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How do you heat your home??

Lew L said:
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When I was growing up my parents bought natural gas from the PG &E company. Now I heat my home, at 6,000 ft elevation, with recycled wood pellets.
Propane is used to cook and heat water.

BUT how do those millions upon millions of people in the big cities of the east coast heat their homes and apartments??? Oil fired boilers I imagine. Please tell me if I'm wrong-------

Sorry if I've offended anyone here but the scale of voluntarily adjusting our lifestyle this winter is beyond the scope of the government types living on our tax dollars.
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In NYC most if not all large office and apartment buildings are steam-heated using natural gas. Smaller buildings may use oil or natural gas. Single family homes use either natural gas or oil being steam-heated or forced-air. In my current home we use steam-heat using oil.
 
pegasus1300 said:
Because of my heart attack and surgery this year we are behind on our wood gathering and are going to have to ask for some help from relatives and friends to get our supply in before snow hits.
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Better hurry. Just break loose and buy a couple of cords and have it delivered stacked and covered. You'll never regret it.
 
We have a dual-heat forced air unit that automatically switches from Electric to Propane as needed. A corn stove. And then a wood stove in the basement for backup.
 
2dogs said:
Better hurry. Just break loose and buy a couple of cords and have it delivered stacked and covered. You'll never regret it.
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I actually have enough wood back in the wood lot, I just need to get some help in cutting, splitting, and stacking it. Deer season is almost over so we will have plenty of help now. We have already had 1st fall and 1st winter and are now in 2nd fall until about Thanksgiving, when 2nd winter will hit. That is the long one, though 1st Spring hits about mid to end of January. Then Winter comes back until some time in March.
 
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EIA report Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2022 released 12 Oct https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/WinterFuels.php

For households that use natural gas as their primary space heating fuel, we expect average household consumption for the winter to total 58 thousand cubic feet (Mcf), up 5% from last winter. We forecast a 4% to 5% increase in average natural gas consumption per household in the Northeast, Midwest, and West. We expect residential natural gas consumption in the South to be 46 Mcf this winter, up 7% from last winter.
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We expect that the 4% of U.S. households that use heating oil as the primary space heating fuel will spend about $2,350 on average this winter, up 27% from last winter. The increase in heating oil expenditures reflects our expectations for higher retail heating oil prices and more consumption than last year. We forecast that the average U.S. household will consume about 520 gallons of heating oil this winter, up 9% compared with last winter, which reflects NOAA’s forecast of a colder winter. The retail price of heating oil in our forecast averages $4.54/gal during the winter of 2022–23, up 16% from the previous winter. Higher heating oil prices are driven by higher refining margins than last winter, partly offset by slightly lower crude oil prices.
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Mansfield Supply Alert – October 25, 2022 https://mansfield.energy/market-news/supply-alert-october-25-2022/

East Coast fuel markets are facing diesel supply constraints due to market economics and tight inventories.
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From a refinery perspective, heating oil and diesel are similar.
 
Just a reminder to not go political. So far, so good. Some "real close" though.

To address the question at hand:

I have run the gamut of home heating. Having owned seven different homes, I have used many flavors.

Have had three homes with gas fired hot air. One started with oil which I burned the first winter. Very expensive to me back in 1980. Changed over to gas fired hot air the next year. Cut the heating bill in half.

Burned wood in Ashland Wi. Way to much work. Went through 8 cords a year. The furnace took whole logs, so we did not have to split. However, I was lucky to own a Bobcat. I enjoyed the wood hauling and the snow plowing. :bowdown: The Bobcat hauled the wood from the pile to the wood room (under the garage) for a week at a time supply. It took two addional to load and unload the Bobcat bucket and stack the wood in the wood room. Still had to fill the furnace by hand daily. Now, I could not do all that hand work. The next winter, we did some remodeling and changed over to Propane to heat the home. Not as warm and a little more expensive than wood.

Had electric heating in Chugiak AK. The floors had heating coils in them and always felt warm when the system was on. It NEVER got much warmer than 70 in the place. Radiant heating not my cup of tea.

Our new home in Arkansas has a heat pump system for both heat and air. Forced air heat and air through vents in the ceiling. So far, I find the electric bills very reasonable year round. $101 last month. We run our thermostats at 74 in winter. Old people like it warmer. :bowdown:

When I first heard about the "shortage" earlier this week, I looked it up on the internet yesterday. Much was mentioned about high prices, 72 hour notification required. I could not find any causes, or seemingly any concern about it. They did mention about a 24 day supply of diesel fuel left. The government was not mentioned, and it seemed as though there is NO pending emergency. There did not seem to be any sense of urgency. All I can say is that "time will tell." :bowdown:
 
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Down here in Houston, those that can get it use Natural Gas. Its cheap here. If not available, electric but its much more expensive to run although cheaper than in some parts of the country.

At our place in Durango, its straight electric as no gas is available up on the mountain. Also a wood stove that will heat the whole place but its work to keep it going. Its also expensive and if we full timed there through winters, would have to install LP or at least some heat pumps. Folks in town have natural gas. Lots of folks there use LP and wood pellets for heat.
 
Looks like I'm the only one that uses these for heating & cooling year around...Fujitsu Heat Pumps


Fujitsu's performance is substantially improved by thin and high density heat exchanger and updated efficiency technology. In fact, Fujitsu are so efficient that, according to Kiwi Heat Pumps, they have more Energy Star heat pumps than any other brand!

These are ductless heat pump systems

There are many different manufacturers
 
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larryd said:
Looks like I'm the only one that uses these for heating & cooling year around...Fujitsu Heat Pumps


Fujitsu's performance is substantially improved by thin and high density heat exchanger and updated efficiency technology. In fact, Fujitsu are so efficient that, according to Kiwi Heat Pumps, they have more Energy Star heat pumps than any other brand!

These are ductless heat pump systems

There are many different manufacturers
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You're not alone Larryd! This is pretty much what we use for our home heating, home cooling et al, and for our hot water too.... But here in Oz, where having a bunch of solar panels on the roof makes for very small if not non-existent electricity costs, very few argue that these heat pump things really make sense! :thumbup:

And the solar panels work so well that, in fact, we usually get a quarterly cheque for the excess power that we've put into the grid! :ohyea:
 
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heat pump here in central Indiana,Works well until about 25 degrees then gas forced air takes over
But I find it interesting that when I was growing up we had a oil stove in the middle of living room and at night we would freeze in our beds then run downstairs to stand by stove to warm, Now we have comforts of air conditioning in summer and heat in every room Our houses are larger yet we complain about the cost
 
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