How much do you spend to heat S&B over the winter. Update

What part of the country are you in. You need to complete your profile.

John&Joey wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
What part of the country are you in? My parents did it for years and the basement never heaved and thier place is in Michigan.

The basement foundations should reach below the frost line so heaving should be a non-issue. Likewise, the walls shouldn't buckle in unless there was something else already very wrong.

I'm located in zone 3a. When you have extreme cold things do happen. A few winters back we had early cold snap with no snow cover. Code is frost line is four feet down. Miners in the area were reporting frost at 7-9 feet deep in the mines. Code is only for the norm, not the exceptions. Basements do heave and they do buckle, especially if they are in clay and left unheated.

Basement floors are typicall 5-6' below ground level with the foundations another 3' below that, so basement foundation will typically be around 8-9' below grade.

Also frost heave is usually related to inconsistent quick freezing and thawing where liquid water can't get away. Once you get more than a few feet deep, the process tends to be slow and steady, so it's not as much of an issue assuming you have proper drainage (ie: backfilled with pea gravel and/or sand with drain tile). If you don't have proper drainage keeping the house at 50 degrees isn't likely to stop the soil outside from freezing and blowing out the walls. A house kept at 50 degrees won't keep the ground thawed more than a few inches beyond the basement walls.

Not saying it can't happen but it's pretty unlikely. If it's an old house not built to code and backfilled with clay, I might be more concerned but if it's been built in the last 50yrs and wasn't a duct tape special, it should be fine.

I don't heat mine either. Its at 8500 ft elevation in the Colorado mountains where winter temps often get to -20 F. Its got a propane furnace, but I don't feel comfortable leaving the propane on while I'm gone for 6 months. It would likely empty the tank and run out of gas before winter was over, even at a low temp setting.
I just shut everything off, drain all the pipes & water well; and then fill the pipes & drains with RV antifreeze. This has worked well for the last 6 yrs and I've had no other effects from no heat.

valhalla360 wrote:
What part of the country are you in? My parents did it for years and the basement never heaved and thier place is in Michigan.

The basement foundations should reach below the frost line so heaving should be a non-issue. Likewise, the walls shouldn't buckle in unless there was something else already very wrong.

I'm located in zone 3a. When you have extreme cold things do happen. A few winters back we had early cold snap with no snow cover. Code is frost line is four feet down. Miners in the area were reporting frost at 7-9 feet deep in the mines. Code is only for the norm, not the exceptions. Basements do heave and they do buckle, especially if they are in clay and left unheated.

John&Joey wrote:

pawatt wrote:
If it really costs $300.00 a month to heat empty with no one going in and out letting cold air in imagine what it would cost to keep 2 old folks warm if they ever had to spend the winter there.

That has crossed my mind also. The cost was real, since I got the numbers direct from MPL electric.

I like your numbers a lot better!!! If I get enough responses that are like your numbers then I'll know something is very wrong, and need to be researched further to correct it.

We are lucky to have natural gas at the lake, currently the cheapest fuel. I wonder if you could just heat the basement and enough warm air would rise to keep the main floor above freezing. You could do like we did in the old days & put straw bales around the basement. I do know people with basements that turn off the heat, never any problems, maybe it depends on soil type, we are mostly fine sand around here after you get past the top soil.

We average under $100 per month in western PA. Heat at 55 degrees and heating 1680 sq. ft. living area and another 1680 of bsmt. The garage which is heated to 55 or so when we are home, is not heated when we are not.

The fuel is propane, from a very good supplier who keeps their prices down and/ offers a pre-buy, price lock-in program so we know what our costs per gallon will be through the season. We're on an auto fill program and when/or if supplies get tight like they do some years they short fill us so they have enough to service all of their customers. Deliveries, billings, statements and bill pay all available online so there are no issues with the paperwork getting to us in a timely fashion.

Setting temperatures at 50° got our winter bills for Gas and Electric at December $169, January $85, February $96 and March $79.
Why December was $169 I have no idea. We left before Thanksgiving..
Forgot to mention that we are heating a 2000 sq ft home.

John&Joey wrote:
My question comes into play that we're thinking about a place that has a full basement. In this part of the country if you shut off the heat you run the risk of the basement heaving, or worst yet, buckling inwards. Leaving the heat on low will help keep the frost away.

What part of the country are you in? My parents did it for years and the basement never heaved and thier place is in Michigan.

The basement foundations should reach below the frost line so heaving should be a non-issue. Likewise, the walls shouldn't buckle in unless there was something else already very wrong.

pawatt wrote:
If it really costs $300.00 a month to heat empty with no one going in and out letting cold air in imagine what it would cost to keep 2 old folks warm if they ever had to spend the winter there.

That has crossed my mind also. The cost was real, since I got the numbers direct from MPL electric.

I like your numbers a lot better!!! If I get enough responses that are like your numbers then I'll know something is very wrong, and need to be researched further to correct it.

Ours ran just under $250 last winter (per month). It was colder than normal and we had it set at 50*. We are all electric, 2000 sq. ft. and in the Midwest. The electric costs have increased around here. We always shut the water off in the house just in case. A few years ago when at home in the winter we went to town for a several hours and a connection at the sink faucet upstair broke and when we got home we were greeted to a waterfall in the front room and 4,000 gallons of water in the house that even knocked out the furnace located in the basement.