Giovanni said:Fuel oil delivery as of today is $4.399 per gal. here in western Ma. (Pittsfield) and that`s the lowest price available.
Crude might be down $8 but we probably won`t see it .
I`m actually thinking of another stove and chimney on the main floor to nearly eliminate the oil I buy.
And I can forsee the possibility of not heating the finished basement in the future and getting by with a pellet stove on the main floor. I could live with that if I have to.
Maybe even restore some of the (former) electric heat in rooms that would need minimal or occasional heat.
Only have to move my computer upstairs .
Drastic times call for drastic measures. Heh, heh , heh.
Really now, As a youngster (1950s) I can recall having to cut firewood in the summer to burn in the coal furnace in the late fall before it got cold enough to burn coal safely and efficiently and never having much if any heat in the bedrooms all winter. Still that old coal furnace in the cellar was a luxury back then.
But I can go back even further to the 40s to our other home and recall our weekly baths in front of the old kitchen cook stove, wood, coal , oil ? Can`t remember what combination it was but it had a side heater of some sort in it. We also had an kerosene stove (vented space heater) in the living room. I can recall the white kerosene cans placed upside down behind the stove
glug,glug,glugging periodically as it slowly fed into the pot burner that needed it`s dual wicks trimmed occasionally. There was a 50 gal oil/kerosene drum outside near the porch door setting atop a pair of cross bucks and I assume it was filled on a regular basis. Let`s see now, 50 gals at maybe .10 per gal or less was possible because I do remember oil at .14 a gal in the mid to late 50s.
There was no heat in the bedrooms for sure but I never remember being cold however I remember like it was yesterday having my fathers WWI long woolen brown Army coat on top of me to keep me warm. How I loved that old coat. How I loved my father. It had my fathers smell to it or at least I imagined it.
It seems some of us might be destined to return to the old space heater scenario and maybe that`s not a bad thing either since we have become far too accustomed to the excesses and waste of the modern lives we live.
John
well said!