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Good news: It shouldn't cost very much to heat your home this winter
Whether you count on electricity, oil, propane or natural gas to handle your heating chores, the average household's winter heating bill should hold steady this year. Piedmont Natural Gas, which serves 5,500 customers here, projects its "average" residential customer's heating bill for the winter will be $660. That's based on current price projections and assumes weather similar to last year, Piedmont's Community Relations Manager Hank McCullough said. Last winter, temperatures on average were 6 percent warmer than normal. Of course, colder weather during the period could result in increased consumption of natural gas and higher bills. It will likely cost less for you to heat your home with propane this winter than it did last year. Latt Honeycutt, regional manager of Freeman Gas of Gaffney, said propane prices have retreated. "The actual cost of propane is going down," Honeycutt said. "Unlike gasoline, propane doesn't get consumed at that fast of a rate." Because of marketplace competition, Honeycutt declined to project what the average bill for a Freeman customer will be this winter. Honeycutt said Freeman serves between 5,000 to 10,000 customers in the area. Locally, more people use electricity to heat their homes with 8,000 customers in the City of Gaffney. For customers served by the Gaffney Board of Public Works, electric rates remained unchanged from a year ago. "While energy bills may be higher due to cooler weather, electric rates have not increased for BPW customers," Board of Public Works Manager Donnie Hardin said. "The Board has the lowest residential electric rates of any Upstate PMPA (Piedmont Municipal Power Agency) city and the lowest residential rates of any area electric utility." BPW customers who use 1,000 kilowatts of electricity a month will pay $88.01. That cost jumps to $147.96 for customers who use 2,000 kilowatts monthly and to $207.91 a month for 3,000 kilowatts. Hardin said the consumption depends more on how efficiently the furnace is operating rather than the size of the house. Not surprisingly, heating oil customers are paying less this year. The price of heating oil fluctuates much like the price of gasoline. "It goes by the market and it's falling like gasoline sales," said Sandra Littlejohn, owner of McCraw Oil Company. McCraw Oil customers paid $2.65 a gallon last week, down from $2.90 a gallon a year ago. The company serves about 500 customers, Littlejohn said. An average house will receive a shipment between 50 gallons and 150 gallons of heating fuel, she said. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE MONEY Turn down your thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees and insulate the water heater tank. Keep your heating and cooling systems in tip-top shape. They run more efficiently and last longer. Use natural sunlight to light your home and warm rooms in the winter. Winterize you home. Use weather-stripping, caulking, plastic film or storm windows or doors to seal out drafts. Install a minimum of R-30 insulation in attics and ceilings. Check ducts for cracks or broken seams and keep ducts and grills clean. Insulate hot water pipes and ducts in unheated areas. Use draft-stopping gaskets specially made to fit behind light switch plates and electric sockets. Ceiling fans help keep you comfortable not only in the summer but in the winter as well. Reversing the direction of the blades pushes warm air down into the room. Keep your thermostat at the lowest comfortable setting. If you are going to be away for several days, turn the thermostat to a lower setting, but not to "off." Have your furnace inspected. Consider annual maintenance checkups to keep the furnace working at top efficiency. Then, change your furnace filter monthly — dirty filters make your furnace work harder. Close off unused rooms. Shut the door, put a towel across the bottom of the door and block off any cold air returns in the room. In rooms you use, don't block heating vents or return registers with furniture. |
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