Technobabble

What Does it Cost to Heat Your Home?

Posted by on Mar 2, 2010 | 4 Comments

Home heating costs can be a budget breaker. When I tally up the amount spent on heating oil here at Ranchero Indebto each winter, it makes me wince. We have an oil-fired hot-water boiler with an appetite for pricey fuel oil. The last delivery of 200 gallons of heating oil cost over $600.

We typically get one delivery of heating oil each month. This can really add up over the course of a winter. In the past, we’ve used a budget plan to spread the heating costs over the entire year. But these days, I like to pay for the heating oil when it’s delivered, as there’s a bit of discount for paying in cash.

To paraphrase Eddie Vedder, oil in the tank is like money in the bank. Except that the piggy bank empties itself, month-after-month.

One of these days (hopefully this year), we’ll get around to upgrading the boiler and switch to natural gas. From the calculations I’ve seen, our heating costs could be cut nearly in half with a switch to a highly-efficient boiler. Installing new windows and doors, along with added insulation can bring costs down even further.

The trick, of course, is paying for it all …

  • Theodore

    For as long as I can remember, my father has placed plastic over the windows and unused doors to keep his heating costs down. It is some sort of special plastic that he purchases, tapes over the window and uses a hair dryer to make it shrink. Once completed you have a hard time telling there is something covering the window. While this does drastically lower heating costs according to my father, you have to be careful. I have seen in the news locally where one man sealed his home up so well that he suffocated from Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide poisoning.

  • Ryan

    I upgraded to a new boiler called the System 2000, and it is oil fired and cut my fuel bill by about 45%. All I changed was the boiler, nothing else.

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  • Eric L.

    I live in the northeast and have owned my home for 5 yrs… Now I do have natural gas so it’s a little different… but prior yrs I paid over $2000.00 to heat this 1200sqft house… Although the weather hasn’t been so bad this year here, I’ve also coverted the attic into a bedroom, I also stumbled upon some badly installed insulation during preping the room. The total room contruction cost including insulation, sister rafters and studs, sheetrock. wiring, etc… was $750.00…. my heating bill this year was under $600.00 so far this year, and the last few days here it’s been warm enough to shut the heat off during the day and let some fresh air in. As a past oil delivery guy I can tell you that if your system is over 30yrs old you my want to have it looked at and maybe concider upgrading….deffinatly look into insulation and stopping any drafts you might have. I would not recommend converting to propane, but natural gas is a little more stable on prices and can sometimes be cheaper…. I myself like small monthly bills, plus your always protected by the winter shut off protection plan should you run into financial issues (at least in my area there is that plan)…. The other thing you might concider is contacting your electric co. or FCAC (fuel assistance program) for either help or at least a free energy audit…. you get a lot of free things…. including reduced furnace replacement costs…. and that service is free to everyone in the USA to my knowledge. I’m not income eligable for assistance but I got a new refrigerater along with other smaller things through the free energy audit.

    Hope I answered your question and maybe told you something you didn’t already know …. if not maybe someone else will find it helpful.