whats your heat bills

[swvega]

I've got a 30x60 ploe building in floor heat ready. plan to use gas water heater for the hot water. R-19 in walls R-38 in roof . Just wondering what some of you guys are getting for heat bills and what size shops. I'am in mn. so it gets cold.

 

[jimvannoy]

No heat in my shop. Problem here is it's too hot! Need AC but could never afford to run it.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I wrench out of a little 24' x 24' garage in Kansas in the winter I use a little 35K BTU torpedo heater and run K1 through it. The K1 has gotten real damned expensive the last couple of years, but for my needs it does an admirable job of keeping it warm enough in there I can work in a t shirt after a few hours so I really have no complaints to speak of. Way to damned hot in the summer, no air and it gets insane humid!

 

[OldCarGuy]

I live in Northeast Ohio with brisk winters. Over the past twelve months my average gas bill was $304.10 a month. That includes heating my 3,600 square foot house and five garages totaling 7,000 square feet. I heat the house to 75 degrees and the garages to 65 all winter long. Needless to say all my buildings are well insulated…

BTW my house has a heat pump and uses gas only when the outside temperature's below 30 degrees. All my garages are heated with forced air gas furnaces except for the 30' X 50' stand alone garage, it has an overhead gas heater.

 

[JohnZ]

I'm in Michigan, about 25 miles north of Detroit. I pay $229.00 per month year-round (budget plan) for natural gas to heat a 3300-SF ranch home (Bryant 90+ FA gas furnace) and my attached 2600-SF 12' ceiling garage (Reznor ceiling-hung FA gas unit heater); during the winter, I keep the garage at 70* during the day (my office is out here) and the garage heat is off from 9PM-8AM (it's never below 60* in the morning). Both the house and the garage are framed with 2x6 studs and super-insulated.

 

[6768rogues]

I live near Rochester, NY so we get our share of cold weather. I have a 36 by 48 garage with a 14 foot ceiling, and we park in it every night so the OH doors are opened at least twice a day. Keeping it in the 40s during the week and 50s on the weekends costs about $100 a month using a 100k BTU Reznor hanging furnace and two ceiling fans. If I am working on a restoration project and have a car stripped, I keep it about 60 degrees all the time and can spend $150 to $200 a month.

 

[krusty the clown]

i heat with firewood. i can get the shop to the mid 60's on a cold day. i just bought 4 cord of oak for $280. that will heat the house and shop all next winter. the house and shop are on the same meter and i can run three window units in the house and one in the shop for about $120 a month.

 

[thefairlaneman]

My home has a heat pump .It cost me about 100 bucks a month to heat in the winter. My shop which is poorly insulated has a floor oil fired heater. In cold weather it cost me about 10 bucks to warm it up for 5 or 6 hours. Its worth it only if I have something that has to be worked on .We only have 2 or 3 months of winter so we are lucky.

 

[GMCAMARO]

I heat with propane forced hot air. Costs about 450 for the season. Depending on length, and how cold.

 

[snorky18]

Charlotte, NC.

We have electric everything, and bill ranges from $50 in the spring/fall to about $100 in the dead of summer. 1800SF house w/ 600SF garage.

Garage is not heated or cooled, but it usually stays between 50-90. If it gets too humid/hot/cold in there I just leave the door open to the house. About 3 days a year I run a small space heater in the garage while I'm out there just so I can work in long sleeves instead of a parka

 

[BlueZero]

Here's a related question. My gas company charges me about $1.24 per therm of gas. A therm = 100,000 BTU's. So if my 45,000 BTU heater runs for an hour that's about $0.56 per hour on high. Right? Or do I need to subtract a percentage for efficiency lost too?

I only heat my garage when I want to do something in it. It's a 24x24 R-11 walls R-19 ceiling with 10' sidewalls and one ceiling fan. I figure it runs me a few bucks to heat it for a day.

 

[hangfirew8]

Here's a related question. My gas company charges me about $1.24 per therm of gas. A therm = 100,000 BTU's. So if my 45,000 BTU heater runs for an hour that's about $0.56 per hour on high. Right? Or do I need to subtract a percentage for efficiency lost too?

Your cost is right but you're not getting that much heat.

Gas heaters come in 80% and 90% efficiency versions. The BTU rating for the furnace is usually input, for actual heat output multiply by either 0.80 or 0.90.

-HF

 

[rburke65]

krusty the clown, You can buy a cord of fire wood for $70 a cord!!!!???? That's a real good price.

 

[tatra]

i use an electric forced air furnace and over the previous winters have found that by keeping it just above freezing a few degres and then turning it up to be comfortable worked out to be the same as turning it off and then bringing the shop up to comfort level.......costs are roughly 100 bucks a month but that includes plugging two vehicles overnight at times...........wil be better after new insulted garge and man doors are installed.......used an insulted tarp previously which helped but is cumbersome.........

 

[wbonnell]

bump any more heat bill info?

 

[TurnipTruck]

My 2100 sqft house and unattached 1400 sqft steel shop in Alaska is about $150/month for natgas and $120/month electricity during the winter.
During the summer, the gas drops to $50/month but the power stays the same.
In 2009 our utilities are warning of 20% increases.

 

[russlaferrera]

My 2100 sqft house and unattached 1400 sqft steel shop in Alaska i

A steel shop in Alaska? I did not think anyone would do that because of thermal conductibility.

Would you please elaborate?

 

[sberry]

Mostly wood here with a bit of gas.

 

[TurnipTruck]

A steel shop in Alaska? I did not think anyone would do that because of thermal conductibility.

Would you please elaborate?

Sure.
I got a very good deal on a building package that needed very little alteration to fit my needs. I tell locals who ask if I recommend doing it again that I wouldn't, mostly due to the extreme cost for insulation AND the need to fur out for conduit/piping/benches/walls/etc.
Industrial steel buildings are VERY common in Alaska, but rare in residential-sized shops. Minimum mandated snow load is now 45 lbs/sqft since the winter of 1989-90, when we got at least 5' of snow in a short period. My building is good for 58 lbs/sqft and 140 mph winds.

 

[Boiler Man]

Hello 2500sf home in floor heat 1150sf garage in floor heat with a electric boiler . I live in Winnipeg Manitoba my bill for november 200.00 . We pay 6 cents a KW. Thanks