Survey: What's your heating bill like in the winter?
I'm buying an Eichler and am planning to change the flooring. I wanted to get an idea of what to expect with different materials, so I hope I can get some ideas of what other people are experiencing.
Do you still have working radiant heat?
Is it gas or electric?
What is your typical December heating bill?
What city are you in?
What kind of flooring do you have?
What is the square footage of your house?
Do you have foam insulation on your roof, added wall insulation, or other green upgrades?
Any other pertinent information?
If I get enough results, I'll summarize them and make charts and graphs for all.
Thanks!
-George
We are in Walnut Creek and the December Bill is around $200
No Radient
Electrical
1800 square Feet
Pergo Floor in Living Areas
Carpet in Bedrooms
Foam Roof with Blomberg Windows
All walls have been insulated as we installed new Eichler Siding
Happy Holidays
For December, our bill was $205 (Gas $93, electric $107, + surcharges etc).
We are in Menlo Park, 2100 sq ft;
The original radiant heat is working; thank god for copper pipes!
It is gas powered and set to a permanent 68 degrees F.
House is 50% renovated (insulation, new tile floors), the rest is not insulated and has carpet.
Mostly tiles in the house, all double pane windows.
Foam roof.
Just got my bill for December, $150 - ($93 electric + $57 gas) which is my first December in the house as remodeled. I believe it is a little cheaper than it ordinarily would be because we were gone for a week vacation and the radiant was turned off, although we forgot to turn down the water heater. It will probably be closer to $200 for Jan with the extra week put in.
Cupertino- 1870 sq. feet
Atrium enclosed with 10'x11' Royalite skylight (double-paned)
Gas boiler radiant with electric Nuheat in new atrium area.
porcelean tile floor throughout
insulation
double paned Blomberg windows from Palo Alto Glass throughout
new foam roof
Whoa - ours are a LOT higher than that. We have ours averaged over the year, so that it doesn't spike in the winter, and our AVERAGE is $200/month. I would guess that a typical December bill would be $350.
San Rafael
1700sf
radiant heat with the original boiler and pump
no insulation
mostly single-paned windows
no foam roof
tile floor in living areas and carpet in bedrooms
Whoa - ours are a LOT higher than that. We have ours averaged over the year, so that it doesn't spike in the winter, and our AVERAGE is $200/month. I would guess that a typical December bill would be $350.
San Rafael
1700sf
radiant heat with the original boiler and pump
no insulation
mostly single-paned windows
no foam roof
tile floor in living areas and carpet in bedrooms
The best frame of reference I have to the difference the insulation, roof and windows have made was that the first month we "lived" in the construction mess (no insulation, single pane, etc.) was April and the heat was on for what seemed like half the month. That bill - with mild April weather was $150.
Now the house is set at 68 with overnight setback to 66 and the heat seems to come on once a day on the coldest of nights (like tonight) but every other day normally in Dec.
We also specifically chose the tile to help unencumber the boiler and heating process.
So evenings that were in the low-50's in April were costing the same as in the high-30's-low-40's in December. I'll take that any day. Summer bills (no a/c) were typically $50-$70 total this year.
1700sq foot Sunnyvale courtyard model.
Foam Roof.
R16 wall insulation.
1/3 house carpeted
1/3 house floated bamboo
1/3 original aggregate or tile
Working radiant heat with 7 year old Teledyne Laars boiler
My maximum monthly gas bill for the year is usually about $150. My impression (admittedly anecdotal) is that roof and wall insulation is a far more important factor than floor surface in determining your gas usage. My bill definitely went down a bit when we got the new boiler 7 years ago but I've never bothered to quantify exactly by how much.
We live in the San Mateo Highlands and the highest bill is in January at around $400 ( $250 gas, $150 electric )
Radiant
1760 square Feet
Bamboo Floating Floor all around
We used to have concrete floor last year,
and there seems to be small difference in heating bill.
Foam Roof
Double pane International Window Company sliding glass doors
Our house rarely needs heating during the day.
The sun heats it up to 73 - 76 degrees in the winter.
However, when the temperature crashes at night,
our boiler has to be on all night to keep the house at 72.
We chose IWC sliding glass doors per recommendation of a general contractor
who's supposedly an Eichler expert.
However, the poorly installed double pane sliding glasses were waste of money
and lets in more cold draft through its gaping holes in the frame.
The holes lose more heat than any single pane glass would.
Location Sunnyvale:
December gass bill: $220 last year, $155 this year
sqft: 2060
single pane windows, dual pane sliding doors
floors: tiles throughout the house, bamboo in bedrooms
thermostat: 68 degrees, 62 at night, we only heat in the morning and at night
tar and gravel roof.
original radiant heating system, never been replaced
Looking forward to see the results of your survey.
Just got my bill for December, $150 - ($93 electric + $57 gas) which is my first December in the house as remodeled. I believe it is a little cheaper than it ordinarily would be because we were gone for a week vacation and the radiant was turned off, although we forgot to turn down the water heater. It will probably be closer to $200 for Jan with the extra week put in.
Cupertino- 1870 sq. feet
Atrium enclosed with 10'x11' Royalite skylight (double-paned)
Gas boiler radiant with electric Nuheat in new atrium area.
porcelean tile floor throughout
insulation
double paned Blomberg windows from Palo Alto Glass throughout
new foam roof
Just to update the thread, the full month mid-Dec through mid-Jan was $160 this month.
We're on a net-metering contract with PG&E so I couldn't reply until we got our end-of-year-statement. We have a 2800 kW system (16 panels). Our total electric bill for the entire 2008 year is -$150 (credit). Our roof and walls are insulated and we have some windows that are double-paned. We also have a Unico/High velocity HVAC system (the radiant flooring system was too compromised to salvage). To offset any temperature swings due to the concrete slab, we installed a thin layer of foam sheet over a plywood base for the flooring installation. This added insulation above the concrete floor.
Out of curiosity, has anyone installed a rain-water collection system for irrigation? I'm experimenting a bit on this and was wondering if anyone else is experimenting on water efficiency systems as well. I have enough water pressure to water plants via hose but I may have to install a small pump to add pressure for any kind of sprinkler system.
