Yeah, buying your heating from a guy going door to door never struck me as a great idea. Everyone I know who fell for it, deeply regretted it, so I think you dodged a bullet, to be honest!
Ottawa got below that temperature a few times this past winter. Coldest winter in 115 years but getting that cold at least once or twice is to be expected.
Yeah rattling around in a place that’s too big to live in or heat is not fun at all.
A face cord (8’x4’x16") runs ~$100 so if you could grab 4 to heat with you’re still ahead of the game. Even if I’m out bya factor of 2 you’d be good. These guys are in Almonte but I can’t find prices for their face cords. http://www.firewoodontario.com/
Splitting your own at this point will just give you green wood that wont be any good until next year.
Isn’t there somewhere online you can go to shop for a supplier that isn’t trying to pressure you into signing up before you do any research? I’m not in Canada, but here there’s a state-run website that’s easy enough to use and it’s definitely worth it to switch suppliers.
The guys who go door to door are the most likely to ignore my no soliciting sign and always sound scammy. Last time they led with a line about protecting my energy. Not feeling that there was any threat to my electricity, I told them I’m aware of how to shop for a supplier and ended the conversation.
Electric heat was the boon of the 1950s that became the boondoggle of every decade after, and it’s only gotten dogglier, and headed for doggliest. I can’t think of any downside to switching to whatever heating option you can - propane is best, oil is better, even variations on wood (pellets, f’rex) are at least cheaper.
Sacramento built two or three “all electric” subdivisions ca. 1970 and the houses were snapped up because the local nuke plant was going to make electricity almost free. Around 1985, with homeowner contributions to the cost, they finally laid in natural gas and almost everyone converted.
The local nuke, a twin of those at TMI, was mothballed just after that, having never run at more than 50% capacity.
Just fyi, running at or around 50% capacity wasn’t particularly strange up until the 80s.
Rancho Seco* was plagued with problems from the start-up and never managed more than partial capacity for related reasons - not throttling. It was shut down by referendum.
“Dry Ranch,” or, more jocularly/in the vernacular… “Juiceless Ranch.”
Thanks for that Grey.
I have a neighbour down the street who also has an Almonte contact. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same one. Say, how did you know I’m near Almonte?
I will be getting some wood, if there’s any left in October when I can afford to buy it.
BTW. I called the scammers this morning and they said that I should be getting an email confirming my cancellation by Monday, and if not to call back. We’ll see how that goes.
For those who are interested, I pulled my last electricity bill and I did some calculations for the months of Jan., Feb., and Mar., 2015. The bill shows average daily usage in the three price zones. I compared the electricity costs only, excluding delivery charges, taxes, blah, blah, blah.
I would have saved $140 on electricity charges if I went with the new supplier. Fairly insignificant over a three month winter period, and I’m sure the new supplier would have some sort of administrative charges tacked onto their bill, so overall it really wasn’t worth it to switch.
And if this winter is a “normal” winter I’m sure there would be a savings with my current provider. Last winter was a bitch!
My mom just signed with an alternate energy provider, and it’s saved her money.
Hope it works out.
As for Almonte, given you were at AECL and not in Ottawa and you commute…I guessed. Well that and Carp and Renfrew had terrible websites. 
I got email confirmation today that the contract is canceled.
Good. And you’ve done your civic service by wasting a parasite’s time.
Good description.
I switched to a third party gas company (Caif, PG&E). When I got my bill yes the gas rate was less. But I still had to pay PG&E a delivery rate and when added to the gas rate the total was about 145% of just buying the gas from PG&E. And they tried to pull a fast one. I was told I could cancel any day. And when I did cancel they wanted to charge me a early cancelation fee.
For now. We did too: they were out of business in less than two years 
Leaffan, are you factoring in the rebates that are available?
I know money is tight but by doing what you can to increase your house’ energy efficiency it is more marketable and cheaper to live in.
Thanks. If I was staying here it might be worth looking into. But I’m planning to be out of here in less than a year.
Cheers.