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I have Fuel oil to both heat my home and for hot water supply. I just wrote out a check for $ 405.00 for 100 gallons of fuel oil. The supplier informed me it would go up even more this summer to approximately 4.50 a gallon. I know I am not the only one getting hit hard here but how do some of you on this message board make the fuel oil last? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!!!!
Pay very careful attention to how much you heat your house. Be careful of when and where. For instance we have not used the baseboard heat in any rooms but the bathrooms for years. Electric blankets keep the bed warm. We use a direct radiant space heater in the living room during the winter. It heats us, not the room. We also have 12 ft of insulated glass doors facing South East. Makes a great direct solar collector. Our next step is more insulation in the attic.
I think the time has passed that a large house can be heated with baseboard heat with only one thermostat to 75 deg in the winter and cooled below that in the summer.
I have Fuel oil to both heat my home and for hot water supply. I just wrote out a check for $ 405.00 for 100 gallons of fuel oil. The supplier informed me it would go up even more this summer to approximately 4.50 a gallon. I know I am not the only one getting hit hard here but how do some of you on this message board make the fuel oil last? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!!!!
It all depends upon how your house is laid out. The first house in which I lived was an older 3-story house which was sectioned into two apartments. My apartment was on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Well, when I didn't have a tenant downstairs, I would turn the thermostat down to about 44 degrees... just warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing. I had a small electric space heater in the bedroom which, when working on its low setting, would keep the bedroom at a more-than-adequate 62 degrees. I'd then wear a coat when I was in the rest of the house.
Right now, it's 52 degrees outside (gotta love PA in May) and my furnace is off. It's been off since the middle of April, despite how the house has sometimes gotten down to 45 degrees since then. Yes, it's cold. However, I am currently using a space heater for where I am... and at night, I put the space heater between the bathroom and bedroom (with both doors closed) so that it will heat only those two rooms. They'll stay around 60, which is fine by me. During the day, if there is enough sun or outside heat to allow this, I open the door from the porch into the living room and turn on the fan. The enclosed porch with all of its windows acts like a sun room, and will normally heat up to about ten degrees above outside temperature. Blowing that hotter air into the house will eventually heat it up well enough.
Do you want my best suggestion as to how you can save on fuel oil costs?
Moving south is surely not a money-saving solution when it comes to rising oil prices...
-The south is more spread out, which is not necessarily a bad thing at all. But southern cities are designed around cars and highways, so you'll be driving a lot more to commute, run errands, etc. A few southern cities have subway systems, but they are not built up into the suburbs to the point where you can use them as your main source of transportation.
-Your heating bill will certainly be lower in the winter, but watch out for that summer A/C bill! My aunt and uncle have a 2000 sf house in Florida and they are seeing $300-$400/mo. A/C bills! That is far too much.
That being said, I do like a lot of things about the south. It just isn't a good place to go if you're concerned about spending less $$ on oil.
Still cheaper to cool than to heat and it's easier to tolerate heat than cold. At least IMHO it is!
you got that right, cause I hate heat with a passion.
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