How much does it cost to heat your home?

I know that climate and location differ a lot but is it expensive?

I am in the Midlands of the UK, rural location so no gas.

We have oil fueled(kerosene) central heating/water an open fire in the living room and electric cooking.

I spend about £500 a year on kerosene and wood I use offcuts from the workshop/collect over the summer and get big ton bags of free sawdust bricks from a local joinery shop so I think I have it pretty cheap compared to most. I know when I had gas in the past it was a lot more than I spend now.

a reply to: nonspecific

I believe about 120 a month gas bill in the colder months. Sometimes a little more.

originally posted by: Fools
a reply to: nonspecific

I believe about 120 a month gas bill in the colder months. Sometimes a little more.

Is that a lot?

We have a gas furnace in central Oklahoma, while this is the first month we've needed heat it usually runs around $175-275 ish with the wife running the thermo at 70-75F.

a few previous years Ive paid in the $300 range but that was before she had a job...LOL

a reply to: nonspecific

I pay anywhere from 40-80 USD a month for gas.

1200 euros a year. Location the Netherlands and I'm in temporary accommodation. I actually pay more than some people with their own flat. I have one room only.

New england, usa

when I had my own home and actually made the place effecient, I got it down to about 200 gallons of fuel oil ($2/gallon) a year- plus maybe $10-20 a month in electricity for the heat pumps on edge seasons.

Living in a rental now, and winter is coming in fast- starting to feel like it has no insulation at all. Not sure what it costs yet, but we're burning through propane quickly.

A eight room wood slat house built in 1923 with no insulation. I heat or cool only the living room and my bedroom. As high as 160 to heat, and about 100 to cool USD. But if I burn the wood stove, I can cut it by half.

originally posted by: nonspecific

originally posted by: Fools
a reply to: nonspecific

I believe about 120 a month gas bill in the colder months. Sometimes a little more.

Is that a lot?

No, I have about 1800 square feet all together so I think its pretty good. Thats USD btw. Where I live there are about 40 freeze/thaw cycles in the winter months so some days it might be fairly mild to other days below 0. I would say the average temp for the whole season is 40 degrees F.

a reply to: nonspecific

I had an energy star certified house facing north, the heat & electric is combined here, and it ran around 300 in the winter months. I now live in a much bigger non energy star house that is somewhat drafty and the electric/gas runs around 200 months. The only things I can think of is that our house faces directly South, and we don't have a walk out basement now. Our last house had a lot of trees that shaded it from the South, great in the summer but terrible in the witner. I feel like we were losing a lot of heat in our last basement too. What I am saying, is don't buy into that energy star stuff, a lot has to do with how your house is oriented, the windows vs. wind direction, and if trees shade the sun. My last house was insulated much much better than this house. The other ironic thing is that we have the exact same furnace in this house as last, so no efficiency difference there.

Ya it depends on house size, how well insulated and temp. For instance, I'm in Iowa. I moved into a brand new home 2 years ago. The new house doubled the size of our hold one but we pay about the same. We use natural gas and I would say we average around $120-$140 per month.

a reply to: nonspecific

I designed my home, which is heavily insulated, double glazed everywhere, uses solar for hot water and LPG for cooking.

It also has large (double glazed) bi-fold glass doors which capture the sun and stores the heat in the polished concrete floors.

So, we shouldn't really have to heat our home (unless someone leaves the doors open and lets the heat out) but we have run heaters a few days a year.

Our biggest electrical cost is running the water pumps and bio-cycle sewage treatment but I'm looking into separate photovoltaic systems for those at some stage (I'm hoping prices will tumble soon as new tech happens). Oh, and the biggest instantaneous load is the jug for making cuppas (we went back to using an old jug because the new one drew too much power).

And I have a number of computers, some which run 24/7.

But I'd highly recommend insulation as the most cost effective way to reduce the bills.

I briefly toyed with the idea of heat pumps (for heating and cooling) but can't justify the initial cost at this point.

Oh, and North Island New Zealand has very moderate temperatures.

a reply to: nonspecific

Its kind of ironic, here in Australia, the bigger issue is, how much it costs to keep your house cool.

Even where I live in Melbourne where it can get to what I consider to be brutally cold in the winter. Sometimes below 5 degrees celsius during the night, which is way to cold for any rational human being to endure, imo...

Anyway, just a total estimate, but with my split system, it probably costs about $600 to $800 USD a year to keep my house warm during winter while I'm home, it'd be much less if I wasn't always to lazy to just put on a jumper though, lol...

You'd probably have to add $200 to that estimate when it comes to cooling my house during summer...

When it gets to cold, you always have the option of just putting on more clothes, if you don't won't to pay for the luxury of artificial warmth. But in the summer, you only have the choice of either paying up for the luxury of a cool house or just sweating it out like a pig...

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: nonspecific

Its kind of ironic, here in Australia, the bigger issue is, how much it costs to keep your house cool.

Even where I live in Melbourne where it can get to what I consider to be brutally cold in the winter. Sometimes below 5 degrees celsius during the night, which is way to cold for any rational human being to endure, imo...

Anyway, just a total estimate, but with my split system, it probably costs about $600 to $800 USD a year to keep my house warm during winter while I'm home, it'd be much less if I wasn't always to lazy to just put on a jumper though, lol...

You'd probably have to add $200 to that estimate when it comes to cooling my house during summer...

When it gets to cold, you always have the option of just putting on more clothes, if you don't won't to pay for the luxury of artificial warmth. But in the summer, you only have the choice of either paying up for the luxury of a cool house or just sweating it out like a pig...

Yeah it's not all gravy just because it's hot a lot eh?

Here in the UK it never gets hot long enough to justify aircon so it is awful at home when it is summer and actually hot.

I use about three hundred gallons of oil in the furnace and about five singles of wood to heat our house. That five singles cuts the oil consumption in half, so it saves a lot of money. We have a kitchen woodstove, it heats the whole house but it needs to have wood put in it every forty minutes or so, one chunk about the size of my fist around, two bigger armloads will last all day. It gets kind of hot with the woodstove though, it keeps the house at around seventy five even at twenty below zero Fahrenheit Plus we can cook on the top and in the oven, don't need a microwave in the winter. I made a big pot of oxtail soup the other day on it.

Our house is about two thousand square feet, two story, with a thousand square foot heated basement.

Ohio here, I used to live in a mobile home with propane that would run about $250-300 a month during winter. Ridiculously expensive.

Bought a house a couple years ago with Natural gas and the highest bill I have had so far was just a tad over $100

ETA: My house is 1200 Sq ft

originally posted by: mymymy
Ohio here, I used to live in a mobile home with propane that would run about $250-300 a month during winter. Ridiculously expensive.

Bought a house a couple years ago with Natural gas and the highest bill I have had so far was just a tad over $100

I wish they would bring natural gas out here, but that is the problem living out in the country, it doesn't pay for them to run gas out here.

My entire utility bill, gas, electricity, water, sanitation fee, taxes, etc is usually around $200 per month. Gas this month was $6.40. I have a gas water heater, gas stove and gas furnace. During the harshest Winter, the gas part of the bill is around $22 - $25 per month. I keep my thermostat at 68.
If you're chilly, put on a sweater.

I'm not totally sure what ours is, but I do know it's less because husband runs the thermostat in winter and likes it sub-zero in the house, so it's cold in here!

I don't think we go out of the $200s on any month though and our house is drafty as heck.

You should ask the square footage of the house also.
That will help with an apples to apples comparison.

I have a 1500 sq foot house.
Everything is electric. Heat, air, hot water, well pump, clothes dryer.
Family of three.

We average around $250 a month. Higher in the winter, lower all summer.