Just saw that a barrel of crude dropped to $64 today....I just checked COD Oil.com and they dropped their price $ .10/gal already. I've been holding off waiting to see if the price would go back down, so if it gets under $2.00 in my area, I'm filling the oil tank and will sit on all my pellets.
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On bloomberg.com/energy has heating oil at 1.63 a gallon I think it will go down a bit but not much. I can get offroad for 2.09 a gallon.
Skier76
Minister of Fire
strangemainer
New Member
I'll never heat primarily with oil ever again. Maybe....maybe if its a buck a gallon.
My bones like the heat from the pellets way better.
My bones like the heat from the pellets way better.
iskiatomic
Minister of Fire
I saw $1.86 today in my area 150 gallons or more. Still at just over 1/4 tank. I figure now heating with wood, I will use use 250-300 gallons a year. Oil is used for my DHW and gone a lot of weekends skiing so you have to have a back up.
KC
KC
iceman
Minister of Fire
1.79 for todays price here in the springfield, mass area
believe tomorrow will drop again gonna jump at 1.65
how does wood ,pellets, oil compare anyways??? how many tons equal 100 gallons cords, etc
believe tomorrow will drop again gonna jump at 1.65
how does wood ,pellets, oil compare anyways??? how many tons equal 100 gallons cords, etc
alexei27
New Member
I believe one 40 lb bag produces about the same amount of heat as 2.5 gallons of oil. At 2.00 a gallon...it equals pellets at $5 a bag...or about $200 a ton.
Since pellets are $300 a ton + oil is $2 a gal where I`m at it makes little to no sense to run the pellet stove.
That's quite a percentage swing. There's a story in today's NY times about a possible U.S. government effort to reduce some of the wild swings. Good idea or bad idea, that will have some impact on energy prices for the individual driver and homeowner. What that means for the price of pellets, I guess, is that they will seem cheaper one month and pricier the next, with little predictability.
Here's a section from the paper:
WASHINGTON — Reacting to swings in oil prices in recent months, federal regulators announced on Tuesday that they were considering trading restrictions on hedge funds and other “speculative” traders in markets for oil, natural gas and other energy products.
In a big departure from the hands-off approach to market regulation of the last two decades, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, said his agency would consider new limits on the volume of energy futures contracts that purely financial investors would be allowed to hold.
...
Oil prices have swung wildly in the last year, hitting about $145 a barrel last summer, then plunging to $33 in December before rising to about $70.
Much of that gyration stemmed from chaos in the global financial system, as banks and much of Wall Street came perilously close to collapse last September and the global economy fell into the most severe recession in decades.
But a growing number of critics have blamed some of the extreme volatility on the role of purely financial investors — those who are simply betting on the direction of energy prices, as opposed to those who actually use such products, like airlines.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent regulatory agency that regulates the trading of futures contracts for commodities ranging from wheat and corn to oil, precious metals and currencies, has for years followed a deregulatory path that rarely interfered with the burgeoning markets they regulated.
Here's a section from the paper:
WASHINGTON — Reacting to swings in oil prices in recent months, federal regulators announced on Tuesday that they were considering trading restrictions on hedge funds and other “speculative” traders in markets for oil, natural gas and other energy products.
In a big departure from the hands-off approach to market regulation of the last two decades, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, said his agency would consider new limits on the volume of energy futures contracts that purely financial investors would be allowed to hold.
...
Oil prices have swung wildly in the last year, hitting about $145 a barrel last summer, then plunging to $33 in December before rising to about $70.
Much of that gyration stemmed from chaos in the global financial system, as banks and much of Wall Street came perilously close to collapse last September and the global economy fell into the most severe recession in decades.
But a growing number of critics have blamed some of the extreme volatility on the role of purely financial investors — those who are simply betting on the direction of energy prices, as opposed to those who actually use such products, like airlines.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent regulatory agency that regulates the trading of futures contracts for commodities ranging from wheat and corn to oil, precious metals and currencies, has for years followed a deregulatory path that rarely interfered with the burgeoning markets they regulated.
alexei27
New Member
Another interesting story...this came out of the LA Times the other day (although the link is Newsday)...talking about a huge glut in oil supply. I don't know that we will see $30 a barrel again but it would be hard for crude prices to rise if this is true...
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzoil0705,0,7762848.story
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzoil0705,0,7762848.story
Yep. Drilling for oil on Wall Street needs to stop. Right now everybody is up to their eyeballs in crude and finished product. Let supply and demand rule and the prices are going through the floor for a while.
Oil futures were supposed to allow large consumers and producers to lock in prices over time to even out costs and revenues. Then along people like Goldman Sachs that wouldn't know a barrel of crude from a martini and all hell broke loose when they essentially turned the exchange into a casino.
Oil futures were supposed to allow large consumers and producers to lock in prices over time to even out costs and revenues. Then along people like Goldman Sachs that wouldn't know a barrel of crude from a martini and all hell broke loose when they essentially turned the exchange into a casino.
BadDad320
Feeling the Heat
Got to agree with those that say oil is dropping and will continue a downward trend into the beginning of 2010.....
Crude down another $1.77 today.....at $61.16 right now. I agree w/ BadDad... most analysts forecast it to keep dropping right through Jan, just like last winter.
I think my pellets are going to be very lonely and feel "unwanted" this winter.....
hh:
I think my pellets are going to be very lonely and feel "unwanted" this winter.....
hh:
Heck everybody was burning oil and decided to jump on wood and pellet heat. All we have is wood heat and I am thinking maybe I need to get me one of them oil burners.
alexei27
New Member
pendulum said:
Yup...sorry...$250 a ton = 2.00 a gal by that calculation. I'd love to find a decent pellet at $250 a ton.
CODoil.com in my area is down to $1.89/gal for 150 - 299 gal........it's just about time for me to top off that tank.
iceman
Minister of Fire
todays price in springfield 1.79 UP from 1.69 on monday .... thats just the cheapest others are 1.80-2.05
Is 1 bag of pellets really equal to 2.5 gallons of oil?
oops just looked around and its close 2.3 gallons
but using calculators oil is 200 cheaper at 1.69 a gallon vs 260 a ton for however many btus it was ...
BUT i will be burning pellets as the room the stove is ELECTRIC OUCH
!
Is 1 bag of pellets really equal to 2.5 gallons of oil?
oops just looked around and its close 2.3 gallons
but using calculators oil is 200 cheaper at 1.69 a gallon vs 260 a ton for however many btus it was ...
BUT i will be burning pellets as the room the stove is ELECTRIC OUCH
!iceman said:
In general, given all the different factors, the easiest way to compare oil and pellets for buying purposes is to move the decimal 2 places to the right on a gal of oil, or vice versa...for example:
$1.89/gal oil = approx $189.00/ton pellets
The fact is, ya burn pellets or wood as an alternative. If they are the higher cost alternative don't do it. My alternatives just happen to be burn cord wood or pellets or freeze. Don't have oil, gas or electric heat.
"The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. "
- Winston Churchill
"The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. "
- Winston Churchill
BB,
from the looks of all the heating "equipment" you have listed in your signature, I don't think you'll be freezing in Va......LOL.
from the looks of all the heating "equipment" you have listed in your signature, I don't think you'll be freezing in Va......LOL.
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