How We Save 75% Off Our Heating Bills

 To say it's been cold up here in the Northeast this winter would be an understatement. I knew this winter would be cold and hard but I really didn't think it would be this hard! We've had several weeks of single digit, teeth-clattering cold nights and days. I pity ourselves if we were still heating our upstate New York home the way we did a few years ago. Thankfully, hubby put in a pellet stove four years ago and we have seen our heating costs go down by as much as 75%

Our pellet stove is not very fancy. The fancier, cuter ones were double the price ($2400). Our unit cost $1200 (plus parts) and hubby installed it himself. I would NOT advise anyone to install a pellet stove by themselves. You are dealing with a live fire inside the unit and if you had made any installation mistakes, you could find yourself without a home (because it burned down!) Hubby is a trained professional but nonetheless, we still had our unit inspected and certified before we ever turned it on! Hubby also built the tile platform our unit sits on (left over bathroom tiles and wooden platform) thus saving us an additional $400. 

Our home space is 1134 square feet. Even though our pellet stove is located in the living room, it still generates enough heat to warm up the rest of the house to any where between 70 and 75 degrees. I will admit on those frigid single digit days and night (no higher than 7F degrees outside!) our home stayed at a steady 71F degrees. Also, we usually shut down the unit around midnight each night and our home retains the heat till early morning. Our interior temps never drop below 69F which is perfectly acceptable.

So, how much money do we save per year now that we have switched over from propane to pellets? To heat our home (and hot water) over the winter (October 15 to April 15) we use approximately 1200 gallons of propane. This year a gallon of propane would cost $3.36. That would have been $4,032 to heat our home and hot water over this winter. To heat our home using pellets, we use 40 bags of pellets (each bag holds forty pounds of pellets) at a cost of only $6.19 a bag. That totals to only $248 a year to heat our home!! That's a tremendous drop in price and an amazing savings to our bottom line! We have gone from spending $4032 a year to heat our home to only $248 a year to heat our home!!

Since we still need a bit of propane to heat our hot water (quick weekly showers, laundry, dishwashing and one bath per week) plus I do like to know that we have a heating back up with the propane should we ever need it, I still buy at least 300 gallons of propane a year. 300 gallons X (our reduced price due to being a long time customer of 24 years) $2.54 a gallon equals $760.56 for the year. Combined with our actual pellet usage of $248 for the year, our total heating annual bill amounts to $1,009. That's a far cry from the prospective $4,032 a year!

I keep our costs down low monthly by paying for our propane gallons using a credit card that automatically offers interest free and no fee financing for 6, 12 or 18 months. I choose the 12 month deal and pay $63.38 each month. Hubby buys the pellets in ten bag increments (you sign up with the distributor in August to lock in the costs) for a total of $61.90 per pick up. Hubby only needs to buy the pellets four times per winter vs one big haul. This is easier on his back, our storage room and our bottom line. 

Our kitchen opens up to the living room, so it's always warm in there. Ditto for my office and our bedroom located right down the hall. Our home is smallish. Easy to clean, upkeep, air condition and heat! Plus that pellet stove makes it so warm and cozy. And our wallets safe and secure.

Side Note: hubby just informed me that we may be using an extra 10 bags of pellets this winter because of the extremely low temperatures. If we do, that would add an additional $61.90 to our bottom line. In any event, either way, our heating costs have been reduced substantially since hubby installed our pellet stove.