OMG... My heating bill is huge

[IL4SQ]

Don, thanks. It was thriving on neglect when we bought it three years ago, but it was relatively un-chopped. Hideous paint inside, and lots of plaster issues, but thankfully except for the bathroom and part of the kitchen no bad prior remodels. The first thing we did was the floors! Here are two more downstairs pics (upstairs not quite as pretty yet!).Still lots of work to go, but I've slowed way down now that it is livable.

[Don M]

Nice fireplace & book shelves; Oh super window seat & wonderful coffered ceiling; very nice! thanks for the photos! Don

[CycloneOfRed]

So our first full month's heating bill for January (plus electric) was $489 plus some change. Our bill for February (plus electric) was $170 and some change. Our gas usage went down by about half, and our electric usage by over half. The only change we made was turning our furnace down from 71 day / 65 night to 68 day / 65 night.

I'm not complaining (at least not about the Febs. bill), but we're certainly mystified at the large discrepancy. Any ideas?

[Don M]

My January electric bill was lower than usual but the February bill was higher than normal. In January I thought, "Oh Good"; in February I thought, "Oh SxxT" & called the electric company. They think the meter was misread in January . They did offer to prorate the bill if I couldn't afford to pay it all at once . Don

[HouseNut]

I remember the title of this thread scaring the heck out of me when I first came here. Now I get to contribute. I love it. lol

Our heat and electric, on equal billing is $503 a month. That's insane. And that's why this year we decided that insulating was top of our list. We just can't afford that.

In the past 2 months we've ripped all the ceilings out of the main floor - the space between the 1st floor ceilings and 2nd floor floors - and when we did we discovered that not only was there no insulation but there were gaps in that space open to the outside. Big gaps. Gaps you could easily pass a pen through. I'm sure some of them were big enough that even snow was getting in in the winter.

So, we've sealed all the holes, sealed the cracks, insulated the heck out of the space and it's crazy... there is already a HUGE difference. When we turned our furnace on a few weeks ago (only half was done) it was running pretty regularly. Yesterday I finished the insulating and this morning I got up and waited over 2 hours for the furnace to go on! And it was 0 outside.

I'm absolutely thrilled with the change and I'm now addicted to insulating.

[Trevi]

My house is already chilly. I was going to say "freezing" but I realized that it IS actually freezing in some places that our audience is checking in from so... I'll stick with chilly.
it's in the mid to low 60's during the day and somewhere in the 40's at night. But the house retains that night time chill all day.

We knew there was little to no insulation in the outside walls but we just never got to it this summer. (We both lost our jobs and money suddenly got very tight! ) So this winter will, again, be a chilly one. We'll probably plastic the windows and use the fireplace a LOT but I think we're in for a large oil and electric bill- AGAIN...

[Don M]

This morning I got up and waited over 2 hours for the furnace to go on! And it was 0 outside.

I'm absolutely thrilled with the change and I'm now addicted to insulating.

Yikes! 0 already ? Congrats on your insulation! Don

[jharkin]

So this winter will, again, be a chilly one. We'll probably plastic the windows and use the fireplace a LOT but I think we're in for a large oil and electric bill- AGAIN...

If that's an open fireplace, keep in mind it probably sucks more heat out of the house and up the chimney than it throws into the room.

I love the fireplace as much as anyone... its great for ambiance, but sadly counterproductive if your goal is to save money....

[jharkin]

I'm rather looking forward to this winter. We now have our new exterior doors installed and wearhtersealed and Im doing a lot more weatherstripping and caulking of the windows, etc so we are making progress on heat loss.

Plus Ive got almost 4 cords of wood stacked out back for the stove

And on top of it all they are predicting the winter natgas rate is going to be even lower than last years bargain rate (77 cents).


~Jeremy

[HouseNut]

Thanks Don. I can't believe how much difference only $400 in insulation made. We've noticed a major difference in how the air feels in the house and my son (he's 13, autistic and has a way with words) mentioned that now when he sits on the toilet he doesn't get that "outside feeling" so I'd have to say we've definitely made progress. lol