Household expenses
@GardenGerty (157545)
United States
January 30, 2018 7:58pm CST
Is it the heating or cooling season for you? Maybe you really do not do either, if you are lucky.
When you heat your house, what fuel do you use? Some people use natural gas, others use propane. Of course some people use electricity, or wood, or pellets. I am fortunate as we have a good mix. We have some wired in electric heat, and we have natural gas as well. It lets us heat zones in our house.
With the changing weather I know we all like to be able to change up our comfort zones. Are you one of the lucky ones that can control your environment?
How do you save money when you do?
15 people like this
17 responses
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
I have heard of systems like this and it sounds really nice in my opinion.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
I lived in San Diego off and on during three years after I went to college in Kansas. I laughed when they called 40 degree weather cold weather.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (205666)
• Walnut Creek, California
1 Feb 18
@GardenGerty Yeah, I went to Graduate School at UCSB. I chuckled when I'd see kids cycling to class with little wool gloves on when it was 55 degrees out.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
3 Feb 18
@TheHorse Shorts, with knee socks and winter hats.
1 person likes this
@Blondie2222 (28611)
• United States
31 Jan 18
We use propane for our fuel and it is expensive. We tried pellets before but we found we didn't really save money using a pellet stove it was the same price.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
That is good to know. Some people I guess just like pellets because it is from wood.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (205666)
• Walnut Creek, California
1 Feb 18
@GardenGerty There are a lot of pellet fireplaces in the Bay Area.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
Have you been satisfied with your heat pump? I asked a plumber about them years ago and he was pretty negative. I think they could be ideal.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
3 Feb 18
@sallypup At the time I asked the plumber he said "no one knows how to work on and service them". He did not want to anyway. Geothermal has gotten a little bit popular as well.
1 person likes this
@sallypup (57836)
• Centralia, Washington
1 Feb 18
@GardenGerty I like it. Hubby says that if you have temps well below freezing then its not as economical as it could be but you do have the summer cooling. I like how the forced air comes up through vents so that the various rooms get warm nicely.
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (129431)
• Israel
14 Oct 18
@GardenGerty
We get the phone bill every month, but, electric, gas and water come every two months. We use heaters and a radiator in the winter and in the summer fans.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
14 Oct 18
We have not turned on our gas furnaces yet. I would like the plumber to check them out. For any room that is too cool we have electric heaters.
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (129431)
• Israel
15 Oct 18
@GardenGerty
Our owners of the apartments did not want to pay for their radiators so we had to supply our own heating.
@Daelii (5619)
• United States
31 Jan 18
I have a heat / air condition unit in the house. For summer I usually keep the windows open and use a ceiling fan. Winter, I turn the heat on when its like 30-50 degrees but I don't keep it so we are baking. Still use blankets, socks, and dress warmer.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
Yes, heat is kind of a last resort. We have window a/c in all the bedrooms. We have wall heaters that are gas and electric wall heaters in the bathrooms.
1 person likes this
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
31 Jan 18
We have a Fan for the summer when it is too warm, and then Heat for the winter.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
I try to get by with mostly fans for most of the summer. I still have to use some a/c in the bedroom.
@shaggin (71664)
• United States
1 Feb 18
I keep my thermostat on 62 and it's not as warm as I wish but we wear layers to stay warm and keep the cost down. My house is old so there's lots of places the heat escapes and the cold comes in. I have searched for a particular width of water stripping tape and Walmart keeps being out of it 
I have fuel oil that heats my home. I just had 3/4 of a tank of oil delivered (can't remember how many gallons it was) and paid just under $600. That will last a month at least if not more hopefully!
I have fuel oil that heats my home. I just had 3/4 of a tank of oil delivered (can't remember how many gallons it was) and paid just under $600. That will last a month at least if not more hopefully!1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
It sounds very expensive to heat. I keep my thermostat that low. I need to replace two doors and I want to completely seal off two doors, since this is no longer a duplex.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
When I first came to college in Kansas there was no cooling in the school at all.Decent heat, but my roomies always said they were cold.
@Tampa_girl7 (48926)
• United States
31 Jan 18
Here in Mississippi we are total electric, but have natural gas and electric in West Virginia.
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
3 Feb 18
It's quite mild here in spain at the moment ..we have gas space heaters to heat the rooms we are in... but at the moment we do not have to put them on until 4.30 pm when the sun starts to loose it's heat for the day... they are quite cheap to buy and last up to three weeks ... depending on how cold it gets... 
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
3 Feb 18
So these are disposable gas space heaters? I know we do not use heat much during the day. Not that it is really mild, but if we are not at home, why heat?
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
3 Feb 18
@GardenGerty sorry heather... the gas bottles are refillable ... and cheap to refill... not disposable.. bad wording on my part...
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
31 Jan 18
My place is all electric @GardenGerty . In the winter the unit is set at 72 degrees and in the summer it is 80 degrees. I make sure the filters are clean and that any appliance not being used is turned off and unplugged. I make sure the refrigerator fan and the floor & wall behind are vacuumed regularly as it is the refer that uses the most electricity next to the a/c or heat. Unfortunately this mobile home has crap for insulation; there is none in the ceiling or the walls; otherwise my bills would be even lower. I wish I could afford solar panels.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
Mobile homes are difficult. Where I live I would not want to be all electric due to fairly common power outages. Cannot convince hubby about turning off or unplugging things. I agree with you on it, though.
1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (66921)
• United States
31 Jan 18
Our heat is electric. We use it most /all of winter, but because of where we live, our heat depends on the neighbors heat. So even if we have it on 90, we may not get much of any heat in the house.
But we're in New England where it's usually cold so we keep it on at least 80 all winter. Doesn't cost much more than if we didn't use it. Our bill only goes up maybe $10 in winter months.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
That is a small increase. When I have lived in apartments if I was upstairs I was warmer as I benefitted from hot air rising. In my college dorm I was in a corner room and it did not get heated well.
1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (66921)
• United States
1 Feb 18
@GardenGerty very small compared to what ithers complain theirs gets to
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
31 Jan 18
Here in Florida right now we are using our heat and it is electric. At home we use oil. Our home there has three zones and we keep them at different temperatures depending on where we are in the house. Often we use a space heater in the room where we sit.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
That sounds a lot like us. I have a space heater I use to knock the chill off the bedroom and a heated mattress pad on the bed.
@Morleyhunt (21737)
• Canada
31 Jan 18
The home we live in now we heat with natural gas. Our new home with electricity....
We keep the thermostat turned fairly low to keep costs down.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
I will tolerate cold better than hubby, so if he is gone the heat is down.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
31 Jan 18
Totally electric but I have a fire place and I am about to invest in propane.
No way to save this year, it has been colder this year and my purse is suffering.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
1 Feb 18
Those heating bills really hurt. I would like to see us get some other heating methods here.
