Heating trivia for the day

The average regional HDD's experienced by a home in the USA are ~4,425. This includes Alaska and Hawaii.

Primary heating source per the U.S. E.I.A.:
------------------------------------------------------------
49% of homes are heated with NG
6% are heated with oil
6% are heated with propane
4% are heated by electricity
2% are heated by wood
1% are heated by "other" (coal fits in here somewhere, as would passive solar, active solar, waste fuel, etc...)
(That apparently leaves 32% with no perceived need for heating. Or no heat source considered primary. ???)

Climatecentral.org data from 2014 indicates that nationwide 49% use NG & 37% use electricity with 14% using other fuels. I have no idea how accurate they are.

Well, it pays to go to the very source, in this case the EIA.

There I learned that:
56% heat with natural gas
38% heat with electricity
20% heat with other or none

Obviously my first source was all wet, as the above is close to what your source was indicating (though perhaps more up to date).

It may "speculatively" be the case that the 20% "other or none" category breaks down along the general lines of (via stealing from my initial post):
6% are heated with oil
6% are heated with propane
4% are heated by electricity in the form of heat pump(s)
2% are heated by wood
1% are heated by such things as coal, passive solar, active solar, waste fuel, nothing, etc...

It is pretty disgusting isn't it?

If you break down the numbers (very loosely) we are nothing, yet they put regulations on woodstove burners like it actually means something...

300 million people in this country
With the average family being 2 adults and 2.5 children
2% of which heat with wood

You end up with 1.6 million homes heated with wood.

1.6 million homes...scattered across the entire United States, and they think regulations make even a drop in the ocean?

It gets worse for coal burner. Again, very loosely, if you break down the numbers, you end up with around 133,000 home heated by coal. It may be higher than that, because more people might heat with coal than use solar, or nothing at all, but divided equally among five categories, it would be 133,000 homes.

titleist1 wrote: ↑

Wed. Mar. 04, 2020 1:43 pm

I have no idea how accurate they are.

It has been 10 years since there was a census, so my memory is foggy, but they used to ask what your primary heat was. I am not sure if they asked that of renters too, in say apartment buildings in the cities, or just homeowners...

56% + 38% + 20% = 114%

There must be overlap or dual heat sourcing involved here. And perhaps 4% heat pump is a sub category of the 38% electric?

I'd be willing to bet that most people have no idea how their house stays warm. When it's cold they call the heat guy.

titleist1 wrote: ↑

Wed. Mar. 04, 2020 1:43 pm

Climatecentral.org data from 2014 indicates that nationwide 49% use NG & 37% use electricity with 14% using other fuels. I have no idea how accurate they are.

At least your data adds to to 100%, and that's a big plus. It may leave us with a picture that looks something more like this:

~49% primarily heat with natural gas
~32% primarily heat with electrical resistance
~5% primarily heat with electric heat pumps
~5.5% primarily heat with oil
~5.5% primarily heat with propane
~2% primarily heat with wood
~1% primarily heat with such things as coal, passive solar, active solar, waste fuel, nothing, etc...

cabinover wrote: ↑

Wed. Mar. 04, 2020 5:44 pm

I'd be willing to bet that most people have no idea how their house stays warm. When it's cold they call the heat guy.

The sad part is, the heat guy probably has no idea how the house stays warm either!

That really is not a joke. I called some tech's to work on my heating system, and none of them knew how to work on it. Thankfully I was on here and I was helped through balancing the system out, and had enough knowledge to read the owners manual, and figure things out myself.

My heating oil company was doing a survey yesterday, and asked how I would rate them. I gave them a zero, and on many fronts.

NoSmoke wrote: ↑

Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 2:43 am

The sad part is, the heat guy probably has no idea how the house stays warm either!

That really is not a joke. I called some tech's to work on my heating system, and none of them knew how to work on it. Thankfully I was on here and I was helped through balancing the system out, and had enough knowledge to read the owners manual, and figure things out myself.

My heating oil company was doing a survey yesterday, and asked how I would rate them. I gave them a zero, and on many fronts.

I struggled to find HVAC contractors who do boiler install quotes local to me. In one instance I visited one, got blank stares, and eventually was told "you need to give these guys a call". I called, and was told you need to call these other guys (who happened to be the first guys I visited). And everyone I called was on the approved and certified install contractor list from the web page of the boiler manufacturer. It seems they are all willing to install on demand DHW boilers around here, but won't touch home heating boilers. And the manufacturer I settled upon for a boiler is also big in making on demand DHW boilers. So they took the liberty to cluster their home heating boiler contractor list with DHW boiler contractors. And to list them as certified and approved.

My father had that problem when he went to hook up his Pellet Hot Water Boiler. He could not find anyone who had the license. I think (2) people in our area had it, and they said it was $7000 just to get their stamp on it, more to install the system!

It was outrageous.

I tried to get into that program of study, but the times to start did not work out for me, so that is why I got into High Pressure Steam Boilers. I really wanted to get into that so that I could help people like you, who needed an installer, and then also help homeowners at a reasonable price, but it was not to be I guess.

In my own house, it is just the set-up I have. No one has them like this because it is more complicated then what they are used to. No one could figure it out, and I think it was you that suggested it was my system, and it was up to me to figure out just how it worked, so I could work on it...and that was great advice.

I am kind of slow, so I had to read through the boiler manual three times, but then I got it, and got the system balanced out. (It was not broke, I had added a 3rd zone, and it threw everything out of whack).

My oil dealer really sucks though.

My biggest issue is that they cannot find me. For 30 years I have had an account there, yet I call up to order propane, and they cannot find me. Twenty minutes later they call back and said they finally did. Then the driver's show up and complain about snow, or being too close to the house, or whatever...it is always something! As I stated above, their tech's have no idea how to fix my boiler system either...

Yesterday they delivered 400 gallons of propane and I noticed they had charged me tax on it. In Maine, there is no tax on heating fuel...oil, coal, firewood, etc. There is on other fuels, but not anything that heats your home, so I had to call up and have that corrected...which of course they could not find my account again.

I really hate them, but then what do you do? I have propane so buying a tank to have pressure tested every so often is out, so the tank belongs to them, and they suck so bad they charge a fee for hauling off the tank if I had some other company come in. So in the end it is just easier to endure their crap the very few times I have to buy fuel for the back-up boiler. THANKFULLY!