a classic nor'easter. I did have to boot one of our former guys off of the porch to go pee in a rainstorm, though!

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We had oil heat for most of the 47 years I've lived in this house, but last year I replaced the oil burner with a propane burner. It was supposed to save me a lot of money, but that was the year fuel prices went crazy. Fortunately, economics wasn't my only reason for switching: I wanted the advantage of being able to vent the propane through the back wall of the house so that the woodstove could have the chimney all to itself. It's worked out very well.

I used to keep my house very cool because I liked it that way. It's still cooler than many homes I've been in, but I'm not as cold tolerant as I used to be. I turn the thermostat up a bit higher now, and look forward to building a fire in the woodstove in late afternoon. Not only is this nice and cozy, but my bedroom with a vent in the floor above the stove benefits from the radiant heat. Otherwise it would be mighty cold at bedtime. Thanks to Raynaud's, I still keep an electronic hand warmer in my pocket most of the time.

No need for lap throws when you have those two beauties to keep you warm.

We heat 3 houses. One has oil circulating hot water; another propane and heat pump, and our main home is natural gas. We have the whole gamut. As I said we are away during January and February. The thermostats in all 3 are set to 60 most of the time when we are away. I do raise the temp remotely when the forecast calls for temps in the twenties or below especially at the riverhouse because it is an older home and I worry about frozen pipes.

The most recent charge for propane was $3.20 compared to $3.03 last year at this time.

There is pros and cons to oil or propane. We have propane because that is what the camp had when we bought it. The furnace, stove, hot water tank and dryer are all run on propane. I'm not about to replace everything to switch to oil or electric. Most people in the area use propane, unless your in a larger town that has natural gas.

In Ontario, oil is 2.43L. This is all that is available in our area. So we installed, wood stove in basement and pellet on the main floor.

" Most people in the area use propane, unless your in a larger town that has natural gas. "

If you're in a neighborhood where everyone smokes, does that mean it isn't a poor choice and a dangerous thing to do?

In much of the Midwest and East, heating consumes far more energy than other household uses. Heating water with an electric heat pump water heater, as an example, is cheaper than using propane. I'm sure fuel oil is available, it's all a matter of choice and priorities.

" .our furnace is from 1991. "

I hope you have it serviced annually and as part of the work, that the heat exchanger is inspected for leaks. And carbon monoxide testing is done. Most furnaces don't last much over 20 years in your area and they get dangerous because of emitting poisonous combustion products to the interior air when they start to fail.

Interesting but if there are no natural gas lines in an area you will have to use what is available. Even today there are many areas of the US and Canada that have no residential gas lines and have to rely on other types of fuel.

"heat pumps are not effective heat producers when the temperatures dip to 15 or below"

Heat pumps lose output as the temperature drops, it's quite true. There are heat pumps designed for cold weather areas that can be quite capable to lower temps than was true with equipment sold some years ago. Yes, supplemental systems can be required for very cold temps.

Heat pumps these days can be relied upon down into the 30s, and some, lower. For sure not as a sole source of heat for areas with long stretches of very cold weather.

Where there's space on the lot to trench or bore, ground source heat pumps (sometimes intentionally/mistakenly referred to as "geothermal" for marketing reasons) on their own can provide adequate heating even to and below 0 degrees.

If you consider that 1) many areas that have stretches of colder weather may still have long periods when 20s to 40s are more common, and 2) A heat pump is nothing more than an air conditioner with a few added pieces of equipment to allow it to run in reverse, "Getting a heat pump" may involve nothing more complicated than getting a slightly different piece of equipment when it comes time to replace existing A/C hardware. All A/C equipment companies make heat pump models too and as far as appearances are concerned, they look exactly the same.

We have three fireplaces but only ever used the one in the dining room with a wood stove. We used it for 40 years but my husband is getting too old to split and stack wood and carry it in the house. And daughter was worried we'd have a house fire even though we were cautious. My cats used to always lie in a row on the farm table in front of the stove—I pity today's cats who never experienced it. We have a gas furnace replacing the oil burner that came with the house when we moved in.

I moved last Dec. from where I heated with a wood stove to my new, tight little house with a Fujitsu heat pump system. The heat it generates is nothing like that from a wood stove and I now wear long underwear around the house to stay warm. Of course, I no longer have to bring in wood, feed the stove, clean the ashes--but I sure do miss that wood stove heat.

The system is working properly and does do cooling during the summer, but still......

We had oil at our old house. In our current house, we heat and cool with geothermal -- yes Elmer that's what we call it -- and have had no problems with heating the home even in the coldest weather. We have 5kw of solar panels on the house to help offset the electricity costs. We also have closed cell insulation. And we burn about 2 cord of wood each year. We are happy to wave at oil trucks as they drive by our home and never stop. We do have propane which we use for our instant hot water heaters, our generator, and our gas fireplace.

I agree that the concentrated heat from a wood stove can be something special in the winter and would miss it if we didn't have it. But I find the heat from the gas fireplace also provides that intensity that I crave in the winter. So if you can't get a wood stove in your area, I'd suggest looking at propane as an alternative.

We recently had to relace our gas range at a breathtaking cost...it's fueled by propane. There is natural gas that brackets our street but we have not tapped into it. We have a fireplace in our dining room (previously our living room before our addition) but we never use it. Not a cozy location. We lived in a house many years ago where we had a woodstove and I miss it...

I was reading last night about some of the newer heat pumps for colder areas. Since much of the country has winter temperatures below 30 for weeks at a time they sound interesting vs. the current ones where backup is needed for most of the winter. Since the third week of October this area has had only a couple of nights that the temperature was above the low 30s. Installation would be interesting as the limestone ledges are near the surface. Water lines are required to be 6 feet underground to help prevent bursting during our really cold winters I suspect any heat pump tubes would need to be that depth or deeper. No going straight down because of the limestone.

maifleur, easily corroded copper is used for refrigerant lines for air conditioners/heat pumps and it's rarely if ever buried. If you said "never", that would be close.

Most everyone is familiar with outdoor air conditioning compressor units. They're typically installed within a foot or two from the exterior wall of the structure and the copper refrigerant pipes (one of a larger diameter, one smaller) are covered with a foam-like insulation. Other than that foot or two, they're inside the structure.

For a heat pump install, the outdoor equipment is exactly the same in size and appearance. The innards are slightly different, to allow the equipment to run forwards and backwards. If you want to think of A/C operation as forward, cold refrigerant flows to the indoor heat exchanger. It absorbs the heat of the interior by giving off its cold temp to indoor air that circulates through it and the heat absorbed is "pumped" to the outside unit. If you hold your hand over the top of the outdoor unit, you'll feel the heat that was removed from indoors being dispersed. In backward, heating mode, the system absorbs heat from the outside air and the warm refrigerant is pumped to the inside. Inside, indoor air flows through a coil and absorbs the heat. The cold absorbed from the indoor air by the refrgerant flows outside and is expelled by the condenser. If you hold your hand over the condenser top in heating mode, you'll find it's cold.

Even cold air has "heat" that can be extracted, it's just that the colder the air, the less heat it has.

For ground source heat pumps (called "geothermal" but really not that), if loops in trenches are used, they're buried below the frost line where there is one. Several feet below ground level, soil rarely gets below 45 degrees. A perfect temperature to extract heat for heating or to deposit heat for cooling. The loops are made of plastic and the fluid in them is usually some form of antifreeze or an antifreeze mixture. The liquid gives off either heat or cold to the equipment indoors (depending on which mode is used) and after being heated or cooled, it returns to circulate to the ground to return to ground temperature and be used again.

Elmer heat pumps in this area often have lines installed in the ground. I have never checked to see what they are made from. There are two methods. The pipes where there is not enough room to run lateral lines the lines are inserted down into the ground. Where there is enough room they are placed horizontally.

As far as the temperature rarely getting below 45 that will depend on where you are located. Winter with snow you may be right. Winter without the snow insulation there is a reason for the water pipes entering a home to be buried 6 feet below the surface.

What's a lateral line?

As for burying linesets, it has nothing to do with the weather. The lineset runs outside of the house are typically very short, a few feet at most. And, of course, one of the two pipes is hot and the other is cool not cold, they can't freeze. Water pipes, a completely different story.

Just added a sweater - DH scaled back the thermostat...he spends more money on fuel for his Porsche at track events than we probably will this winter but it dosen't really matter. If i get too cold I'll just add another blanket.

"Easily corroded copper is used for refrigerant lines for air conditioners/heat pumps"

This is a misleading statement and copper used in Air conditioning/refrigeration is normally immune to corrosion unless subjected to oxidizing acids such as sulfur and ammonia.

Fact is mechanical codes require all copper piping used on a premises during installation Type ACR complying with ASTM B280 or ASTM B819. Only 3 types can only be used and would be UNS C10200, C12000, or C12200 copper alloy tubing. With addition to unique properties for this copper the wall thickness is about 30% to 40% thicker than thinner copper used for water pipes. I've never seen copper tubing corrode in a A/C system, but have seen pipe wear through and stress cracks due to vibration as the common failure. Carry on.

You've seen copper outdoors or in contact with the ground not corrode?

" Kevin - I wish you were my friend. "

Maybe not.

I despise my heat pump. It's currently 51 and I feel like I'm in a freezer. The thermostat is set at 70 right now. I'm in my bedroom and have a small heater right next to me and about to put a sweater on because I'm still cold.

@seagrass_gw Cape Cod, just curious, what prevented you from getting a permit for a woodstove?

I did find a cure for feeling cold...do an elbow plank...it'll warm you right up.

Jrb - the intersection of the roof on our addition with the existing house was too high for it to vent and meet code, as I recall.

Elmer - you are relentless.

seagrass, I think the venting/chimney requirements aren't as stringent for a gas burning stove vs. wood...

I'd give anything to be sitting in front of a fire right now. The wind is howling off of the bay - windows and doors are shaking.

I miss the gas fireplaces in my last house. It didn't have the sound of a wood burning fire, but it was so nice waking up in the AM by the fire. I liked the convenience of switching it on and off when wanted.

Our present house only has wood burning fireplaces. The one we never used and the other only once in a while. I love the warmth, but not the dragging in the wood and clean up.

Camp is small (1300 sq ft) and really doesn't have the room for a fireplace :(

I don't miss the bugs that came in with the firewood LOL!

We paid $6.88 Cdn, excluding taxes, for the equivalent of 1 gallon (in October)

Wow!