Here in southern Illinois most homes are heated with propane. With the frigid weather the price since fall has nearly doubled. That seems like robbery to me and is why we put in a hardy outside boiler. What do you guys think and what do y heat with?

My home was oil/hot water when I bought it. But 4 years ago it was costing me $500-$700 a month to heat. So I purchased an old Burnham coal/wood boiler for $300 and installed it outside with a shed around it. IT is plumbed into the existing system so I can switch back and forth if needed. Havent burnt a drop of oil this year. All wood and about 1 ton of coal.

I also heat with propane and like you i have a secondary heat its a pellet stove in the basement. I stockpile 4 tons of pellets in my basement. Then i use which ever heat is cheaper.

Dont know the price of oil where you are,but here its 90 cents/liter..house is 15 years old..1100 square feet.Cost me $900 a year to heat with oil-furnace.and it gets cold here!Heating with either wood or electricity would easily double my cost

I just had my propane tank filled @ $2.12 per, seems like the summer fill last year was $1.68ish?

The trick with propane is to prebuy enough to get you through the year ,buy in July. Or have enough storage to have enough all winter.

we have propane, electric and wood

propane goes form about $1.50 in the summer to around $2.60 this time of year. they do regular fills for us, but we use very little in the summer - just the gas cook stove in the basement - and in the winter, its mostly just a the gas fireplace on occassion b/c my wife likes to read next to it.

I heat my house with a rice coal stove. About 3 ton a year @ $300\ton. We do have a couple baseboard electric heaters that only work when it's really cold out. I heat my lure shop with propane and it's getting expensive this year

Filled up in Sept $1.89... Called last week $3.73

I have a small propane tank as backup fuel to my Hardy outside wood burner.
I have had it 8 years now and works great.
I heat my house and garage with it. Burn about 10 cords of wood per year.
My propane bill for the year is about $300.00 this is for hot water in summer and cooking fuel. I don't mind cutting fire wood yet. Kids and the wife help out and it goes pretty quick.

Wow! I paid $1.44 yesterday. I won't need any now until next fall.

Wood heat is the only way to go where I'm at. I have a propane furnace as backup but it rarely ever runs. Outdoor boiler keeps the house at 70 and the heated portion of garage at 50 all winter long. I cut wood mainly on my own property and spend about 3 weekends a year and about $150 in gas/chainsaw oil, and diesel for my skid steer. First year I lived here we didnt have the outdoor boiler and we spent over $3,000 on propane from late october- late april. Now one 500gal tank lasts us almost all year, just runs hot water heater, and kitchen stove.

We own a 1000 gallon tank which we fill in the summer when prices are lowest. We get a discount for owning the tank and also for paying cash on the barrel for that fill. That USUALLY gets us through the year. But sometimes we need to buy a little in the later winter or spring. So, every summer we pre-pay and lock in the price for a couple hundred gallons to be delivered later. We usually don't need to use that and will either get it refunded in the spring or we will just leave it on account and use it to help pay for the next summer. But if we do need it, we at least get the locked in price that was available back in the summer. Handling it this way guarantees we won't need to pay the high winter time prices.

But if you have a smaller tank or a bigger house, I suspect there's no way you can help but be forced to buy propane in the winter time.

Glad I locked in 2 years ago at $1.49.

Electric heat - all electric home so we get a discount.
Supplement with wood that I cut on our property.

As mentioned earlier, pre-buying is key. We go through roughly 1,000 gallons of propane each winter. I pre-bought in August at $1.35/gallon. We cook with propane, heat water with propane, and heat our house with propane all for under $1,500 a year. I considered a wood boiler, and still am. But my time is worth something too. I would have a hard time sucking up 3 weeks or more of family and hobby time for $1,000 or so.

A dealer near me has $6 Saturdays for 20lb grill tanks. ANYNOTHER DAY IT IS $16.

I installed geo thermal heat about 8 years ago in our home but we still have a LP tank for our hot water heater and I keep my shop heated all winter with the LP as well.

Get smaller bottles and get them filled yourself you will save money i pay 1.79 a gallon to have filled myself. I was quoted 3.99 if they come to me and fill plus u have to sign a 2 yr contract if they fill it

All wood with a propane backup. Haven't used propane at all this winter except for laundry and cooking. Filled it in August I think we paid $1.55/gal