Written December 22, 2008 for City-Data: The 3:1 Principle

I have two properties in Glendale, a suburb of Cincinnati. Live in one and have been trying to sell the other. 885 Greenville, [sold June 2009] an old insulated Victorian, where we used to live, heats about 3200 sq ft with three newish furnaces. When in full use on a normal winter I used 280 cu ft/month for the five winter months.  In our present home, a brick ranch two blocks away, we use about the same although the sq footage heated is about 2800. [much lower average use now -- maybe 200 cu ft/month -- after more insulation and more spot heating]


I have a blog which really goes into this topic of average usage during the winter months, http://www.natgagu.blogspot.com/.

What is neat and simple, is that my ratios for both houses are as follows [when the cost was an even $1 per ccf; it'll be $.75, or even $.65 per ccf this winter of 2010-11]:

Go outdoors. If the avg. temp for the day is, like today, [December 22, 2008], 10, then I subtract 10 from 65 degrees, getting 55 "heating degree-days," a recognized term by the experts. Then I simply divide by 3 to get my cost per day per house. So today my cost for each house is $18 per house. [at 2010 prices this would be $13.50 per house] Wow. Sorry I went into this.

Will be cold again tonight but warming thereafter into the 50's.

Click on "heating degree days" and "ebills" in http://www.natgagu.blogspot.com/ for more than you want to know about this topic. Also my very early posts on the http://www.natgagu.blogspot.com/ blog give the normal heating degree days by day for all the winter months, to be used for projecting the upcoming winter months. This used to be readily-available at the Weather Service but it is not now without paying [a small sum] for it. But it is a stable chart for Cincinnati, so it's valuable until they run another 30-year period.

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/cincinnati/518177-home-heating-duke-energy.html#ixzz12RG6t4KJ