Currently I live in an apartment that covers heating, and was thinking about moving into a duplex or small house.  The problem is I have no idea how much heating costs, since I'm originally from Southern California.

 

Could you all help me with how much I would expect to pay a month in the summer and winter?

Currently I live in an apartment that covers heating, and was thinking about moving into a duplex or small house.  The problem is I have no idea how much heating costs, since I'm originally from Southern California.

 

Could you all help me with how much I would expect to pay a month in the summer and winter?

 

What type of dwelling?

What is the square footage?

What is your life style?

What type of windows/insulation?

What type of water heater? (along with age)

 

There are at ton of variables.

 

I would check the utility company in the city you live in (or are researching) for more specifics.

Well since youre in the Shaker Square area, I was thinking about one of the multi-family buildings in the area.  An average house appears to be 2,180, so divided by two would be 1090 sq feet.

 

So I am looking at 1090 sq feet.

Built in 1920s.

Natural gas.

 

I know no one can be exact but could someone give my a very broad guess like $300-400 a month..... $400-600....$1000-1500?

^well it will depend a lot on how much the building has been upgraded since the 20s, but my house is similiar sq footage (1200 or so) with no insulation in the walls and my gas bills in the winter are 300ish and 30ish in the summer.

^well it will depend a lot on how much the building has been upgraded since the 20s, but my house is similiar sq footage with no insulation in the walls and my gas bills in the winter are 300ish and 30ish in the summer.

 

Approximately $300 sounds about right.

What type of dwelling?

What is the square footage?

What is your life style?

What type of windows/insulation?

What type of water heater? (along with age)

Don't forget the age of the furnace and how well it is maintained! An old antique furnace vs. a new energy star model will make a big difference too.

What type of dwelling?

What is the square footage?

What is your life style?

What type of windows/insulation?

What type of water heater? (along with age)

Don't forget the age of the furnace and how well it is maintained! An old antique furnace vs. a new energy star model will make a big difference too.

 

I forgot to put that in there with the water heater.

 

and remember now you'll get a tax credit for an energy star/ecco/green model.  Make sure to inquire about that.

Ask the current owners for a copy of their bills.  Whenever we have bought a house, that's what we do, and they give us a copy. 

my house is around 1900 sq ft. 1920s build, not great insulation...but a new furnace.

 

$400-500 a month in the winter...and we keep the thermostat at 64 when we're there/awake and 57 when we're asleep/away.

If you end up looking at anything newer, our townhome is 1300 sq ft and it only costs $80/month (natural gas) to heat in the winter kept at a comfy 72 degrees and about $80/month to cool in the summer (our a/c is electric) for a comfy 76 degrees in the summer :).  The house is double-wrapped in Tyvek and it has wood windows.

If you end up looking at anything newer, our townhome is 1300 sq ft and it only costs $80/month (natural gas) to heat in the winter kept at a comfy 72 degrees and about $80/month to cool in the summer (our a/c is electric) for a comfy 76 degrees in the summer :) .  The house is double-wrapped in Tyvek and it has wood windows.

 

$80.  Wow.  I was looking at my parents bill a while ago, it was $700 bucks.

Ask the current owners for a copy of their bills. Whenever we have bought a house, that's what we do, and they give us a copy.

 

You can also call the utility company and they should be able to tell you the exact amount billed for each of the past 12 months. 

 

I have a 1200 sf house and I pay budget - $124.00 per month for the entire year. 

If you end up looking at anything newer, our townhome is 1300 sq ft and it only costs $80/month (natural gas) to heat in the winter kept at a comfy 72 degrees and about $80/month to cool in the summer (our a/c is electric) for a comfy 76 degrees in the summer :) . The house is double-wrapped in Tyvek and it has wood windows.

 

$80. Wow. I was looking at my parents bill a while ago, it was $700 bucks.

 

I think my parents only pay like $150 for a 3000 sq ft 10 year old house.  The joys of newer construction :)

If you end up looking at anything newer, our townhome is 1300 sq ft and it only costs $80/month (natural gas) to heat in the winter kept at a comfy 72 degrees and about $80/month to cool in the summer (our a/c is electric) for a comfy 76 degrees in the summer :) .  The house is double-wrapped in Tyvek and it has wood windows.

 

$80.  Wow.  I was looking at my parents bill a while ago, it was $700 bucks.

 

I think my parents only pay like $150 for a 3000 sq ft 10 year old house.  The joys of newer construction :)

 

Thats cheap.  A few of my gas and electricity bill in NYC were ridiculous.  Utility company's cleaned up this winter and with cheaper ACs and cooling units they are expected to clean up again, since it appears, they are rarely updating infrastructure.

Well someday in the next couple years I will finish rewiring my house and then can put insulation in the walls. Don't buy a house with knob & tube wiring unless you don't mind a lot of work to replace it, or high energy bills from the lack of insulation. You can't put insulation near old wiring, in case you don't know.

The one type of heating I've found to be most miserable is baseboard electric radiators.  When I lived in Shaker Heights, I used to pay upwards of $200/month to heat my 600 sq ft apartment, and it was still freezing in there (as in if I didn't wear slippers when I stood in the kitchen to cook dinner, my feet would go numb!)

I added a lot of R-value to our insulation a couple years ago after a nasty spell of high heating bills.  I think we're going to add a couple wood burning stove inserts...a cord of wood will probably be cheaper than natural gas.

 

Also, keep in mind, the PUCO has never seen a rate increase it didn't like.

 

  $300 per month in the winter months for natural gas heat or about $1500 per year.

Grumpy, I think that you can insulate around knob and tube but you have to limit those circuits to 10 amps. Or as an alternative you could also skip the stud space where the wires run.

 

My house is a heating disaster, our gas budget is over $300 per month.

Grumpy, I think that you can insulate around knob and tube but you have to limit those circuits to 10 amps.

Nope, that's against code. I asked.

 

I've already re-wired the second floor, both bedrooms on the first floor and both bathrooms. All I have left is the living room, the basement, the garage, and a couple of the circuits in the kitchen. My wife is anxious to rip out the living room carpet over the summer (what kind of idiot puts white plush carpet in a high traffic area?) so I'm holding off with the wiring in there till the carpet is out (The carpet is in the way of pulling out the kick boards, and I'm trying to hide as much as possible of my mediocre drywall repairs behind the kick boards.) The basement and garage are no rush, so if I can take care of the living room wiring over the summer and the Kitchen in the fall, we should be able to start thinking insulation over the winter and have it all done by this time next year.

 

I've already reinsulated the attic and that made a big difference heating bill wise. It's a little depressing to see the insulation in the attic that was there when we bought the house was fiberglass from the 50s and had "Economy" stamped across the front of it. It was at most 1 inch thick. I replaced it with some R-28 fiberglass batting. Not exactly the best insulation money can buy, but it was what we could afford.

I live in about 1100 sq. ft. in a relatively new large apartment complex with good insulation and I paid about $90 a month in January and February.  This is up dramatically from my 700 sq. ft. apartment where I paid about $40 a month in the dead of winter.  The difference was that the smaller apartment faced East and got very little direct wind in the winter.  The bigger apartment on the other hand has windows facing West, North and East and gets hammered by the winter winds. 

Oh I have a long list of things to do but they kind of require a nexus of events to occur.

 

1. Boiler, currently a 1940's vintage american standard probably 60% effecient at the best, I have a used 92% direct vent unit that I bought last year that I need to get hooked up but the house was retrofitted with baseboard radiators so the all circuits lead to copper because of that  I want to rip out the old piping in the basement and run everything in PEX. Only two of the upstairs radiators are still fed by the iron so I will be able to have this done with only a few holes in the walls and floor boards torn up. Besides the boiler being ineficient and is has a damperless outlet into a chimney that is in the center of the house. The way the system is plumbed makes my basement vary warm in the winter and I willing to bet there is a nasty convection draft pulliing all of that heat straight through the chimeny and out of the house. I am guessing getting the boiler installed should cut my gas bills in half. Plus getting rid of the old pipes will allow me to finish my basement.

 

2. Kitchen- Was gutted, rewired, insulated, currently dry wall is taped and has first coat of mud. When I redo the heating I will be installing wount under radiant heating.

We are on a budget.  I think it is around $120 per month for our 2500 sq ft colonial.  That was before we just recently put glass-bloc windows in the basement, a new sliding patio door and a new fire place flu and door (highly recommend BusyBear on Chardon Rd for anyone looking BTW).  I hope those impovements pay off, even if they were done for aesthetics as much as efficiency.

 

I also bought one of those infra-red guns to scan for leaks (cost around $50).  This simply confirmed for me that new windows were not worth it as mine, with a little caulking, hold up quite nice.  The way the gun works is you stand in the middle of the room and gauge room tempature.  That figure gets locked in and then you run the gun along the wall and watch the variable tempature below fluctuate.  It is a great tool to either access whether the juice is worth the squeeze on a given project (such as new windows) or to locate leaks and fill them.

 

While I don't have any, the draft guards sold at home depot, etc. seem like a good idea.  They look like tubular sand bags that you place at the base of a door or window to prevent drafts.  I am probably going to buy one to put on the door to the guest bedroom so I can close off the vents in there and save on heating that room while it is not in use.

 

what kind of idiot puts white plush carpet in a high traffic area?

 

My stepmom... TWICE (replaced after it got too dirty for her to look at).