# How do you heat your home?



## SOT (Jul 30, 2004)

I live out in the country, so we have very few public utilities.

Options out here are fuel oil, propane, coal, wood, electric, pellet stove, solar...and any other odd ball thing out there.

In recent years we've just used forced hot water, heated by fuel oil. I've had a pellet stove and just recently started using it for heating the house...man it's great. We have a small house 1700 sq ft and this little stove heats the whole damn thing...

By country, this is the back yard


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## BigDog15 (May 22, 2004)

Just put a pellet stove in last year and it heats my 2200 square foot home with no problems. Cost per day to run this machine is only one to two bucks and it is clean as hell. I'll never go back to paying for oil again.


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## billj (Aug 28, 2004)

I wish my backyard looked like that


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## stm4710 (Jul 6, 2004)

Forced hot water burning oil. Supplimented( mainly for show) by a nice big fire place in the liveing room. :wink: Ladies dig a man who can tame a fire and cuddle with them...........ohhhhh yeahhh. :wink: :wink: :wub:


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## 1153 (Oct 2, 2004)

The wood pellets are pretty cool. A class I took in college for a project we wrote a marketing plan for a wood pellet stove company its in NH I cannot remember the name of it but it was a great product. We had to sample the ash and all kinds of crazy stuff was a lot of fun!

Natural gas three zone forcedhot water


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## SOT (Jul 30, 2004)

Yeah the pellet stove is a great thing. It came with the house and we never really used it, except for decoration. Then we tried it for a late cold snap two years ago and figured out that it really does work and work well. 
Pellets are $200 a ton delivered and last year we used "mixed" heat oil/pellet...and had half a ton left over...this year we seem to be on the mark for a ton or so for heating.

One bag will do 2-3 days...so I figure 100-150 days worth of heating.



BigDog15 @ Tue 30 Nov said:


> Just put a pellet stove in last year and it heats my 2200 square foot home with no problems. Cost per day to run this machine is only one to two bucks and it is clean as hell. I'll never go
> back to paying for oil again.


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## reno911_2004 (May 13, 2004)

Forced hot water, heated by gas. My last place had forced hot air, now that's some bad stuff.


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## Foxracingmtnridr (Feb 23, 2003)

My house is heated with gas through forced hot water baseboards. my house was renovated like 4 years ago my landlord said so the second floor stays really nice and warm. The first floor though stays a little cooler so i put covers on the in wall AC unit and insulated the windows and put on the storm windows on the screen doors. After doing that the heating cost went down like $20 a month compared to last month. We keep the thermostat at like 65.

I'll tell ya one thing though if I could have one of those pellet stoves I'd get one in a heartbeat. Those things are nice and like it was said before they are dirt cheap to run.

Scott c:


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

VOR @ 01 Dec 2004 00:21 said:


> Gas heat, gas hot water, gas range, gas dryer. .


Hope someday you don't come home and find your house blown to matchsticks. I'd rather sleep with nuclear weapons than have gas in my home. But I'm just a tiny bit paranoid about stuff like that. Of course you can fart all you want and blame the cats!
:wink: 
FTR=Oil fired forced hot water and tankless hot water. 12 years with no complaints


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## 1153 (Oct 2, 2004)

I stand corrected it as New England Wood Pellet Co. we did the project on. Just found a pellet sample in the basement.


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## GMACK24 (Jun 2, 2003)

Forced Hot Air via Oil.
So far so good....................
House built 1918


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## Foxracingmtnridr (Feb 23, 2003)

GMACK24 @ Wed 01 Dec said:


> Forced Hot Air via Oil.
> So far so good....................
> House built 1918


Yeah so far so good except the dent in the wallet for the oil. How much are they charging for oil now anyway?

Scott c:


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

Oil fired cast iron boiler: hot water cast iron baseboard plumbed in "split venturi" layout.

Bought my lot of oil for $1.65 a gallon...

I'm jealous, VOR, wish I had NG! I don't like storing 250 gallons of carcinogens in my basement. I use LP for cooking...very expensive to buy small amounts...plus the annual $50.00 "courtesy charge" for the tank.


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2004)

I like the pellet stove idea, but where in the hell would I store a ton of pellets? I would have to go to the RR and buy a coal car. :lol:


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## BartA1 (May 5, 2002)

Boston House Gas by Hot Water Baseboards gas for cooking

Cape House Oil by Baseboard (NO gas lines in the CCNS) electric for cooking

Price wise it all seems to work out in the end both bills just go up not down


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## 1153 (Oct 2, 2004)

Sgt.berniedo @ Thu Dec 02 said:


> I like the pellet stove idea, but where in the hell would I store a ton of pellets? I would have to go to the RR and buy a coal car. :lol:


When I did the project the company would deliver a ton like a cord of wood and it would remain outside. They were developing a storage tank like an oil tank, where the truck would connect to your home and through a chute or pipe fill your tank with pellets. I never followed up on the companies progress so I am unsure if storage tanks were introduced.

Posted Thu Dec 02, 00:40:



Sgt.berniedo @ Thu Dec 02 said:


> I like the pellet stove idea, but where in the hell would I store a ton of pellets? I would have to go to the RR and buy a coal car. :lol:


Pellet companies deliver a ton of pellet similar to a cord of wood which would remain covered outdoors until needed. NE Wood Pellets was working on marketing storage tanks like an oil tank that would be installed in your basement and a delivery truck would fill via a chute or pipe from outdoors. I do not know if the latter exsists now as I never followed up on the companies progress


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## BigDog15 (May 22, 2004)

A ton of pellets is roughly 50 40lb bags and takes up less space than a cord of wood. I have a ton delivered in the fall and keep it outside covered with a tarp. It's not too bad going outside every couple of days to grab a bag. The best part of the pellet stove is the low ash return. From my experience, a 40lb bag of pellets produces less than a quart of ash. I just wait for the stove to cool down every couple of days and suck the ash out with my shopvac. Real simple, real clean, real inexpensive.


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## briand911 (Jul 29, 2004)

big dog your right its much cheaper the more you buy I buy 2 pallets last me the season and then some put them near the back door and reach out and grab a bag when I need to SO much cheaper and it looks nice and keeps the place very warm !!!


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## stm4710 (Jul 6, 2004)

Modern railroad hopper cars haul 143 tons max cap.
So, 143 ton of pellets x $200 to the ton = $28,600. 
Plus railroad transportation fee.......$ 1.25 per mile. (Average)
The average railroads car journey is 400 miles , eqauls $500.
Total cost would be $29,100 get your pellets.

So that rail car would equal 7,150 bags.
Burning one bag every 3 days would turn into 21,450 days of heating. 8O

So, if pellets stay at a stable price it would cost you $ 1.35 a day.

So who is ready for me to build a railroad sideing into your yard. :lol:


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## MRC (May 25, 2003)

Forced hot water, fed by an oil burner that just took it's 2nd crap in about 2 weeks :x Those wood stoves are looking mighty nice right about now.


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## SOT (Jul 30, 2004)

I get a ton of pellets, and stick them in the basement. Floor space is exactly a pallet height is about 5 feet high.

I have a walk out basement so they just pull up to the back door, drop the pallet there...I bring it in and stack it...done.

Pellets last year were $205, this year they were $205.

If I bought 3 tons it was $195....and three tons ain't worth the cost savings...also I know that I can get it done with a ton...any more would just sit...and if they sit for more than a year or so they tend not to be "as good" as new.

The stove I have takes one bag at a time. They do sell "house hold" systems that do near everything (heat, hot watter) that hold like 200 lbs of pellets at a clip and stay in the basement...but this one is more a central room heater that can do the whole house.
My cost is $4.10 a bag, the bag lasts 2-3 days...lately almost 4 days...so $1.25 or so a day.


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## MVS (Jul 2, 2003)

billj @ Tue Nov 30 said:


> I wish my backyard looked like that


That's what it looks like in my area too (central MA). It's the good life, nice and quiet, beautiful views and AFFORDABLE!! I grew up in the 'burbs, about 18 miles from Boston and I thought that was nice... man, you get out here its Awesome!

And cost is a huge factor... what you would spend on a simple 2 or 3 bedroom home in the metrowest could buy you a damn near mansion just a little further west. I remember seeing a house in my area for sale that was brand new 4 Bedrooms, 3,500 sq. ft, on 5 acres of land for a mere 600K. That house would easily go for well over a million dollars 'back east'.

I have OIL heat... paying through the nose. I've been strict with keeping the thermostat DOWN. I tell my wife "Cold? wear a sweater and sweatpants and get a blanket".


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## 1153 (Oct 2, 2004)

RPD931 @ Thu Dec 02 said:


> billj @ Tue Nov 30 said:
> 
> 
> > I wish my backyard looked like that
> ...


Mere 600K...if you think like that I need to get on the Warren PD payroll!


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## LPDETECTIVE (Nov 4, 2004)

*Re: How do you heat your home? great site to compare prices!*

http://newenglandoil.com/

check it our great site to compare oil prices for your region!!! :wink: 
whos da man!


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## Foxracingmtnridr (Feb 23, 2003)

stm4710 @ Wed 01 Dec said:


> Modern railroad hopper cars haul 143 tons max cap.
> So, 143 ton of pellets x $200 to the ton = $28,600.
> Plus railroad transportation fee.......$ 1.25 per mile. (Average)
> The average railroads car journey is 400 miles , eqauls $500.
> ...


Ah hahahaha!! :L:

Scott c:


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

The view from my front yard is similar to SOT's...the Route 32 valley through Monson...awesome...(especially when the balloons are flying!)


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## MVS (Jul 2, 2003)

darkknight750il @ Thu Dec 02 said:


> RPD931 @ Thu Dec 02 said:
> 
> 
> > billj @ Tue Nov 30 said:
> ...


LOL... I didn't quite mean it like that. But when you compare that price for that kind of house and property to prices elsewhere, it is "mere"... Get on the Hamden payroll, lots of money there.


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