When I moved into my old farmhouse in October of 2009 I didn’t know what to expect as far as my living expenses would be. At the risk of sounding terribly spoiled I must say that I lived a sheltered life under the roof of my parents (or at least, their monetary umbrella) and so I never really paid any attention to the cost of things. As a result my conclusion that I could afford a house and live on my own was based purely on a spreadsheet of what I hoped were grossly exaggerated figures for things like electricity and heating oil bills, insurance, etc. Upon moving in I discovered that things were much better than I thought, at least, that was, until winter set in… there is nothing quite like a heating oil bill of $600 to get you interested in (more like panicked about) your energy useage. I ran around the house and turned the heat off or nearly off in every room and proceeded to slowly freeze.
Of course this was no long term solution. When my fiancé moved in with me in January old man winter was just getting warmed up, we got blasted by the coldest winter since I was a kid, multiple snow storms measured in feet as opposed to the paltry dustings we routinely received in years prior. The fixed setting thermostats were all unceremoniously trashed and programmable ones installed in their place, surely this would help with the harbinger of financial doom that was the (fittingly) pink slip on our door informing us of our latest oil resupply. The reality is that I don’t know whether this helped or not; I started collecting data on the electricity usage, oil consumption, and outside temperature (as reported by my electricity utility) for every month since I moved in and I’m not entirely sure what the data is telling me…
Obviously my oil useage is pretty much off the charts, with an average of about 150 gallons of oil used every month between November and March. According to the interwebs the average household heating oil consumption in 2007 for the U.S. was 730 gallons… I blow through 700 gallons in only 5 months, the good news is that our oil furnace is tankless so for the rest of the year we only use another 200 gallons or so supplying hot water for washing (people, clothes, and dishes). Another interesting piece of information is that our electricity use is higher in the winter than in the summer by almost double, it could be because of increased demand for lighting during the short days, but I suspect it is a side-effect of the hot-water-radiative heat we have in our house. Whenever the furnace is burning the electric circulator pumps are pushing water around the house to deliver the heat, its an oil-electric double whammy on the wallet.
Last summer to offset my electricity useage I signed up for 100% wind supplied power, while its not entirely clear how that is even possible in Maryland I’m sure there is some sort of fancy accounting at play; either way I feel at least a little better about turning on our bedroom window air conditioner knowing that somehow my dollars are supporting alternative energy. We also have entirely outfitted our house with fluorescent bulbs and opted to pay a premium for 5% bio-diesel mixed in with our No. 2 heating oil, every little bit helps, I hope.
This summer we recieved a contract from our oil supplier spreading out our oil payments over 12 months, we did that last year as well but the cost has gone up 29%, ouch. I’m not sure whether we should be looking around for a new oil supplier or not. I’m concerned about the price but I also don’t want to give up on the 5% biofuel. Part of me is wondering whether I should just get an electric hot water heater to supplement my oil burning furnace, since I am supposedly using 100% wind power then it is perhaps the best way to reduce my overall carbon footprint. Or perhaps I should embrace my inner ugly American and damn the consequences, if only I could stumble across some bubbling crude whilst shooting at some food, my life would be so much easier.
