If it's cold where you live, what are you heating with and what is it costing?

[4570Man]

It's not the Artic here in NC but, it's too cold to be comfortable. We heat with wood with heat pump back-up... As for the cost:

Wood is free for the taking.
Truck: $35,000
chainsaws (plural) $1200
log splitter: $500 (got a deal)
tractor to load & move wood $25,000
Annual Fuel for above $200
wood stove insert $1800
Misc. costs $200
Chiropractor & Physical Therapist $233 (Medicare deductible)

We're comfortable... at 72-75 degrees

My trade is construction so I didn’t buy this to cut a few thousand dollars of firewood but I was thinking the other day how much money I was using to cut firewood lol. My more direct cost to cut my year supply of wood is a few hundred dollars of fuel plus the labor to do it. I sell a few cords a year and in past years I’ve sold considerably more to offset the saws and splitter cost.

 

[Oaktree]

These are unique times here in NH - electric costs just went from .22/KWH to .34/KWH this fall over 50% increase from last year,

Who is your electric provider? We have Eversource, and the rate is .22/kWh (electricity only, not including "delivery" charges), though that's a bit more than a 100% increase from what it was 6 months ago. I checked pricing for "alternative providers" online, and they were within a couple cents of Eversource...not enough to make a noticeable difference in the bill.

To answer the OP's question, primary heat source is wood (woodstove in the living room) with a FHA oil furnace as backup. We rarely use the furnace...I don't even remember when we last filled the tank, it was at least 5 years ago, still ~75% full. We almost never go away in the winter so about the only time the furnace is turned on is in the spring or fall when the house is a bit chilly but not cold enough to warrant lighting the stove.

At my last house wood was mostly free, cut on my property but here it's mostly evergreens and/or trees like poplar. that are pretty much worthless as firewood. Much of it had been logged about 10 years before we moved here, so a lot is new growth. Most of the hardwood we have isn't easily accessible (steep slope or swampy). I'll buy grapple loads every couple years, then cut & split myself with the occasional downed tree or scavenged wood supplementing. One load is good for about 2½ years.

 

[/pine]

‘It’s like living in an igloo.’ People are turning off their heat as prices surge

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/success/home-heating-prices/index.html

 

[5030]

Having heated our home in Ohio with chunk wood from the property (we had 20 acres of woods and I cut was deadfall and dead trees), I don't miss it one bit. Storing wood inside in the basement where the forced air chunk wood burner was, always brought in sleeping bugs that migrated out of the splits and got upstairs plus cleaning out the ashes and disposing of them every other day or so and of course hauling the wood into the basement. With the biomass stove, all it takes is a 40 pound sack of pellets every day and ash cleaning is maybe a weekly deal and it has an ash pan so it's easy and I buy the pellets in full tons on pallets and they go on the barn and no bugs and my corn comes in bags as well.

 

[5030]

My very good friend near Bangor Maine, just too an almost 100% increase in electricity costs from his electric provider. He heats with chunk wood (like a good Mainer does) but it still take electricity to run the circulator pumps and power the lights. Juice is getting pretty darn expensive lately. Diesel is through the roof up his way too. His diesel pickup is garaged and has been.

 

[5030]

Natural gas, free from the well on our rural property.

I have natural gas as well but not the kind that eminates from the ground

 

[not2old]

We have 4600 square feet on two floors, the basement about 3 feet in the ground with a geothermal system that also heats the domestic water when the furnace is working for heat or cooling. We keep the house at 68 in the winter and 76 in the summer. The garage is 650 square feet and we heat it to 56 but do not use the air conditioning. Most of our power costs $.14 KWH at the higher level. Our highest bill ever for ALL electricity was $650.00 for two months in Dec./Jan. and $230.00 for two months July/Aug. A full year cost about $2600.00 last year. I can't be bothered to cut wood to try to reduce this by about $1000.00. My shop isn't finished yet. 1360 square feet with pex in the floor. I plan to hook up a homemade electric boiler and hope the costs for electricity aren't prohibitive. If the costs get too high I'm considering a waste oil boiler and sending some of the hot water to the house. After seeing what some other people pay for heating, I feel I can't complain.

 

[Thomas]

Wood furnace not stove burn around 5 cords starting mid Oct end May...back up electric.

 

[PILOON]

I live in Quebec, Can.
After reading some of the posts I feel much better with my heating costs which are all electric.
It has been a while since I've compared our hydro rates to other areas.
OK, Quebec generates a lot of electricity which we can even export.
On the other hand, where I live, we have frequent power outages so my generator running costs greatly offset any hydro savings, LOL.

 

[bcjmmac]

New Brunswick- north of Maine
Including finished basement ~4000 sq ft/lots of insulation (R2000 if you know what that is)
Geothermal HVAC & Air tight fireplace. Burn a few cord/year that I cut & cure for min 2 years
Not certain of electricity cost, but summer time ~$100 Cdn winter close to $200. Last month was $98
That includes lights, water (on well), etc.