Furnace statistics now in

[philo]

I just got my first gas bill after a full month of use on my new hi-efficiency furnace.

On the bill they put a comparison of usage from the present date and compare it to last year.

Fortunately for the sake of comparison the temp this year averaged one degree colder than last year but the usage was only 85% as much.

Not only that, since my wife hates the cold, I told her we could keep the temp, in the house a few degrees warmer at night.

I used to turn it down to 62F and now I just turn it down to 64 or 65

House is 1900 sq ft but has a basement that I keep slightly heated.

Average temp 15F

total gas charges including surcharges $210

Something I can actually afford

Got my $150 energy rebate check a few days ago

[Stormin Mormon]

Thanks for the good news, hope someone is able to afford some thing. I signed up with Energetix a couple years ago, when the door to door guy promised it would be cheaper. After hearing radio ads for Noco, I went online and made some calls. Find out for Dec, I could have spent #103 less if I had Noco. I put in for switch, but they can only do that at meter reads, two months from now. So, please compare energy provider prices if you have a choice in your area.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[CRNG]

On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 06:01:16 -0600, philo wrote in

Seems like a good deal. What was the total cost of the new furnace?

[FrozenNorth]

Door to door guy, only a mormon would sign up for one of those deals.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I think the door to door guy was a Mormon too.

[philo]

On 03/05/2015 10:24 AM, CRNG wrote: afford

After the rebate it was about $3600

It's 96% efficiency. The former one (23 years ago) was 80% efficiency and about $2900...so it was not too bad.

The contractor did not charge me extra for priority which I needed due to the old one breaking down in winter...plus there was no charge for them to do a follow up call a month later to confirm all was working ok...and to fine tune the venting.

It will pay for itself in 7 or 8 years I'm guessing.

[Reggie]

enhanced sentence for being fake Mormons?

[clare]

You are virtually always better off buying at spot price than signing a fixed price contract for 2 or more years. (long term)

[clare]

120 months of heating - that's 30 years at 4 months of winter per year - Move north a bit and have 6 months of cold weather and it's only 20 years. 90% chance the furnace doesn't last until it's paid for itself.

Sorry for the downer ----- Still a good idea to have a good current furnace.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Some of you jealous or what? There are many reasons installing newer any thing. Furnace blower will run in summer with A/C. New motors are more efficient than old ones too. Most electric power consumption on furnace is by the motor. Is it bad conserving energy for one thing? Life is not entirely based on monetary value as far as I am concerned.

[clare]

That's what I was saying. It'll never pay for itself in fuel savings over it's lifespan, but man, the DC blower sure takes a lot less juice than the old AC blowers did., and the peace of mind- less chance of being stuck in the cold with a dead furnace- is worth something too.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I am seeing more DC motors here and there. Our replaced vacuum power head has tiny DC motor, light and more powerful, DW has DC motor, GDO has DC motor, furnace has DC blower motor...

[Stormin Mormon]

You expect fuel prices to come down? Not me.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[philo]

Maybe you have not been to Wis. but we do have 6-7 months of winter....no natter what the calendar says.

Anyway all a moot point as I needed a new furnace no matter what

[philo]

Just checked my bill (they combine gas an electric) and yep...the electric portion was less too...so there is that to consider as well.

Anyway even if the furnace only lasts 15 years, the cost of the furnace is $240 a year.

My gas and electric combined bill for this month was $60 less than last year (and the av. temp was within one degree). Since the furnace is in heavy use four months and lighter use for three more...that's certainly more than $240 .

So it will pay for itself within it's life time and as mentioned a moot point as I needed one anyway.

[philo]

ry value as far as I am concerned.

It actually will, I forgot the look at the electric savings...

[clare]

Natural gas prices on the spot market up here have only very occaisionally exceded contract prices, while contract prices have always anticipated increases. I buy my gas direct from Union Gas here in Ontario - the door to door buys buy the gas from Union Gas too, and they have to pay the door-to-door goons their comission as well as pay their stockholders or owners a fat profit. You can be sure they won't be loosing money - so their price HAS to be higher.

If you want price security you have top pay for it.

[clare]

Been to Wisconsin. Have friends at Cascade. Also up in Sheldon. The summers are beautiful.

[trader_4]

I think what the companies who guarantee and lock in the price for customers are doing is hedging it on the futures markets. By doing that, they can lock in the prices for a year and beyond. That works fine if the price later goes up, customers will be happy, the company makes money, etc. But if prices go down sharply, IDK what happens, because you would think a lot of customers would bail, switch suppliers and IDK how the company could prevent it, collect, etc. IDK what the typical contract for locking in even says about any of that.

If you use enough gas, you could hedge on the futures markets yourself, it's easy to do. But even with the mini contracts, it would be about $7K worth of nat gas per contract. That would work for a larger business, apartment buildings, but not for residential.

[EXT]

$210.00 for one month!!!!!! Where are you located? I am in Canada and I only pay $70.00 per month for heat, hot water and cooking, the 10 month billing will total $700.00 for the year including everything as well as the GST tax. Now electric costs, we pay through the nose!