Most recent electric bill (SMECO)

ArkRescue

ArkRescue

Adopt me please !
GWguy said:
Pellet stove uses very little electricity, far far less than the furnace.

As far as cost savings, I see a big savings over using fuel oil for the furnace. If I use the furnace alone, I could expect to refill the tank (200-300 gallons) 2-3 times a season, depending on temps. On the low end, that's 400 gallons @ $3.75/g = $1500. One the high end, 600 gallons @ 3.75 = $2250. I spent about $1000 in pellets.

But one big advantage is that there is always a nice warm air current moving where you sit, not a cold draft.
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When is the next get-together so we can see for ourselves how warm it is in your house :coffee:
 
getbent

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
RPMDAD said:
Used to burn my woodstove at our first house 24 x 7, never had a problem with it. Would burn it for 4 - 5 days at a time before letting it burn out and clean out the firebox, and relight it. Always made sure the chimney was clean. Would burn it lower during the day, while at work and stoke it back up a bit when i got home from work.
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Ours is completely out before I would make it home. I've had it be embers after about 4 hours or so while running errands. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong? Right now with it being below freezing, I have to get up every few hours and put more wood in. It will go from 68-70 degrees to 58-60 between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. if left alone.
 
ArkRescue

ArkRescue

Adopt me please !
kwillia said:
There is no way I could leave a pellet stove burning when I left the house. I would treat it no different than a woodstove which I would never leave one burning without someone home.

Heck the idea of falling asleep with a woodstove burning freaks me out.
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Having been through a small fire in the past (cheap candle exploded), I totally understand how you feel. I won't leave the house with a space heater running, but a pellet stove? A wood stove? YUP! Those 2 items are safe to leave running.

I can't wait to get a wood stove again - it will have to be a TINY one due to limited space, but at least I won't have to buy 2 or 3 tanks of oil every Winter anymore. Right now I am still paying off tank #2 ($709) so I can get tank #3 delivered. I will say I LOVE Griffith Oil for their great field customer service. When I initially contracted with them, they came out and fixed the leg on the oil tank, repainted it, leveled it, and were great about answering my questions as I was new to oil heating.

Don't worry about a pellet stove running or even a wood stove. When I had one before, I used to set my alarm to wake me up during the night so I could reload the wood stove then I'd go back to sleep.
 
getbent

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
ArkRescue said:
Having been through a small fire in the past (cheap candle exploded), I totally understand how you feel. I won't leave the house with a space heater running, but a pellet stove? A wood stove? YUP! Those 2 items are safe to leave running.

I can't wait to get a wood stove again - it will have to be a TINY one due to limited space, but at least I won't have to buy 2 or 3 tanks of oil every Winter anymore. Right now I am still paying off tank #2 ($709) so I can get tank #3 delivered. I will say I LOVE Griffith Oil for their great field customer service. When I initially contracted with them, they came out and fixed the leg on the oil tank, repainted it, leveled it, and were great about answering my questions as I was new to oil heating.

Don't worry about a pellet stove running or even a wood stove. When I had one before, I used to set my alarm to wake me up during the night so I could reload the wood stove then I'd go back to sleep.
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I've been doing that for weeks with this cold azz weather. I'm so exhausted, falling asleep at work and on the ride home. I don't care if I have to beg, borrow and steal to get a new furnace. I need back up heat. Other than that I don't mind the wood stove. I miss using the insert upstairs because I like to watch the fire while it burns. :)
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
I let the stove run out overnight, usually around 4-5am. That way the furnace kicks in and gets some heat to the extremities of the house, no worries about pipes freezing. Reload and restart the pellet stove whenever I get up.
 
ArkRescue

ArkRescue

Adopt me please !
GWguy said:
I let the stove run out overnight, usually around 4-5am. That way the furnace kicks in and gets some heat to the extremities of the house, no worries about pipes freezing. Reload and restart the pellet stove whenever I get up.
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I see the ability to tie in the existing furnace to the wood stove I will get, thereby using the HVAC system I already have to distribute the heat generated by the wood stove - yay! I did not know that was an option until now. YUP YAY YAY YAY !!!

I don't need to buy firewood for a few years at the minimum, just need to have a splitter and chain saw to process the wood available to me for free. So I will pay in labor, yeah.
 
getbent

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
ArkRescue said:
I see the ability to tie in the existing furnace to the wood stove I will get, thereby using the HVAC system I already have to distribute the heat generated by the wood stove - yay! I did not know that was an option until now. YUP YAY YAY YAY !!!

I don't need to buy firewood for a few years at the minimum, just need to have a splitter and chain saw to process the wood available to me for free. So I will pay in labor, yeah.
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That's how ours is. There is a thermostat on the duct from the wood furnace. Once it heats to a certain temp, it turns the fan on the hvac to circulate it through the house. It works great, just hate having only this for heat. We have a few trees down(hurricane 3 years ago). We have the chainsaw but need a log splitter. Not sure how much wood that would make. I'd love to be able to pay for several trees to be cut down here and we'd use the wood.
 
KingFish

KingFish

Nothing to see here
Happygirl said:
Has anyone had the $100.00 energy audit SMECO offers? I was wondering if it was worth the money.
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I have mine scheduled for the end of next week. My home is 11 years old so hopefully not a whole lot of expensive upgrades that get recommended to me.
 
ArkRescue

ArkRescue

Adopt me please !
getbent said:
That's how ours is. There is a thermostat on the duct from the wood furnace. Once it heats to a certain temp, it turns the fan on the hvac to circulate it through the house. It works great, just hate having only this for heat. We have a few trees down(hurricane 3 years ago). We have the chainsaw but need a log splitter. Not sure how much wood that would make. I'd love to be able to pay for several trees to be cut down here and we'd use the wood.
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My relatives hired a guy they heard about. He came by (lower P G County) and cut up all their downed trees by storms, his fee? To keep some of the wood, AND be paid a small amount. After seeing how hard he worked, they paid him way more than he asked for. I can find out his info. if you want to see if you can work out something with him? PM me if you are interested.
 
getbent

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
ArkRescue said:
My relatives hired a guy they heard about. He came by (lower P G County) and cut up all their downed trees by storms, his fee? To keep some of the wood, AND be paid a small amount. After seeing how hard he worked, they paid him way more than he asked for. I can find out his info. if you want to see if you can work out something with him? PM me if you are interested.
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I just need trees down, they are dropping limbs on my house :/. Hubby would not part with any wood that we could burn. We use our wood furnace ALL the time. The less wood we have to buy, the better. Thanks though.
 
pebbles

pebbles

Member
getbent said:
That's how ours is. There is a thermostat on the duct from the wood furnace. Once it heats to a certain temp, it turns the fan on the hvac to circulate it through the house. It works great, just hate having only this for heat. We have a few trees down(hurricane 3 years ago). We have the chainsaw but need a log splitter. Not sure how much wood that would make. I'd love to be able to pay for several trees to be cut down here and we'd use the wood.
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Ask Randy about this next time you get talk to him!
 
Railroad

Railroad

Routinely Derailed
Dang near caused me a heart attack!

My SMECO bill: $772 due March 5 - forgot to pay the dayum bill last month :doh:

Heat Pump.
 
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SugarNSpikes

SugarNSpikes

New Member
My grandparents was $900 or so... Ouch. I'm going to attribute it to my uncles leaving the upstair lights on 24/7 and they have a fairly large 3 story house with a detached garage with an apartment above it.
 
D

dgates80

Land of the lost
SugarNSpikes said:
My grandparents was $900 or so... Ouch. I'm going to attribute it to my uncles leaving the upstair lights on 24/7 and they have a fairly large 3 story house with a detached garage with an apartment above it.
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Lighting, in general, is typically only a small portion of an electric bill. The biggest watt eater is usually HVAC, followed by water heaters, then refrigerators and freezers, clothes dryers, electric cooking ranges. In total, lights account for perhaps 20% of your electric bill, if that.
 
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