Anyone else's natural gas gone up latetly?

[sdifox]

Nah, we get ours from an ace hardware in town. There's gobs of suppliers though, from lowe's/home depot, to local co-ops. If you have a trailer you can just haul it around yourself, but most will do deliveries for a modest fee. I recommend something sheltered, as while they are bagged, they're useless if they get wet and I don't take chances with winter.

It was an obvious Bulk Beef Online reference...

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

3tons? 😵 I MIGHT have gone through 1 ton last winter. (but it's not that cold here either)

Two bags a day, 50 bags a pallet, that's three solid months of heating, and it's cheaper per-BTU than gas, or electric, unless you're flush with heat pumps. Also it gets into the negatives for a good couple weeks here so we actually need it.

 

[BoomerD]

Two bags a day, 50 bags a pallet, that's three solid months of heating, and it's cheaper per-BTU than gas, or electric, unless you're flush with heat pumps. Also it gets into the negatives for a good couple weeks here so we actually need it.

We get 1 1/2 days out of a bag of pellets...sometimes 2 during the coldest months...but we rarely drop below 20f, and that for only a few days. That's one nice thing about living next to the Pacific Ocean...it does a great job of moderating our temps.

 

[BudAshes]

My wife has been complaining but I just blame it on the dog.

 

[sdifox]

My wife has been complaining but I just blame it on the dog.

I suggest you fart in the car while it is raining. She can't open the windows.

 

[MrSquished]

I wish I had a tankless. I'm gonna turn down my hot water heater level though. That should help a bit.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'll probably go tankless when the time comes, but as it is my gas bill for last month was only $28. Will probably go up to $35-40 next month since the furnace has started coming on overnight.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

We get 1 1/2 days out of a bag of pellets...sometimes 2 during the coldest months...but we rarely drop below 20f, and that for only a few days. That's one nice thing about living next to the Pacific Ocean...it does a great job of moderating our temps.

Yeah ours is literally burning nonstop, I only shut it down every few weeks for a quick clean-out then fire it back up. We're also heating a large space with annoyingly high ceilings.

 

[snoopy7548]

@cheez has a lot of experience with wood stoves for heating.

 

[BoomerD]

I wish I had a tankless. I'm gonna turn down my hot water heater level though. That should help a bit.

I keep mine at about 140 F.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Here is the 5-year chart on NattyGas - Every once in a great while you will see a spike to $5-6 in the middle of winter during a winter bomb cyclone or when the jet stream pushes arctic air down to Texas/Atlanta.

So yeah, the $2-3 NG days are long over based on the current charts although Supply and storage is still strong. More NG will be exported to Europe as they are paying 2x our rates if not more and the LNG ports have been built in recent years to facilitate the export of NG.

 

[JEDI]

we have equal monthly payment plan to make the bills more uniform over the year. so pay more in summer and less in winter. About 25 dollars is for the water heater rental.

View attachment 68425

i make equal monthly payments as well.
$45/month so $540/yr.

i actually have no clue how much heat i use in winter. (summer air-conditioning is electric)

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yikes looks like another natural gas and hydro hike too is coming. Really need to get a wood stove.

Canadian home energy costs to spike by up to 100 per cent on average this winter: analyst

Most Canadians who pay for natural gas or electricity can expect their bills to rise by between 50 and 100 per cent on average this winter, according to one energy analyst.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I wish I had a tankless.

I'll probably go tankless when the time comes,

Installing those is really a tankless job.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Looked into a tankless but at over 2 grand installed I'd rather do a hybrid heat pump. But still not sure if I can justify paying that much for a water heater. I might actually try an electric one to see how much of a dent it does in the hydro bill. per kw of water heated it might still be cheaper since it's basically 100% efficient and lack of vents means less places for heat to escape. I'll wrap it in R14 insulation and run the cold water line in a spiral around the whole tank so it picks up any heat loss before entering the tank.

I can also setup a contactor to turn it off in the day. I'll have to experiment with that to see what the heat retention is like. If I find it's costing too much in hydro then I may revisit a gas tankless, then use the electric as heat storage only for when I have the wood stove. The heat will then be used to heat the bathroom in the morning, which is really all I need to heat so I don't have to shower in the cold. That will save me from needing the furnace at all in the morning.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Thing is with electric, you can use a timer. Most people that live alone don't need hot water all day and don't use a lot at any one time. A 20 gallon might be enough for showers and laundry. Set the timer for an hour or two before you need HW to get ready go to work for example.

I've heard that some can boost temperatures intermittently also. Keep it at 'warm' most of the day, but boost to hot when you need it.

I can't justify the high cost of tankless when compared to the daily/monthly rate to maintain the tank I have. It'd take me 10 years or more, maybe 15 to break even. Current tank is over 30 years old though and I won't be surprised if it dies any day now, but I'll still plan on the same style.

 

[lxskllr]

I have zero interest in a tankless heater. My combined home energy usage is <$1k/yr. There's no way a tankless heater would save a meaningful amount of energy, and it lowers reliability.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah that's nice thing with electric for sure is being able to put a timer, I will probably setup a contactor controlled by a RPI that can have it turn on/off on a certain schedule. (unless I can find an actual timer that supports 240v 20 amps) hydro is also cheaper at night so I would probably turn it on between like 1am and 8am to ensure it has a chance to come up to temp, that would basically cover my shower when I have to get up early. If I get up late, I'm hoping there would be enough residual heat. I'm kinda aiming towards going with the larger tank as it will hold heat more. Either way I can tweek the timer to best fit my needs.

For actual heat, probably going to look at the wood stove more seriously now, it does not look like there is really going to be an end in sight with these hikes and they're getting us both ways, so even when I expand solar I'm better off using that for actual house loads and not heat.

 

[MrSquished]

It's Joe Biden's fault natural gas prices are going up in Canada and Europe, duh.

 

[nakedfrog]

Thing is with electric, you can use a timer. Most people that live alone don't need hot water all day and don't use a lot at any one time. A 20 gallon might be enough for showers and laundry. Set the timer for an hour or two before you need HW to get ready go to work for example.

That's how our water heater was in Germany, but it wasn't something we could adjust so far as I'm aware, so if I wanted a shower in the morning before school I'd have to go down to the basement and push the button to tell it to heat up, and wait a while until the water was hot.