More gas company doubting

Mike E_2

In keeping with all the other posts about the gas company questioning low usage, I too got a knock on the door today. I'm near Perry (not sure if same utility though) in SE WI. I'm under WE Energies in northern Ozaukee county.

Anyways, my house is currently heated with oil baseboard. It's an old farmhouse originally built in the late 1800's.
It started with wood stoves in the kitchen & living room downstairs and nothing upstairs. In 1930, a coal gravity furnace was put in for the first floor with 1 small pipe to the 2 bedrooms upstairs. In 1939 an oil-fired Mueller Climatrol forced air furnace was installed. That lasted until 1963 when a major remodel/addition was done on the house, and baseboard was installed along with a Timkin boiler. In 1992, the Timkin was replaced with a Vaillant which is still down there today.

So, the house was never heated with gas. I do however, have a gas meter that is only for the pool heater. There is no pipe coming into the house. My father had this put in in 1974 when gas came to the neighborhood instead of using the 2-100 gal vertical propane tanks. So, for the last 33 years, we use between 60-100 therms a month in May, Jun, Jul, Aug, and Sept, and 0 the rest of the year. Never any different. Last fall, the gas company replaced the meter. I figured after 30+ years it was just time to change it out. Well, today a guy from WE Energies stopped by and wanted to know why there was no usage. I had to take him down in the basement and show him the oil tank and boiler and electric water heater, and remind him to look back over the past 30 years of bills and they will all look the same. That seemed to satisfy him.

Interesting fact - the Mueller furnace is still being used to heat my garage with the same .80 nozzle from who knows when. We have tried to change it during cleanings, but I can't get any other nozzle to work. They all foul up the electrodes.

Michael

Below are pictures of the house from 1934, and a current one (the house is being repainted and just has primer right now).

don_156

Consider

Consider yourself lucky.Here the gas company will not supply you with the distribution system unless, you put in
two or more applinaces that burns gas.

I love the older pick..Nothing like a black and white photo.

Look what happen when you choose color.The first thing you see when the pic comes up is the window shaker.

Mike E_2

Yeah, I can't wait to get rid of the window shakers. My plan for this summer is to install a 2 ton ducted heat pump system for the upstairs in the attic. Currently use 2 window shakers up there. The downstairs will get 2 9000 BTU Inverter mini-splits in the front half, and a 1.5 ton ducted system for the back 3 bedrooms/laundry room.

I also want to put in a gas mod/con boiler. Currently gas is still cheaper here than oil. I'll keep the oil system fully in place and ready to go if needed. Leaning towards a Knight. Luckily when the baseboard was installed in the 60's they 'overradiated' each room. Now I can heat at -5 degrees with 145 degree water. Perfect for a condensing boiler.