My wife Jennifer, my daughter Becky, Lucy the dog and myself live in a 2-story 2,000 sq ft farmhouse with a very small basement, built in 1898 and located in North Central Indiana (Converse, IN). The house features an 85% efficient fuel oil forced air furnace (with central air) in the basement and a 40,000 BTU propane vent-less gas log in the front room. I installed the gas log into an old Ben Franklin stove that we found on Ebay. We've replaced all of the original windows in the house. The ceilings are fairly well insulated with blown in cellulose insulation and most of the walls are also filled with cellulose insulation. The basement/crawlspace walls have been covered with that yellow spray on foam but it's always really cold and drafty down there and I don't know why. We use 2 portable oil-filled electric heaters in the upstairs bedrooms due to the lack of adequate ducting upstairs. Also.... It's windy out here.... I mean really windy. There are no buildings or trees to block the wind. I attribute the wind and the lack of sheet subsiding and/or house wrap to the high heating costs associated with this house.

Unfortunately we didn't keep any records/receipts of our fuel oil/propane purchases last year. So we're not sure how much we've paid in the past to heat the house but it was a substantial amount of money. We've been kicking around the idea of putting in a corn furnace for a few years and it seemed like the thing to do this year (2005). We almost waited too long... I called 20 or 30 dealers before I found one who had a furnace in stock; everyone else said it would be the middle of January before they would get any in.

As it turns out, my usual aproach to things (procrastination) may have been a better option this time... we may have been able to get a 25% rebate on our taxes had we waited till after Jan 1 2006 to buy our furnace, but the house is toasty and "we've already saved a ton of money by switching to corn".

Last edited 12/9/2005