Heating Costs to Make Consumers Sweat this Winter

[medbiller777]

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers will pay 10 percent more to warm their homes this winter, with the seasonal cost for all heating fuels averaging $997, or $88 more, than last year, the government said on Tuesday.

Heating oil will be the most expensive fuel, followed by propane, natural gas and electricity, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its annual winter forecast, which runs from October 1 through March 31.

Government weather experts say this winter will be colder than last year's, but warmer than the average winter over the last 30 years.

"Because of expected colder weather, U.S. heating fuel consumption is projected to increase compared with last winter," the EIA said.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300438,00.html

I know that ya'll are independently wealthy like I am...that this won't affect our lives..but just wanted to let ya'll know about it! (Sarcasm smilie not available!):hehee

[Issachar]

If I still have my house, I'll be especially glad for the wood stove.
(working in this hot summer splitting wood will pay off after all I guess.)

Issachar

[ginger]

We need a wood stove or outside wood burner. We have a wood pellet stove, but it doesn't put off enough heat to heat the whole house. I wish we would have just gotten a wood stove, they seem to put off more heat.

[medbiller777]

If I still have my house, I'll be especially glad for the wood stove.
(working in this hot summer splitting wood will pay off after all I guess.)

Issachar
If I don't get a wood stove its going to be a very cold winter at my house! Couldn't afford gas last winter, my house is very old and they didn't believe in insulation back then!

[HisAlways]

We need a wood stove or outside wood burner. We have a wood pellet stove, but it doesn't put off enough heat to heat the whole house. I wish we would have just gotten a wood stove, they seem to put off more heat.We were thinking about getting a pellet stove, so I'm glad I read this.

We like a wood-burning stove too, but they really dry the house out.

[farmgirl]

If you keep a big cast iron kettle on the wood stove full of water things don't get quite as dry.

We are relying solely on the wood stove for heat this winter. Does anyone know how to make the fire burn slower or not go out so you don't have to get up at three in the morning to start another fire? How do you keep it going over night? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[SummerSailing81]

We live in a condo without a fireplace, so the woodstove is out. Thankfully, we live on the third floor and heat rises so even with the thermostat turned down to about 68 during the day and 65 at night, with fleece clothing during the day and quilts and blankets at night, we stayed toasty last winter. Actually, with our new more-efficient AC/furnace our electric bills last winter were about on par with the year before - didn't notice a big hike.

[Cindy S.]

If you keep a big cast iron kettle on the wood stove full of water things don't get quite as dry.

We are relying solely on the wood stove for heat this winter. Does anyone know how to make the fire burn slower or not go out so you don't have to get up at three in the morning to start another fire? How do you keep it going over night? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!


I've been heating solely with wood for 5 years.

Load the stove up real full and put the draft on the lowest setting.

[Issachar]

Does anyone know how to make the fire burn slower or not go out so you don't have to get up at three in the morning to start another fire? How do you keep it going over night? Here is what I do:

Before going to bed, I open the damper (exhaust) and the flue (air intake) all the way for maximum air flow and put in some small logs and let it burn very hot for a bit to get a good bed of coals on the floor of the stove. Then I take very short logs and pack as many in the fire box as I can. I cut a bunch of logs really short in the summer just for the night burn. When they are really short, you can pack a lot of them in. Then I let them get going pretty good and shut the damper and shut down the flue almost all the way. This minimum air flow keeps the wood burning slow and hot enough to keep the house warm but not too warm. Good for sleeping. I'm always the first up (I only sleep about five and a half hours ... unless I sleep in. Then I get six to six and a half.). So I stoke it up again in the morning. I use the poker and get all the hot coals on one side and shovel out the ash into the ash bucket. Then I move the coals over to the clean side and empty the ash out of the second side. Then I spread the coals back out over the floor of the stove and put in some new logs. By doing this process, I go for weeks without the stove going out. Usually if it goes out, it's because it got up in the 30's (That's about 2 degree for the Canadian geese) or warmer and I let it go out or we had to go away for a whole day or overnight and I let the gas furnace kick on at about 64 degrees (That's about 17 degrees for you Canadian folk :) ).

For nubes: BTW, use hard wood. Best is apple (highest btu rating) or oak; red or white and/or some maple ... stay away from willow, cotton wood, etc. They stink (smelly), never dry out if they get wet and burn crummy. Pine burns super but gunks up the chimney too fast. BTW, keep your chimney clean. With a lot of use, at least one cleaning per season. Stack wood up off of ground or on stone that is well drained. You dont' want your wood directly on the ground or it will rot, get bugs and rodents ....

Issachar

[farmgirl]

Thank you so much for the info! I knew there would be someone who knew on RR. Do you clean your own chimney? How do you do it? We need to clean ours, we do use some pine. We use whatever we can find thats free. Unfortunately with the constant dampness in Washington, getting that fire going in the morning can be a challenge, so I really appreciate knowing how to keep it going overnight.