No heat in northern home all winter.

dreamer wrote:
With the high cost of keeping heat in our Illinois home all winter while we are gone I am considering turning off all heat to our house. I already turn the water off and blow out the lines and winterize all drains and toilets. Last winter the cost was around $4000 to keep some heat in the house, 50 degrees. That's alot of cabbage for us. Does anyone do this? Thanks.

dreamer.

Ok, I'll expand on this.

The $4000 includes keeping a 40x64 shed at 50F, $150 per month for electricity to run one small electric heater in the house and in the shed, possibly the coldest winter in decades and the fact that LP, the primary heat source, rose above $5 per gallon from the gouging that was going on.

And what is the insulation like for the shed? That's where all of the money goes if it is like most sheds. Why are you heating a shed?

All you need is a little moisture to get into the house during a warm spell, then a freeze of that moisture in the walls and you have problems when you return. Get a bigger propane tank and fill in the summer when prices are low.

Barb