I would call the heating season over, for the most part. Last winter we used 430 gallons of heating oil. At 1,575 square feet, that means we burned 0.273 gallons of oil per Ft2 or about 38 kBTU per Ft2 for the entire heating season. Looking at the weather information, there were seven fewer heating degree days (HDD) this winter than the winter of 2006-2007. It was slightly above average temperature wise, but within the normal mean. We also burned less wood in the wood stove, due to lack of enthusiasm on my part for lighting fires every night.
What this means is our house uses much less heating oil than average. Our first year here, we burned nearly 800 gallons. Improvements in attic insulation, replacement windows, doors, weather stripping, programmable thermostats, heating zones and out door temperature reset, oil burner efficiency and so on have paid off.
Of course, there is more that can be done. This year I hope to finish insulating the basement and crawl spaces, seal up the sill plate, fix some other air leaks and either replace or block up the basement windows. I think blocking up makes more sense as all three of them are on the north side of the house and don’t admit much light to the basement as it is.
My goal is to reduce the oil usage by another 75 gallons next winter, bringing it down to 350-360 or so, which is doable. That would be about 0.222 gallons per Ft2. Current heating oil prices are $4.05 a gallon and that is not supposed to come down. Much beyond this and we will have to start rebuilding the whole house.
Oil Savings:
Last year, we pre-purchased all of our oil for $2.61 a gallon. We purchase 450 gallons and paid $1,175.00. If we where using 800 gallons, that would have been $2,088.00. That means we had a savings of $914.00 over what we would have paid.
Without any further work, this year I project we will save $1417.50. If I get the basement insulation work done and we order less oil, 360 gallons vs. 450 gallons, that increases to $1,782.00. Much more than enough to pay for the needed building supplies to complete the job.
Say What?