New England (MA, CT, ME, NH, VT, RI) Oil Glut?

pellet prices in check?, there $100+ a ton overpriced compared to oil

I agree and it is even worse because pellets require significant maintenance every day that oil does not.

Oil prices in my neck of the woods are $1.75/gallon right now. My favorite brand of pellets (through woodpellets.com) is now $280/ton. That's nuts.

Last year oil prices were also low (got as low as $1.50/gallon here) but pellet prices remained high the whole winter. I don't understand how they're selling any, frankly.

I am using pellets because I have a lot left (bought a few years ago when they were quite a bit cheaper) AND I like how they heat my house, but I may go back to oil this winter. Don't really like the idea, though.

karen_in_nh_2014 said:

I don't understand how they're selling any, frankly.

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Because not everyone uses oil. For those of us who have electric heat or propane (me), the price is still quite high to run a conventional heating source compared to pellets. I just paid $2.70/gallon for propane and that was with a new provider - my previous provider would have charged me $3.74/gallon (that is why I changed providers a couple of weeks ago). Here is the average home heating fuel price for NH the last week of November - looks like oil is once again, on average, more expensive than pellets per BTU. And Propane is only second to electricity in cost per BTU - at twice what pellets cost.

bogieb said:

Because not everyone uses oil. For those of us who have electric heat or propane (me), the price is still quite high to run a conventional heating source compared to pellets. I just paid $2.70/gallon for propane and that was with a new provider - my previous provider would have charged me $3.74/gallon (that is why I changed providers a couple of weeks ago). Here is the average home heating fuel price for NH the last week of November - looks like oil is once again, on average, more expensive than pellets per BTU. And Propane is only second to electricity in cost per BTU - at twice what pellets cost.

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I feel like a dope as I had no idea prices varied THAT much here in NH! My propane costs are high because I DON'T use it for heating (if I did, it would be <$2.00/gallon right now -- not much more than oil). For me oil is substantially cheaper than the current cost of pellets (I am comparing 100 gallons of oil to 1 ton of pellets, since that's how it's worked out for my particular houses in the past -- I was told 1 ton of pellets is more like 120 gallons of oil, but that has not been my own experience).

I am surprised at some of the prices on that chart. Oil in the Keene area is something like 50 cents/gallon cheaper than what's listed (just checked -- it's still $1.75/gallon) -- and our prices tend to be HIGHER than those in, say, Portsmouth.