Sky's the limit for heating oil-no relief in site.

Yeah, it sucks not being able to hook up to the gas line in my neighborhood (too far). and electric is expensive too in my area.

However, I am happy the article does not mention pellet stoves because I want the big crowd to stay away from the pellet supplies more pellets for me, us (hearth.com folks).

Also, heating our homes to comfortable warm temperatures (or cooling them) is a luxury that can be cut back drastically if the purchasing power is not available to buy the heat, whatever form it is. As the developing world (China and India) world gets more income they too will join the market to buy this luxury (fuel for electricity, heating, air conditioning and so on), thereby making it harder for us to purchase those fuels.

On the bright side, it makes us more energy independent and flexible, and insulated from an oil shocks.

My house actually gets to hot sometimes with the pellet stove. Gotta love that, I'd go broke doing that with HHO!

Still cool here in S. Maine, mid 30s but temps are rising. Lowered the stove this AM before heading out to work. Looks like a warm week for us in New England. Where is winter?

HD41 said:

They raise prices and people then people conserve or switch so they sell less, oil raises prices because they are "are entitled", close more refineries say there is a shortage and on and on and on...... Last year I heated about 50/50 oil/pellets, this year 5/95 oil/pellets. Looks like I will need to turn my oil furnace into a planter---anybody have plans? I guess the Times doesn't even consider pellet stoves as relevant. With the rule of thumb $200 ton pellets equals $2.00 per gallon heating oil. I feel I am ahead of the curve for now unless the pellet manufacturers form a PPEC. $300 per ton pellets were common a couple years ago!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/b...-in-northeast-cant-switch.html?pagewanted=all

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See pic below
1 bag of wood pellets = 2.5 gallons of oil

So Walmart's latest price here in Salem NH is $3.88 per bag

Therefore 1 bag of Wood Pellets at $3.88 / 2.5gal = $1.55 per gallon of oil. That is even better these days

So you know what the cheapest way to heat a shed is?
See Shed Wood Pellet Stove Install!!
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/88954/

HD41 said:

They raise prices and people then people conserve or switch so they sell less, oil raises prices because they are "are entitled", close more refineries say there is a shortage and on and on and on...... Last year I heated about 50/50 oil/pellets, this year 5/95 oil/pellets. Looks like I will need to turn my oil furnace into a planter---anybody have plans? I guess the Times doesn't even consider pellet stoves as relevant. With the rule of thumb $200 ton pellets equals $2.00 per gallon heating oil. I feel I am ahead of the curve for now unless the pellet manufacturers form a PPEC. $300 per ton pellets were common a couple years ago!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/b...-in-northeast-cant-switch.html?pagewanted=all

Click to expand...

I will implore fellow "Pelleteers" to keep quiet about pellets, next thing you know everyone will have a pellet stove and the prices of pellets will skyrocket. What will we do then?!?!

Incidentally the sky isn't the limit for HHO, the commodities bubble will pop just like the housing bubble and the tech bubble before it.

Bank said:

My house actually gets to hot sometimes with the pellet stove. Gotta love that, I'd go broke doing that with HHO!

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Mine got too hot yesterday, had to break down and shut it off. It had been running in standby mode all day! Almost brought a tear to my eye.

quite warm here today also, central Ohio
will probably shut the stove down for a couple days with these temps
takes a while to drop in the house
from the forecast, maybe the rest of the week

HD41 said:

Bank said:

My house actually gets to hot sometimes with the pellet stove. Gotta love that, I'd go broke doing that with HHO!

Click to expand...

Another spring day in January here in northern Ohio, 52 degrees, I shut the stove down.

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Yep. 51* right now near Wellington Oh. Crazy

Supposed to be Winter?? Oh well, plenty of saved pellets this year. .

We weened from oil in the mid 90's when we moved into this house(all electric). They can do as they please with there big oil. I heated with wood first and now with the much easier for me pellets. Nice thing with pellets is you can buy them in the off season and save a buck or 2. Plus I save a couple of bucks with shoulder season fuel. Pellets are a win for us, But if they go too crazy(like 08) I'll supplement my pellet addiction with some scrounged cord wood.

Wood pellets will rise just like big oil. Its gonna be like oil futures from what the pellet boys are saying. You can thank our European neighbors. They are farther along in the pellet game. But for some reason need our resorces to feed there glut.

I remember when pellets first became popular, They we considered waste from the mills. Pellets were less than $100/ton. But wood waste isn't considered waste any longer. There are many hands in the wood fiber pile these days. So the fiber prices have been soaring! Hopefully there will be another waste product that will become the new wood pellet replacement. But nother is being spoken of just yet! So we shall have to wait! New stove buyers should look hard at multifuel units! I did!

Actually thinking of getting a pellet boiler to replace my peerless but not sure what is a good one.
I still burn 50 to 100 gallons of heating oil per year but have yet to purchase any so far.
Unreal at $3.69 per gallon what a rip off and homeowners are being screwed as it used to be sooooo cheap.

I think there is no hope for the future of having affordable access to oil. It has found homes in other markets and has no need to be reasonable in the foreseeable future. Besides, there are too many internal pressures to stay away from having access to vast deposits in our country. I'm betting pellets, and other biomass products will be around for a while. Biggest reason is transportation. No huge profit margins so Wall Street will have little interest, leaving the industry to smaller business. No good way to move them out without making them too expensive. That and the fact the the end user has to work at it in order to be successful. I think the next best option to challenge oil in the northeast will come from greater access to natural gas. Biggest threat to that are the "save the......." and the " friends of the....." groups.

already gave up on oil. lost the furnace this year in a hurricane and decided not to replace it. havent used it since i got my stove in 06. well i used in here and there but not bec i needed more horsepower, it was because i felt lazy or sick etc and wanted to rest instead of haul pellets.

my decision was easy for me however. i already knew i could heat my house easily with pellets on the coldest of nights, the furnace got trashed and it would cost about 1800 to order online and install myself, and it doesnt look like oil is ever going to be a reasonable price to heat your home with. Not to mention the risks. oil is nasty nasty stuff. if your tank leaks its an environmental disaster. if your pellet bag rips, its a minor annoyance and playtime for the dog.

i once pulled up from work and saw a trail of pellets on the floor leading from the garage, through the driveway into the house. turns out wife decided to bring in a bag but didnt realize it was ripped and by the time she got in the house the level fell below the hole in the bag so she didnt notice. but she did note that the bag didnt seem as heavy as it did in the garage! doh!

my backup heat source is a kerosene heater and i can use that if the stove breaks. i usually keep 10 gallons on hand. especially nice if the power goes out since my stove doesnt play well with the generator.

as for protection our pellet secret from the masses? i dont think thats ever going to be a massive problem. i cant see people doing what we do. hauling, cleaning, diagnosing, upkeep. the worst that can happen is people will buy tons of stoves, realize theres more to it than pushing *on* and flood craigslist with nice slighty used stoves for us.

A little off topic since I'm lucky enough not to have to use oil.

I have a NG furnace, HW heaters, and dryer. National Grid supplies both my NG and electricity. They just sent me a letter showing a comparison of 100 similar sized homes in my town that use both NG and electric from them. I was ranked 13th out of 100 for usage. (low to high) I was amazed that I could do this well. I guess the pellet stove, some renovations and insulation can really pay off.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled bashing of big oil.....

Harman Lover 007 said:

A little off topic since I'm lucky enough not to have to use oil.

I have a NG furnace, HW heaters, and dryer. National Grid supplies both my NG and electricity. They just sent me a letter showing a comparison of 100 similar sized homes in my town that use both NG and electric from them. I was ranked 13th out of 100 for usage. (low to high) I was amazed that I could do this well. I guess the pellet stove, some renovations and insulation can really pay off.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled bashing of big oil.....

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Well Done #13!!

Tom C.

save$ said:

I think there is no hope for the future of having affordable access to oil. It has found homes in other markets and has no need to be reasonable in the foreseeable future. Besides, there are too many internal pressures to stay away from having access to vast deposits in our country. I'm betting pellets, and other biomass products will be around for a while. Biggest reason is transportation. No huge profit margins so Wall Street will have little interest, leaving the industry to smaller business. No good way to move them out without making them too expensive. That and the fact the the end user has to work at it in order to be successful. I think the next best option to challenge oil in the northeast will come from greater access to natural gas. Biggest threat to that are the "save the......." and the " friends of the....." groups.

Click to expand...

I think there's a commodity bubble right now due to economic mismanagement at the Fed. The rational price for oil is probably around $2-$3 a gallon or so, more expensive than 2004ish but not at the ridiculous prices it's going at right now.

Don't sell your pellet stove yet though, pellets will still be cheaper.

My oil fired boiler is 20+ years old and this year since October 1st, I've used about 150 gallons to date with nearly a ton of pellets. It's been warm so no huge usage. The boiler soon needs to go. My plan is to get a more efficient (System 2000) unit and run the vent up a now, unused rear chimney (a three feet up, then four feet over journey from boiler exhaust to the flue). My old boiler now goes up a center, single flue chimney. Once this expensive installation is done, I'll connect a wood stove vent up through the center chimney while keeping my pellet stove as is (vents through a wall in the house). But, wondering after I spend $8K on the entire project, if it'll pay in my lifetime! Oil, pellet prices do go down despite forecasts.

I have no crystal ball . . . especially about pellet prices, but I am certain that oil will continue to climb. We have to remember that home heating oil is essentially diesel for which there is a growing global demand.

The number one export from the US in 2011 was energy, with diesel being a large component of that. Right now heating oil prices in our area range from about $4.00 to $4.80 per gallon. Pellets are an obvious alternative.

Except for the few mornings after a night below 20°, I have not burned any oil for heat. On those occasions, when the house is under 65° because of bitter cold, I have turned on the oil for 45 minutes, brought the house up to temp and then let the stove carry it for the rest of the day.

A good - no let me correct myself - a great deal to me.

At this point, I think the smart money is on having options. My next house when I "skinny down" will have some solar, a small turbine, a pellet stove and either oil or propane. Hell I might even consider coal! The more options you have the better insulated you are from the ravages of scum bag cartels!

Bank said:

At this point, I think the smart money is on having options. My next house when I "skinny down" will have some solar, a small turbine, a pellet stove and either oil or propane. Hell I might even consider coal! The more options you have the better insulated you are from the ravages of scum bag cartels!

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Exactly. I think it's a mistake to constantly chase energy types based on how they are "performing" economically at that given point in time. People who switch to gas now because it's cheaper than oil might be bit in the ass in 10 years, maybe the EPA will outlaw gas drilling or lumber usage for pellets and the price will go through the roof. The economy almost never performs how people assume it will. Otherwise we'd all be billionaires.

The smart move: as with anything else, don't put all your eggs in one basket, keep several different energy options available.

As far as people rushing out to buy pellet stoves, etc, put me down as doubtful. The vast majority of the U.S. population is so used to turning on their thermostats and getting near instant gratification - not schlepping 40 pound bags around and cleaning out the stove - that the pellet demand boom would be a pretty quiet one. If someone can come up with a fully automated pellet storage, feed, stove cleaning process, then maybe. Small pellet silos next to the deck would look pretty cool. But ash clean-up is one of the biggest drawbacks for most people. And when people see ours, they're pretty impressed until I ask them to fill the hopper. :lol:

BillM2 makes good points, Americans love their instant gratification and let's face it, who doesn't? But I'm also pretty frugal. No skin off my azz to move the bags and clean the big black beast once a week. It's good therapy and I can keep my home as warm as a green house in the dead of winter for pennies compared to fossil fuels. For those that want to pay big bucks to heat their homes, go for it, more pellets for me!