# Heating Oil Prices



## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

We just got an oil delivery yesterday. My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw the bill. the only reason it didn't is because DW's jaw was already down there first blocking mine from hitting.

The bill was over $800. The price per gallon was $4.49. This is going to be a very difficult winter and we are not even done with summer yet.


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

WOW, that's huge!

My jaw bounced off the floor a couple weeks ago when I got a $257 electric bill for my little condo.  It's a lot warmer in here these days.  

I can't imagine what the heating season will bring.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

Yeah our electric bill was about $250, but a large part of that is the pool. That is a huge energy drain.


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

GB said:


> Yeah our electric bill was about $250, but a large part of that is the pool. That is a huge energy drain.


 

It's the AC for me.


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## Adillo303 (Jul 31, 2008)

I hear both of you on fuel prices. My last fillup on my diesel truck (Same as heating oil) was $4.61. It cost $150.00 to fill it up. Electric is up here too. I wish that I still had easy free access to firewood, I would put in a fireplace. I heated with wood for 3 years. Didn't pay a penny for heat, loved it. Just had to cut and split wood, which is good excercise.

AC


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

Anyone with forced hot air should seal the duct work.  There's specific tape (not duct tape) or mastic used for this.  Most homes lose 30% of air flow through leaky ducts.  I did mine and noticed a $100 month drop in my gas bill, plus the house heats/cools off alot faster.

It took me half a day using the tape in my full basement with a drop ceiling.  Don't forget to go around the furnace too.  Just put the thermostat on "Fan Only" and feel for drafts around the ductwork.


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## Wart (Jul 31, 2008)

I have always wanted a wood burner.

Wife has always been against it.

Mayhaps this year she'll change her mind.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

We actually have a wood stove. Last year we used it quite a lot, but for some reason did not notice much of a difference in our oil bill for some reason. I am still trying to figure that one out.

This year we will not be able to use the wood stove much. It takes a few hours for it to heat up enough  to start pumping out heat that you can feel in the other rooms. With our work schedules now that means that by the time we get home and get it lit and heated it will be time to let it die down for the night. We can use it on the weekends or the rare day that one of us works from home, but that is it.


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## suziquzie (Jul 31, 2008)

I have to go back to work closer to full time just so we can get the fuel AND propane for the oven / dryer filled!!! I've been grilling because I'm afraid using the oven and stove to much will make us run out before we're ready. 
We will be switcihng our furnace to propane as soon as possible and adding a heat pump? I'm not sure what that does but it has something to do with both the furnace and a/c.. I think it it put in underground?
It's DH's department I don't quite get it..... but it's supposed to save money and energy anyway!


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## Alix (Jul 31, 2008)

Do most of your homes use oil for heat and not natural gas? Most use natural gas here so thats why I was asking.


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## suziquzie (Jul 31, 2008)

At least here in MN, in the cities and towns, most are hooked up (usually by force) to Natural gas thru the city lines.
I live in the middle of nowhere. 
Soon to be middle of nowhere in a tent burning wood.


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## GrantsKat (Jul 31, 2008)

We do not have gas or oil at all. Everything is electrically powered. Including the pump for the water from our well, when we have power outages we are completely shut down. Our electric bill runs around $250 all year round. Although we just recieved notice that next month there will be an 8% increase >: {


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

Heating homes with oil is very big in the Northeast.  Natural gas is here as well but oil is king.  I heat with NG.  It has been cheaper historically.


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## bethzaring (Jul 31, 2008)

We heat entirely with wood, and it is not free.  We pay real estate taxes on our 50 acre woodlot, which BTW is way more than we need, I think 2 acres would be plenty.  Our house is superinsulated and requires little in the way of a heat source.  We maintain two large chainsaws which run on oil and gas. But the biggest expense is the time it takes dh to fell, cut and haul the wood with a tractor.  This is time he can not draw any salary.  I assume we save a great deal of money by heating with wood over having to pay for oil or electricity, but it is not free.


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

My brother in NH said some of people were going back to coal.


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## Alix (Jul 31, 2008)

GB, how long does the oil you just got last? Is it a monthly thing or what? And how big is your house? 

Our house is 1100 sq ft with a full basement (so 2200 sq ft) and we pay about $200 a month for NG. Just wondering what the comparison is like.


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## LadyCook61 (Jul 31, 2008)

We use Keystoker Coal stove for heating the whole house.  The house has electric baseboard heating and we have not used it at all.  We used to have a wood burning stove but it did a bad job of heating so we got rid of it and bought the coal stove about 10 yrs ago.  The house is 2300 sq. feet, 2 floors.


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

LadyCook61 said:


> We use Keystoker Coal stove for heating the whole house. The house has electric baseboard heating and we have not used it at all. We used to have a wood burning stove but it did a bad job of heating so we got rid of it and bought the coal stove about 10 yrs ago. The house is 2300 sq. feet, 2 floors.


 
What's your monthly heating costs with coal?


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

Alix during the summer it lasts a long time. This is the first fill up we have had in months. I do not remember when our last was. During the winter we seem to get a fill up every 4-6 weeks. Our house is basically the same as yours. 11oosq ft with a full finished basement.


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

Programable thermostats will save you a bundle too.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

Yep we already have that going for us Jeekinz.


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## bethzaring (Jul 31, 2008)

Jeekinz said:


> Programable thermostats will save you a bundle too.


 

what's that?

I am new to thermostats.  To please our insurance company, we had to install a heat pump that came with a thermostat.  Ins. company was going to drop us because our primary heat source is wood heat.


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## Alix (Jul 31, 2008)

GB, so if I calculate correctly you get roughly 6 deliveries a year? Costing you $4800 at the current rate. Is that close? So you are paying roughly double what I am for heat. Now I can say...HOLY CRAP!!! I had to get a perspective first to understand how expensive that was. YIKES!


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

Yeah that sounds about right Alix.


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

You can set when you want the heat to come on and turn off...and what temp.

So my weekday settings are as follows: Mon-Fri- 530am 70deg; 730am 55deg; 400pm 70deg; 1000pm 60 deg.

So I'm not heating the house when we're sleeping or at work. It comes on a little before we wake up and a little before we get home from work.

There is a debate on wether you let the house cool off too much and you will use more fuel to heat it back up. But I found my house, since all the duct sealing, heats up fairly quickly from 55 or 60 degrees.

We use the fireplace constantly too. It doesn't heat the whole house or anything, but by the time we go upstairs to bed the heat has risen enough to warm the upstairs.

I keep my hot water heater on a low setting as well. Why should I pay to heat water for a shower just to cool it off with the cold water? The dishwasher has a built in heater and we don't wash our clothes with hot water.

The thermostats can be purchased at any home center for $40-80, give or take.  Most of the newer ones come with a preprogramed schedule that is supposed to be the most economical.


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## Alix (Jul 31, 2008)

We have a programmable thermostat too, its all in Fahrenheit though so it makes my brain hurt to program it. LOL. Thankfully its all done now and I don't have to calculate any more.


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## Uncle Bob (Jul 31, 2008)

Bethzaring said:
			
		

> I assume we save a great deal of money by heating with wood over having to pay for oil or electricity, but it is not free.


 
Dat's a fact!!! It's like my SIL talking about how lucky I am to have "all those free vegetables"  Yeah right...come spend a few days wit me!!!


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## kitchenelf (Jul 31, 2008)

Call me anytime Alix - LOL  Oh wait, I'd have to know celcius - never mind!

Watch out for those programmable thermostats.  It's always better to leave it on the same temp versus up and down during the day/night.


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## LadyCook61 (Jul 31, 2008)

Jeekinz said:


> You can set when you want the heat to come on and turn off...and what temp.
> 
> So my weekday settings are as follows: Mon-Fri- 530am 70deg; 730am 55deg; 400pm 70deg; 1000pm 60 deg.
> 
> ...


 

We have an on demand hot water heater system, the kind that goes on the wall.  We also have a built in water heater in the dishwasher.


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

LadyCook61 said:


> We have an on demand hot water heater system, the kind that goes on the wall. We also have a built in water heater in the dishwasher.


 
Those tankless water heaters are great.  They originated in Europe.  When my hot water heater goes out, I'll be replacing it with one of those.  I read a couple years ago they were coming out with a microwave version, which would even cost less to operate.


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

All new dishwashers now heat the water when it gets to the DW.  The problem is, that it's a very expensive way to heat water.  You are using electricity rather than natural gas or oil to heat the water.

The water temp in the DW has to be anywhere from 160 F to 190 F depending on the cycle you select.  Your water heater should be set to no more than 120 F.  So the DW has to bring the temperature from whatever goes into the DW to what it needs.

If you put cold water in, it will take more electricity to get it to 160 F.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

Andy M. said:


> The water temp in the *DW* has to be anywhere from 160 F to 190 F depending on the cycle you select.  Your water heater should be set to no more than 120 F.  So the *DW* has to bring the temperature from whatever goes into the *DW* to what it needs.
> 
> If you put cold water in, it will take more electricity to get it to 160 F.


I don't make my wife heat hot water.


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## suziquzie (Jul 31, 2008)

You're quite the gentleman GB!!!


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

Andy M. said:


> All new dishwashers now heat the water when it gets to the DW. The problem is, that it's a very expensive way to heat water. You are using electricity rather than natural gas or oil to heat the water.
> 
> The water temp in the DW has to be anywhere from 160 F to 190 F depending on the cycle you select. Your water heater should be set to no more than 120 F. So the DW has to bring the temperature from whatever goes into the DW to what it needs.
> 
> If you put cold water in, it will take more electricity to get it to 160 F.


 
We always run the kitchen faucet first to bring up the hot water, or we will run it right after doing the hand wash items.  The dishwasher uses very little water so I would think it would be more efficient for the dishwasher to heat the water rather than keeping a hot water tank heated to 160 24/7.


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## elaine l (Jul 31, 2008)

We have two oil burners.  One for the main house and another for the family room/office.  We keep the family room turned off for the winter (except holidays!)  For the rest of the house, we installed a propane fireplace that heats the kitchen and den.  We close the doors to the living room and dining room and turn the furnace way way down.  The upstairs is cool but we bought a heated blanket to warm it up before bed.  We don't have children that live with us so it's easy to keep cool.  We are both gone all day but the propane heat does it's job quickly when we get home.  I thought I was going to hate not being toasty warm but now during the hot days of summer I find I can't stand being hot.   The oil tank still needs to be filled and it always shocks us.


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

Jeekinz said:


> ...I would think it would be more efficient for the dishwasher to heat the water rather than keeping a hot water tank heated to 160 24/7.


 

If you don't keep a water heater going all the time, which is the usual way of doing things, then you are correct.  If you keep a water heater going for showers, hand washing and other needs, it's the cheapest way of heatng water.


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## momerlyn (Jul 31, 2008)

GB, sell your house and move here! For what you could get for it in the northeast, you would get a new 2400 sq ft home in Ozaukee County, which Forbes just named the #2 place in the country to raise kids. You'd have a babysitter (me!) and you can give up oil heat.

(I hear my sister yelling at you to ignore me from 6 states away.)

Seriously, tho, not having the pool this summer has saved us literally thousands of dollars. What a waste! Our last gas bill was 43 bucks. Our electric and water come together, and that was something like $60.


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## LadyCook61 (Jul 31, 2008)

momerlyn said:


> GB, sell your house and move here! For what you could get for it in the northeast, you would get a new 2400 sq ft home in Ozaukee County, which Forbes just named the #2 place in the country to raise kids. You'd have a babysitter (me!) and you can give up oil heat.
> 
> (I hear my sister yelling at you to ignore me from 6 states away.)
> 
> Seriously, tho, not having the pool this summer has saved us literally thousands of dollars. What a waste! Our last gas bill was 43 bucks. Our electric and water come together, and that was something like $60.


 
we moved out of NJ because of high property taxes.  Perhaps your area is less expensive.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

I still love our pool though and am not ready to give of up. Especially after this year. We have had a great time in it this summer. Osh even took two full naps in there (in my arms of course). 

While Darls family is still around we will have to stay local. At some point we will move someplace warm warm warm.


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## momerlyn (Jul 31, 2008)

LadyCook61 said:


> we moved out of NJ because of high property taxes.  Perhaps your area is less expensive.




Hm, guess it's time to update my profile. As of May 1, we live in Wisconsin. We didn't leave NJ because of the high taxes, but we sure weren't sorry to say goodbye to them!


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## jennyema (Jul 31, 2008)

I've got a 3000 sq foot house built in 1887 with lots of drafts.  I try to seal things up real well and keep the thermometer at 55-60 during the winter.

I have tankless hot water that runs off the oil buring furnace, so I use oil all year.

My budget plan last year was $260/month.  This year it's $415/month!!! 

I see space heaters in my future.


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## Uncle Bob (Jul 31, 2008)

Jennyema said:
			
		

> I see space heaters in my future.


 
Run that by your homeowners insurance agent...They may not cover you!


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## jennyema (Jul 31, 2008)

Uncle Bob said:


> Run that by your homeowners insurance agent...They may not cover you!


 
That's a good point.

I'll dig out my policy and see if it says anything.


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## Mama (Jul 31, 2008)

I just got my NG bill yesterday.  It was $42.  I was locked in at $1.09 per therm but my contract is now expired and they want to know if I want to lock in at $1.70 per therm for another 6 to 12 months.  I don't use much NG in the summertime, cooking and hot water is about it but I do in the wintertime.  I don't know what to do...I would hate to lock in when gas prices are starting to drop a bit.  Anyone have any thoughts on when I should lock in?


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## bethzaring (Jul 31, 2008)

Jeekinz said:


> You can set when you want the heat to come on and turn off...and what temp.
> 
> 
> The thermostats can be purchased at any home center for $40-80, give or take. Most of the newer ones come with a preprogramed schedule that is supposed to be the most economical.


 

What was I thinking?


um....


we don't exactly have "automatic" heat

But thanks anyway!


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

bethzaring said:


> What was I thinking?
> 
> 
> um....
> ...


 
It's very simple to install and replaces your exsisting thermostat.  You don't need any fancy heating system or anything.  Just a screwdriver.


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## GB (Jul 31, 2008)

I think you are missing her humor Jeekinz. A thermostat won't do much good on her wood burning stove.


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## Andy M. (Jul 31, 2008)

bethzaring said:


> We heat entirely with wood, and it is not free. We pay real estate taxes on our 50 acre woodlot, which BTW is way more than we need, I think 2 acres would be plenty. Our house is superinsulated and requires little in the way of a heat source. We maintain two large chainsaws which run on oil and gas. But the biggest expense is the time it takes dh to fell, cut and haul the wood with a tractor. This is time he can not draw any salary. I assume we save a great deal of money by heating with wood over having to pay for oil or electricity, but it is not free.


 

*Hey, Jeekins!*


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## Jeekinz (Jul 31, 2008)

GB said:


> I think you are missing her humor Jeekinz. A thermostat won't do much good on her wood burning stove.


 
I'm tired, and it's past 4:30. 


 Beth!


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## babetoo (Jul 31, 2008)

Andy M. said:


> WOW, that's huge!
> 
> My jaw bounced off the floor a couple weeks ago when I got a $257 electric bill for my little condo. It's a lot warmer in here these days.
> 
> I can't imagine what the heating season will bring.


 
my electric bill for a two bedroom mobile home was 190.00 for a month. 

out of sight, then comes winter and the gas goes sky high. i try to be Conservative with it,but there u are.

babe


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## suziquzie (Jul 31, 2008)

Wow. 
When I had my 1st apt.... 15 years ago or so, I think my electric bill was $30 tops!

Heat and water were all paid so that was still just straight up electric... but it's basically the same in the house we're in now... 
we use oil / propane for all major appliances but the water heater, which is a storage system ginormous thing, (dont take a shower in the evening after a heavy laundry / bathtub day) and of course washer and dishwasher... but we are still at 250 a month! 
I think the next energy sucker to go is DH's reef aquarium, as much as I hate to see it go, thats alot of lights and pumps to be running constantly. 
Better that than my curling iron....


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## Maverick2272 (Jul 31, 2008)

We have natural gas heating, but it has gone up steadily as well. Our electric bill just hit $250 for the month, all due to the AC (OK maybe the computers and TV contributed to that as well). I have the house sealed up and weather proofed pretty good as we are still running around $100 cheaper per month than our neighbors with central air. And our heating bill is still much lower as well.
Still, this winter is gonna hurt something serious...


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## Mama (Jul 31, 2008)

After reading all these posts, I guess I need to quit complaining. Our house is about 1300 square feet. This month the natural gas bill was $42 and the electric was $142. We have central air and we keep it pretty cool in the house so I guess I shouldn't be whinning about my gas bill going up 60 cents per therm.


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