How Do You Heat?

[ThomWV]

Poll question: How Do You Heat?

Winter is right around the corner, in some parts of the country furnaces and heat-pumps are running already. What is your source of heat and what are your heating affordable and availability prospects for the '08-'09 heating season?

P.S: Major source, I understand that some homes use more than one heat source but name the one that contributes most to your heating needs.

[Kermitt Gribble]

1. Sunshine :)

The inside temp here never dropped below 65 degrees last winter.

[madokie]

2. Using wood pellets made from waste sawdust

[LostinVA]

7. Me too -- our first year of doing it

[madokie]

31. You're going to love it I would bet

We bought our first pellet stove at the start of the winter of '91-'92
Our son has that first stove now and even after all these years it still works just fine.

[garlicmilkshake]

I read Playgirl

:D

[ThomWV]

3. Our primary source is wood, used to be oil

We have oil-fired hot water heat but in the last couple of years we've made less and less use of it. I installed a large wood-burner and it lowered our oil use tremendously (from a high of 1,000 gallons to the last 2 year's 100 gallons each). We have a large enough woodlot that we will never run out of wood; it grows faster than we cut it.

[LostinVA]

4. Pellet stove was delivered today -- although I wish we could afford geothermal

Ton tons of pellets will be delivered in about two weeks -- that should get us through the winter (our house is small, and the stove gives out 52,000 btus). If we hadn't had done this, we would ahve used about 600 gallons of heating oil at +$3 a gallon, and we still would have been freezing.

We are getting the oil tank removed, too.

[lildreamer316]

5. As of right now, I cannot heat my house.

We have a couple of space heaters we can use, like we did last year. I don't have the money right now for heating oil. I am having a hard time finding out about help, also. My county/state site says they give out checks for help in FEBRUARY. That is no help to me now.
Crossing my fingers.

[tularetom]

6. We have small grove of oaks around our house

and there's enough wood in the branches I trim off them every year to heat our house. We have propane but it's become so expensive we only use it for cooking and heating water.

[Pavulon]

8. Electric generated by Reactor

cheap and effective. Have gas logs but they are not really a true heat source.

[drmeow]

9. Oops - picked natural gas when I should

have picked electric (natural gas for water and dryer).

Here cooling is a bigger issue. Just signed a contract to get solar panels installed - should be in by late Jan. One benefit for me of the bailout - better fed tax rebate for solar.

[RC]

10. You forgot Ground Source Heat Pump.

Most of us do not live in areas that has reasonable access to geothermal.

[ThomWV]

11. Just for you ...

[blue sky at night]

12. been burning wood since the early eighties....

only way to get warm, with RADIANT heat!.....it is like sitting in the sun.

[tridim]

13. T-Bone's gas.

The kind he wants us to use for our cars so the price will rise due to huge demand.

[MercutioATC]

14. All natural gas house.

I hate cooking on electric.

(ok, not ALL natural gas...the lights and stuff are electric...)

[newfie11]

15. We have burning wood since 1973

That was when Our electric bill was 400 in one month. We were living in N. Virginia then.

[southerncrone]

16. Propane logs heat entire house, but we also have

electric as back up & a wood stove we can set back up if worse comes to worst. Plus dead wood in our 27 acres to burn. We also have springs as a backup water source.

[azmouse]

17. Thankfully heating our home isn't a big deal in AZ.

We use electric heatpumps mainly in the evenings generally starting in late Dec.

[fascisthunter]

18. Burn your Republican Neighbor's House

The whole neighborhood can get together to roast marshmallows while heating the whole community for at least an evening.


:sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

19. Friction

:P

[TahitiNut]

20. I rely on frequent embarrassment.

:blush:

[leftofthedial]

21. well, i usually start

with a little foreplay...

[RadicalTexan]

22. Electricity, but I hear very little

in Austin, Texas. Mostly AC all summer.

[LiberalHeart]

23. With hugs 'n kisses, honey.

[lonestarnot]

24. Other

Look at Lumpy Cadaverick McSame or bushitler and co pic.

[CatholicEdHead]

25. Electric and Gas

Some electric wall baseboard heating, and some electric heat pump and gas when it gets too cold for the heat pump.

[Indenturedebtor]

26. Didn't vote - combination of wood stove and NG. Also we have a puppy

Five minutes of a 13 lb dog sitting on your feet/thighs and you'll think you were on the beach in the Carrib. :D

[BabbaTam]

27. one little propane heater

I'm in central Texas and it doesn't get very cold here. We have short winters that usually run in the forties and fifties. Sometimes it will get into the teens for a couple of days (that when the pipes all over the place start bursting), but normally you could just put on a coat and be OK. We live in a barn out in the country that we built from cedar (juniper) trees and salvaged wood and our only heat is a wall hung propane heater. These little units are cheap and work great. They have thermostats to keep the temperature where you want it and auto shut offs that sense oxygen levels and the presence of a pilot. They don't put off fumes and are a zero clearance appliance. (in other words, you can put two screws in a wall and just hang it up. Simple and safe. We also get a lot of wood falling from native trees and I'm considering building a brush burner outside and run air through a heat exchanger to save on gas. We have solar water heating for our outside shower and no hot water in the house. (we use tea kettles when we need hot water) :hippie:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

28. I've gone two winters without any heating and this will be my third

I live in southern California near the coast and it doesn't get that cold. Still, when it dips into the lower 40s in January and February it can get uncomfortable unless you wear enough clothing and have enough blankets. But it's actually not that bad and I save a lot of money. I wish people in other parts of the country had this option.

[LWolf]

29. Wood.

Plus an electric blanket and a small reflective electric heater.

It's not "right around the corner" here. It usually starts getting cold at night, but decent during the day, in October, with the first fire coming some time at the end of October.

It snowed last Friday. It snowed, and the wood stove wasn't operable yet. I'd scheduled maintenance and repairs for today, thinking the timing was good. As a matter of fact, I just got home from work and am waiting for the repair guy as I type.

I spent the weekend huddled in front of the little space heater, drinking hot things, and getting nothing done.

First fire tonight.

The wood stove is the only heat source in my house, if you don't count electric blankets and portable electric heaters.

I try not to use the electric heaters much, as they are HARD on the electric bill. I have to have a heater out in the pump house to keep the water flowing, and for the horse and chicken waterers. That pushes the electric bill enough, without adding it to the house.

[sandsavage]

30. Wood

We have burned wood for 30 years. Pretty big chunk of land.
Very flush with trees. We have harvested it carefully, allowing
for new growth always.
Costs a small bit of gas for the log splitter,chainsaw and tractor.

[earth mom]

32. Still can't afford to buy a new heat pump so it will be the wood stove again this winter.

We only use the wood stove during the day and early evening, so I often use a space heater when the wood stove is off, usually in the early hours of the morning. I don't like to worry about the wood stove at night, so we sleep under down comforters, but I'm going to buy a couple of electric blankets also this year and will wrap myself in one of them while I sit at the computer. I'm hoping we will have enough money saved plus our tax return to buy a new heater early next spring because I'm sick of freezing like this and miss how warm and toasty this house used to be. :(

[Rancid Crabtree]

33. natural gas

cause the pipe runs past the front of the house...but I've heard from some that have purchased electrical heaters...the Amish are making some, others, as well...and from what I've learned, they provide a lot of heat...thought I heard 150,000 btu at the cost of a coffee maker...there are some in the area that are also using coal stoves, anthracite, the hard stuff, apparently, a kind that you could rub in your hands and not make them black...pellet stoves are big, as well...and since the area abounds in trees...and logging, there's quite a few that cut up tops, others that ignore FART (farmers against recreational trespass) and cut wherever they know they won't get caught...people do what they have to do, when they have to do it...if the candidates really want to help the little man, they'd consider the potential of millions of fed up voters who are trying to make ends meet and the high cost of energy does little to take the edge off...and most folk don't like to get naked when it's colder than a well digger's ass in January.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

34. Natural gas

heater and vented gas logs. We converted our wood burning fireplace to gas after extensive ($) fire box/chimney repairs. It doesn't give off as much heat as the vent-less one we had in Tally, it's really more for looks and we don't use it often.
We budget-bill for gas to spread the cost out over the year. In the warmer months we have only the gas kitchen stove running and a typical bill might be $15-20. So far we're paying about $90 per month to make up for last winter and start building a reserve.

[MadinMo]

35. Primarily heat with wood via a woodstove with propane fired furnace back up

Maybe someday we will have one of those outside wood furnaces.

Also we have a couple of electric heaters we use to warm up cooler areas -- bathroom, kitchen. The oil filled electric heater is a dream.

[Broken_Hero]

36. Wood, I got about 8 ricks so far, I need to get another 2

though, I think this winter might be rough.

[ThomWV]

41. What's a rick?

Here wood is measured in cords (4'x4'x8') although I tend to think more in terms of truck loads; a truck load being every bit I can possibly put on my F-250 (long bed) without breaking the springs (which I have done) or blowing out a tire. That works out to being about 3/4 of a cord. We go through about 10 cords per year. I've got about half of it in (split and stacked) now, will have the rest within 2 weeks.

[Broken_Hero]

43. its a Missouri thing I suppose, I've been down here so long

I call them Cords, like you do, but people down here call them Ricks of wood, instead of cords...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rick

[ThomWV]

45. That's interesting.

I do recall having heard the term before but I had no idea how much wood it refered to other than somehow I had a picture in my mind of how much wood as could be carried by a small cart. I suspect that I heard the term in the Carolinas, either the old people in my family (SC) or one of our friends in NC where we have spent a lot of our time over the years; maybe one of those Tuckahoe/Cohee language things you find between the souterners and the mountain people.

[ddeclue]

37. MISSING CHOICE: I live in Florida!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[pleah]

38. Where I grew up we used a wood burning stove.

You could see your breath when you took a shower, that is when the pipes weren't frozen.:)

Now, I have gas heating and electric air conditioning.

[readmoreoften]

39. When it gets cold in Austin, we just cuddle up and run the stove. Can't afford a heater.

It only gets cold for about a month. We just suffer through it. Turn on hotter lights, use the stove a lot.

[Yavapai]

40. Wood.

Wood heats you up 3 times.

Once when you cut it, again when you burn it, and again when you haul away the ashes!

We bought an air tight wood stove last year and went from propane to wood. I would
say that it saved us about $1200 in propane this last winter.

[ColbertWatcher]

42. I live in Los Angeles. When we want to heat up, we git nekkid!

Just kidding.

We break out the blankets and wear layers.

Also, just an FYI, I had to turn a fan on today due to the Santa Ana winds and the fire.

[SmokingJacket]

44. Mostly wood, supplemented with gas.

It used to be mostly gas, supplemented with wood, but we got twice as much wood this year.

[Lyric]

46. Natural gas, when the furnace is working.

Unfortunately ours isn't working right now. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, and I can't afford a technician to come fix it, so we'll be getting by with a couple of small electric space heaters and some warm blankets and clothes when it gets truly cold here.