Plan for this Winter

[Mummy]

Are there any ideas or suggestions on what the average home owner can do this winter about heating the house? I feel tapped out of ideas about where to save a little this year to place into my heating fund.  I changed the light bulbs several years ago and found approximately $12-16/month on the light bill.  Gave up my StarBuck Lattee last year when gas went over $3/gallon.  All minor car repairs are done in a privately owned garage, always has been.  Don't smoke or drink so that is not something I can give up and save  to put towards my heat.  I drive a fuel saving car with good mileage.  Am I missing something?  What will you do to pay for your heat this year?  How many cords of wood does an average home owner need for a 1,000 sq ft house if using wood to help off set the use of oil?

[fletchtb]

We installed a pellet stove 3 summers ago and we saw our propane usage decrease by about 75%. The up front costs are high (just under $3K), but we have been saving over $1500 a year (more now that fuel is so expensive) and the house has been a lot warmer.

We have been burning a little more than 6 tons of pellets for our 2100 sq ft home the past couple of winters. Pellets are currently running between $215 and $225 a ton at Vermont Pellet Stoves in Colchester. They have the cheapest pellets around as far as I can tell.

I know two families that have purchased new pellet stoves this summer, but I've also heard that stoves are getting really hard to find because so many people are trying to minimize oil and propane usage.

[Loctavious]

Check Craqs list - i go there almost daily and there was a spat there for about 2 weeks where you saw at least one a day under either household or general sections.

We've got a wood stove.  The largest Jotul you can get ( well as of 2001 at least when we goto ours)  We haven't burned consistently in the past - maybe burning 60-70% of the time after December 15th.  It saved us 1 whole fill-up of oil.  Back in 2001 that was about $250.  Now-a-days it that same 1 fill-up costs more like $500 - $600.  That savings is without burning all winter too!  we find that if the temp is 30 or above, just getting a good fire goign and stoking for abotu 2 hours gives almost too much heat. 
If you've got some property with standing timber on it, and have someone who can use a chainsaw, you could really save yourself some money with burning wood.  1 seasons worth of wood would save you a lot of money in heating costs seeing cord are costing upwards of $250 a piece and usually come in no less than 2 cord minimums.

[Mummy]

We do have a wood stove which we have only used in emergency situations.  This year we will be using this wood stove more.  I think I will begin with 2-cores of wood and use this year as a benchmark for future years to come. 

[dearon]

The first places to save is check to see what you have for insulation.  R-38 ceilings & R-19 walls  are no longer the standard according to Efficiency Vermont, if your basement is not insulated R-10 is reccomended. I would reccomend calling an insulation contractor like Bugbee who could give you a free estimate for upgrading.  If you qualify for some help a state agency (I'm not sure who?? maybe CVOEO??) could install this for free.  The extra insulation is worth it's weight in gold especially this winter and going forward.  Other than that something solar, if you have some bucks, they are a lot of state and federal incentives for this, than it's free heat from that day onward.
Some large land owners may allow a limited amount of people to clean up dead trees on their property and give you the wood or do it on halves.  You will use approximate 4-5 cord if you use exclusively wood.
For myself I would start with the extra insulation. 

[PotterFXFD]

I have a wood furnace in the basement, usually burn 5.5-6.5 cords of wood a winter. And only about 50-100 gallons of oil, which we us in the fall when it isn't cold enough to start a fire. This year it will be wood all the way. I worked out a deal 10yrs ago with a neighbor, I help him sugar and get in the wood for that , he lets me cut my home fire wood.