Global warming effects on heating cost
 

Heating cost in the NE has been pretty low this winter.
And burning less oil, means a smaller carbon footprint!!

Anyways, if the winters in NE get milder and stay milder in the coming years,
it seems like this whole densely populated area might become
much more suitable for using ASHP heating during the winter.. (Mini-splits).

Could GW allow us to discontinue using home heating oil completely..?.

As more ice melts and the range of the great ocean conveyor decreases winters in the US will probably become warmer. The flip side is much colder winters in higher latitudes, so even if your Carbon footprint comes down someone else's will probably go up.

The biggest potential problem is drought, especially in terms of wildfire exposure. Not an issue in the north, but in the south/midwest they could loose a lot of money in terms of fire control and crop yields.

Droughts Getting Worse in Southern U.S. and Somalia - TIME

Food insecurity from drought is a big reason why the Pentagon considers climate change to be one of it's toughest strategic challenges in the coming decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/sc...pagewanted=all

Here in Wisconsin we used half as much fuel as last year heating the shop at work and heating my own house, the shop at work is heated with a coal burning stove and we normally use two pallets per year, this year our first pallet still has a few bags on it.
It's also looking like we're going to have our 2nd dry, hot summer and if it does cool down and freeze again, it's going to ruin a lot of fruit crops.

The buds are coming out on the trees here already.. And, the forecast
Woburn March Weather 2012 - AccuWeather Forecast for MA 01801
shows it's going to be freezing again in about a week.. :(

It rarely gets really hot around here (being near the coast), but it would
cause a lot of problems if it did. (Texas type heat spells).

We had to go bike riding today!
http://pauland.net/tempdaycomp.png
It's the perfect Spring day.. 75F, when the historical average high is 47F..

You're right about being colder up north..
Anchorage March Weather 2012 - AccuWeather Forecast for AK 99501
A bit below normal for this time of the year..

Lots of talk about Winnipeg up here today. Today's normal temperature is a high of -3C. the record is +19C today is expected to hit +27C. Same with tomorrow. Yes you save on heating but if it's closing in on 30C already you have to expect the AC bill's are going to be brutal this summer.

Around here, from May 1, to August 31, it averages about 65-67F (19C).
Once in a while we see a peak (May 1, 2010 - August 31, 2010 68.8 °F) but mostly, it stays pretty mild.

However, if we do get extremely hot weather this summer,
it's going to be hard not to link it back to the mild winter,
and start thinking we might be looking at a trend. (At least in this area).

I was watching how the polar jet stream would occasionally dip into this area
last winter and give us a good blast of cold. But mostly, it stay up north.
I guess that isolation makes for colder weather and more snow north of the border.
http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc200...-the-plane.jpg

If it keeps holding the cold air masses in place up north during the winter
of 2012-2013, we could be looking at a big savings in heating cost in the NE.
Hopeful, the cost for cooling in the summer won't negate our gains.
Hot summers are hard on people around here. They aren't used to them.

I'm not just right about that. And it's not just me. The United States Department of Defense is also rightfully concerned. We're also seeing record drought conditions.

My family lives in Texas (and some in Anchorage AK). And they have told me that
this drought is getting worse, than the 10 year drought we had back in the 50s.
One reason is the large increase Texas has seen in population since then.

There's been a strong La Nina in effect last year and this winter. Hopefully it'll ease and bring us more rain. This "winter" has been normal for rainfall. We're not quite moving forward but at least the drought isn't getting worse.

My heating bill was half of normal this winter. Part of that is the new heating system but the warmer weather played a big part as well.