I calculated my oil heating bills for the last 11 winters and the average figures were 917 gallons of oil and $2,702 per year. The average cost per gallon was $2.95, and the low was $1.96 in 2004, and the high was $3.92 in 2013. I used to get employee pricing, and I still get a decent price as last week’s oil delivery cost $2.15 per gallon.
My monthly heating bill for oil has averaged $225. I also have to add another $21 per month for electric costs of the furnace and a small electric heater. So I spend $246 per month on heat living in Upstate NY. I’m curious what others spend and if other heating sources are much lower.
Our electric is solar panels and we pay $7 for monthly connection fee. Our heat is gas and the highest is $250 for one very cold month to about $20 in the summer to heat the water. Our heat is baseboard water. Our cooling is evaporative cooler, very inexpensive but limited to dry areas. Home is 2800 SQ FT. Rocky Mtn area.
I only calculated what we’ve paid for oil from 9/14-9/15. We spent about $2800 or so, but oil was more expensive last year than it is now. We live in central CT and have a 2750 sq ft house. I should add that we keep the downstairs at 65-67, and the upstairs at 61, so someone else who likes their house warmer would’ve spent more to heat my home.
I’m in upstate NY, too. My budget payment this year is $209/month for 11 months - but I usually only have to pay 9 or 10 months. Payment also includes my service contract. House is approx 1900 sq ft. Last years payment started out at $289 but was lowered to $215 when price of oil dropped. I’m in a capped program.
We have an extremely energy efficient boiler/burner (Boderus (sp) )
I keep my home around 68 during the day and drop to 64 at night.
My electric in the winter is approx $75 a month but only a wee fraction goes to keep electric starter on oil heater. My oil also heats my hot water.
Our budget is $220 for 11 months. It may be lowered in the spring if prices stay where they are. Our furnace was 84% efficient when it was cleaned last month. Buderus furnaces are excellent!
We also set our heat to 68 during the daytime and lower it to 62 at night. We added insulation and siding to part of the house so I’m watching our oil usage closer than I did in the past.
3300 sq feet 4 bedrooms. Phila. Pa. We keep 3 bedrooms cold. Dual zones. Variable heater for upstairs.
Daytime temp for retired H downstairs 70. Upstairs 64 all day and night.
Gas heat. High efficiency heaters. Last months bill: $154. total gas (97Ccf) and electric (482KWh) and taxes etc. avg daily temp 56.
Year: ( AC in summer)
GAS. Avg Ccf per month 97. Price right now $.33 Ccf
ELECTRIC Avg KWh per month 576 price right now $.085 Kwh.
$3800/year for oil, averaged for past two years. 2700 sq foot Colonial but another 800 square foot finished basement. Heat rarely run in basement other than to keep pipes from freezing during sub-zero nights. Second floor at 59-60 degrees and ground floor at 66-68. Second floor & basement–baseboard heat, but ground floor has hydro air, an awful system, IMHO. Ground floor has more sq footage than upper floor.
Based on this thread, I think I am paying too much, but that could be a function of living in SW CT where everything is just more expensive.
Interesting timing. H just cleaned out a box of old receipts and found our last oil bill in our old house. Six years ago we paid $800 for the winter quarter for oil heat in our roughly 1500 sq. ft. home (gosh, some of you guys have large homes!). We just got our fall quarter gas bill, which covers heat and hot water in our similar size home. It was $35. The gas heat was one of the reasons we chose this home. We have what the inspectors said is a state of the art furnace. We keep it at a comfy 68-70 during the day and 65 at night. At the old house we kept it as cool as we could without needing to wear a coat indoors because of the high cost.
I ordered oil last week for $1.87/gallon and today it is $1.77. I can’t remember it ever being that low. Our house is a two story Cape Cod home, approximately 1100 sf oil heated and the second floor at 500 square feet heated via electric sources. We use about 1000 gallons per year I would guess so this year somewhere around $2000 or $167/month. Generally keep the house at 68 and don’t touch thermostat except to turn it off mid-April and turn it on mid-October. On those shoulder months we try hard not to put it on and we only use air conditioning on the very hottest of nights, never during the day, and then only in the bedrooms. On the coldest days (30s and less) we turn the bedroom heat on 30 minutes before bed, take the chill out and shut it off when we are ready to sleep. The bathroom blower goes on when the first of us gets up in the am and gets shut off when the last person gets out of the shower so only on for about 30 minutes each cold morning. On those shoulder months we try hard not to put it on. We had solar panels installed this summer and the electric bill has dropped 40% to about $65/month. So, electricity, air conditioning and total heat should run us somewhere between $2500 and $3000 per year at these rates.
We heat about 3400 sq ft with oil. We prepay for 1000 gallons a year. Last winter was the first one where we actually used the whole 1000 gallons. It was bitter cold here…until April. Ours is heat as well as hot water.
Our prepay was high because I didnt wait for prices to drop…$2.59 a gallon. But it is done.
We live in southern New England. I don’t know…but it seems like 900 gallons to hear a cape house that is 1/3 the size of this one is a lot of oil.
Our house is very well insulated and also has double pane Windows with argon between the panes. We keep the temp at 68 during the day, and 55 at night.
Not without tearing things down. Making the windows double is doable. But I would have to give up custom crafted wood frame screens. Not sure I can do that.
You can have insulation pumped into walls. Have no idea what it costs. Only the addition we put on is really well insulated, but when I put all new windows in my house they jammed insulation in around them.
We used to pay $6700 per year for around 1200 gallons of oil to heat our 2400 sf house!! but our cost just dropped to $2800 per year.
On top of that is electricity that’s around $150 per month. We have CAC and keep a hot tub warm.
What’s killing us, however, is our combination Phone/Internet/Cable TV bill, which is almost $200 per month. I’m starting to look for ways to reduce that cost. I’m open to ideas.