I heat and cook.....

[Normand]

....with propane. I received a delivery yesterday and WOW!!

183 gallons/lbs @ $4.19/gallon/lb = $766 and change!!!

My defibrillator is still buzzing!!

(last delivery was 2 months ago, if that even matters)

Its pretty darn cold up here in New England!!

[MTWFF]

Ouch,

I pay $1.85/gal here in eastern Montana.

[Bass_Bug]

I have a natural gas forced air furnace. Problem is the electric has been off since 11pm Tuesday night. Without electric the thermostat and the blower don't work. I have 2 kerosene heaters keeping the inside temp in the 40's, far from ideal, but survivable. Kerosene is about $4/gal around here.

Les Stroud are Bear Grylls would call this luxury!

[Uncle Jesse]

Les Stroud are Bear Grylls would call this luxury!

Hey, you know that Stroud and Grylls stay at the Ritz when they are not being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the stuff we see on TV. At least Stroud does have a film crew to help him fix his shelters. They may be good but I will bet you a dollar to a donut, they live well when not on screen.

But Norm and MTWFF verify my rule of being connected to natural gas.

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

I have a natural gas forced air furnace. Problem is the electric has been off since 11pm Tuesday night. Without electric the thermostat and the blower don't work. I have 2 kerosene heaters keeping the inside temp in the 40's, far from ideal, but survivable. Kerosene is about $4/gal around here.

Les Stroud are Bear Grylls would call this luxury!

I bought an el-cheapo noisy as all get out 2 stroke generator that cost me about $150.00. I had an electrician do the necessary wiring. He put in a circuit to isolate the furnace from the regular house wiring in the event of a power outage. Now when the hydro goes off I can go down to the basement switch the furnace over to the generator power. This allows the house to remain warm and toasty. The generator is adequate to drive the furnace motor and thermostat and It also gives me two 60 watt light-bulbs to keep the darkness at bay with a lamp in the kitchen / dining room, and one in the bathroom.
My natural gas kitchen stove has no electrical system at all so is always available for use. One session with frozen/broken pipes during a power outage convinced me of the necessity to do this. Total bill including the electrician was less than $300.00. The generator is very noisy and barely adequate for the job so I do plan to upgrade to a quieter 4 stroke one about 4000watts so I can run a few more lights and the tv. That was about 6 years ago and of course now that I have a back up system we haven't had another power outage since then.

PS .... Its Les Stroud and Bear Grylls's job to freeze for a living. Ergo I don't care if they get cold. My job is to keep warm and snug, Drink plenty of Hot Rum's and laugh at the weather.

[WarrenP]

Bass Bug,

Here is something you can look at for use when the power goes off. I have central heat and air with natural being the fuel for the heat system. The outside unit has a safety check built into it that will not allow natural gas to enter the unit when the electricial supply is off which would leave me with no heat during the power outage. For a back-up heat system I have a natural gas wall mounted unit that requires no electric to operate. It is 19" wide, 23" tall and sticks out from the wall about 6". You fire it up just like you do your outside gas grill with a push of a button. Once it is lit there is a small flame in front of 3 ceramic grids which will glow red and provide heat. One grid glowing for low, 2 grids for med and 3 grids for high heat. You control what you need. Our unit will maintain 70 degrees in our kitchen/dining combo and the living room. The rest of the house will be in the 60's. This unit can be purchased through your local gas company and they will have it installed for you and if you choose they will spread the cost of the unit and installation over several months on your monthly gas bill. I think the cost of our unit plus installation was less than $300. There have been times in the Fall or Spring when we do not need the central unit on because it will just heat up the entire house and we just wanted to take the chill off in the early morning hours or evenings and this unit will do the job very quickly. This unit can be fueled with propane also if that is what you are using.

Just offering something that has worked great for us during power failures and is a cleaner source of heat than kerosene.

Check with you local gas company and see what they have to offer.

[John Rhoades]

Ouch,

I pay $1.85/gal here in eastern Montana.

I've noticed in the past that propane in MT is much cheaper than it is in the east, and poor Norm is paying 2 1/4 times what you do. I always wondered why there is such a big price discrepancy from east to west. Anyone know?

We were lucky to be in Helena a couple times during the middle of the summer when Montana Propane had their annual summer propane saleabration. We got a 30# tank filled for under $10, and had free lunches that would have cost well over $10 if we had to buy them elsewhere - so they way I looked at it, I go to take my wife out for a nice lunch, and got the propane for free!

Here in SE PA, we have total electric, and heat with a heat pump. Our highest monthly electric bill this winter has been $260 -- it would be lower, except I like to sit in my sauna (it's electric heat) which gets to about 265 degrees on the top bench!

[bobbyg]

That's a bummer Normand!

[MTWFF]

There is a small swath in MT, WY, Sac (Canada) that has very cheap propane. This is do to the production of oil in our area.

That is what I have been told.

Wayne

[Bamboozle]

In eastern Pennsylvania...

In my old digs I was using oil which was always around the price of a gallon of unleaded regular. So if I was buying today, I would expect to pay around $3.10 or more a gallon.

In the new digs I heat and cook with propane. I have a 1000 gallon underground tank and recently paid the highest price I've paid in the almost two years I've lived here: $2.35.

I ain't complaining a whole lot.