Electric Heat in Homes...Who has it? How $$$$$?

[hentob]

I just read FloraFauna's post and it gave me the bright idea to ask you guys about house heat......

We are currently house hunting. Some of he homes we are looking at were built during the "Electric Heat Days"...would that be late 70's/early 80's?

DH keeps saying "No way--Too expensive to heat." But our oil bills keep climbing in our current house.

So--For those of you that have electric heat--How bad is it?!?!?!

Has anyone hated it so badly that they converted to oil? I would love to hear your opinions......

Thanks,
Hentob

 

[dzneprincess]

I have an all electric home that is about 13 years old. I am on a budget billing plan so my bill is $117 monthly. Keep in mind that I am in the HUMID South and I run the H-E- double L's outta my AC unit in the summer. I usually run my AC unit at 70 or lower during the summer. I think electric is actually much cheaper than gas.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I've never had anything but electric heat. (My Dad's an electrician!) Our bills to heat a 3 bedroom 2 bath house are way under $200 per month....Right now we are on a program offered by our electric company called "budget billing". They average all of your bills together from the last 6 months, divide it by 6, and that's the payment for the next 6. They reevalute every 6 months.

 

[luv2nascar]

most of the people I know in the northeast have to supplement their electric heat because they can't afford total electric
have coal/wood/pellet stoves
they are still on budgets of upwards of $200 mo
good luck I'll stick with my gas highest bill was only around $120
not on budget and pay less then $20/mo in summer

 

[MomofKatie]

Well, Hentob, we live in the SE, so we probably don't have to worry as much about heating bills, BUT...

We have had conventional electric heat, a heat pump, and gas heat in houses we have owned. IMO, the most efficient and economical was the electric heat pump.

Conventional electric was too expensive and tended to make the second floor too warm and the first floor too cold.

Gas heat- same as electric. We also have the problem of the Nat. gas co. making "adjustments for weather" alot- i.e., increasing our prices in the winter because IT GETS COLD!!!

Our heat pump was great at keeping the whole house at an even temp and we had low bills all year round.

That being said, if the power goes out, gas heat is kinda nice!!!

 

[hentob]

Forgot to say--We live in Northeast PA--Brrrrrrr Cold Winters! Power outages as well

The coal stove supplement sounds like a good idea.

Hentob

 

[ValerieK]

We live in Northern Virginia and have electric heat. We have about a 4,000 sq ft house and I am a southern girl and hate the cold, so we usually keep the temp about 73 or 74 degrees. Our electric bill was between $300 and $400 all winter, the most being $435, but we had a lot of people in the house at the time. We have friends that have gas and their gas bills were about $300 for a similiar sized house.

Edit- We would love to switch to gas, but the gas company wants to charge us about $15,000 to run the gas line to our house! Then we also have to convert 3 appliances over to gas and buy new appliances! The killer is that the house 5 doors up from us has gas and the 2 street behind us also have gas!

 

[MosMom]

We pay about $150 in the winter and $100 in the summer. We are in Indiana so we have pretty cold winters and pretty hot summers. We pay less than we did when we had gas heat. We have no gas in our home at all. Everything is electric. Back when we had a gas water heater & dryer...we still paid about $40 in the summer and then had an $80 electric bill. So we still fare better.

 

[SugarBear]

We had electric heat and it was horrible. For years we heated our house with a woodburning stove instead because not only was the electric heat expensive, but it didn't put out much heat. We finally put in an oil burner about four years ago and I am so happy with it!!!

 

[RayJay]

Here in Connecticut. Electric Ranch.

$150 in Oct
$200 in Nov
$250 in Dec
$300 in Jan
$250 in Feb
$200 in Mar
$150 in Apr


Between May and Sept ranges between $100 to $150
I run AC's always when its hot and we have a pool.

Nothing charges more than that electric heat as you can see.

RayJay

 

[Blondie]

We also have an electric heat pump, electric hot water heater and electric range in a 2 story colonial built in 1994.

Here's an example of what our bills have been like:

March 175.89
February 287.65
January 199.60
December 206.35
November 117.90
October 132.17
September 116.44
August 161.28
July 185.62
June 153.84
May 108.80
April 139.01
March 199.75

As you can see, it varies greatly.

Many of the newer larger 2 story homes that are being built in this area have two heat pumps.

Personally, I like gas heat. It warms the house faster.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Had a friend with an all electric heat house in MA . Their winter electric bill was more than their mortgage. Over $700/month.
It is possible to ask for past electric bills but you won't know how low they kept the thermostat!

 

[C.Ann]

Love my new energy-efficient oil boiler we had put in a year ago November..

This past year we started using the heat the beginning of November and our total oil heat bill for the winter (so far) is $204 and change...

House is over 60 years old, very poorly insulated, you could blow dry your hair in front of half of the windows - and - we live in chilly upstate New York!

 

[kadaten]

Have had both....electric and gas heat, oh and electric with heat pump.

Hands down I prefer gas because it actually heats!! The heat pump didn't even keep us warm during cold snaps in Jax, FL!! I'd NEVER have one up north!! We were in the DC burbs for 3 years and are in Chesapeake, VA, now and had/have gas at both...and stayed nice and toasty all winter My only complaint was the bills...as they are high! No idea how to compare the price to electric as my whole neighborhood in both was/is gas...so there's no apples to apples comparison for price.

But I'll never have another heat pump if I have anything to say about it....maybe further south than Jax it would do ok....we're hoping for Tampa next year and that may be all that's available (like in Jax) but since it's even further south hopefully they have fewer cold snaps where it would be an issue

 

[gottaluvPluto]

When we lived in Maine we had electric heat at first and it was very expensive and that was back in the late 90's. We move in a home with oil heat and it was less expensive. We have a friend that lives in Maine now and they have heated floors and they love it. They say the bill is not that high and it keeps their home warm.