Article on heating oil prices here in Maine...OUCH!
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roadking88
Feeling the Heat
that's crazy...5 bucks a gallon???
i'm glad i use oil only to heat my water......
3.31 a gallon around here cash energy this morning...
http://www.cashoil.com/
i'm glad i use oil only to heat my water......
3.31 a gallon around here cash energy this morning...
http://www.cashoil.com/
tumbles
Member
People are being taken advantage of by the oil business for far too long. Most just buy futures and then sell them a profit in the winter. Now speculators have figured out its a good money maker and now they've gotten into the game. Oil companies liked it better whn they were the only ones in the game. People ought to be spending money on winterization and alternative heat sources. How many years are you going to get burned before you learn. A fool and his/her money will soon depart. Just my opinion.
what i have read it's only the North East that uses oil for heating. The rest of the country is gas or whatever. And what i see in the NE is nobody is building new house and having oil heat. So in time oil heat could be a thing of the past. About 6 yrs ago my oil furnace went in the middle of the winter. And i just called my oil man and $5000 grand later i had a new furnace. If it would of gone any other time i would did my homework and got a gas heater for the same price
tumbles
Member
The reason people go with oil is you get more BTU's out of a gallon on oil than you do out of a gallon of propane. Yes you can bet higher efficiency out of a propane furnace but I will take 85% of 140,000 instead of 90 % of 90,000. You don't need a chimney for propane (savings) and less maintence overall. It's good to have options and pellets gives us options. Just MHO.
smilejamaica
Feeling the Heat
i just paid 3.17 cents a gallon in ct . if i bought 150 gallons they would have gave it to me for 3.12 cents a gallon .im also happy i just use it to heat my water
referee38
Member
roadking88
Feeling the Heat
smilejamaica said:
3.12/gal??? i'd be happy with that...
maine so expensive for everything taxes included......
save$
Minister of Fire
Too many special interest groups having a major impact upon our electorate. Left to supply and demand, it is predictable that oil would be priced more realistically. This higher price is meeting more than the objectives of oil profits.
Maine has one of the highest concentration on senior citizens. That group is mostly on fixed incomes. The negative impact of high energy cost hits them about the worse of anyone.
It will be interesting to see what changes are made if and when pellet/wood burners actually start to comprise a larger and more significant percentage of industrial and home heating. Some things seems sure, efficiencies seems certain to improve, and your cost will be more.
Maine has one of the highest concentration on senior citizens. That group is mostly on fixed incomes. The negative impact of high energy cost hits them about the worse of anyone.
It will be interesting to see what changes are made if and when pellet/wood burners actually start to comprise a larger and more significant percentage of industrial and home heating. Some things seems sure, efficiencies seems certain to improve, and your cost will be more.
roadking88 said:
I'd be ECSTATIC at that price, seeing that CODoil here (cheapest price I've found) is going for $3.47/gal. :gulp:
%#@&*^! New York
imacman said:roadking88 said:
I'd be ECSTATIC at that price, seeing that CODoil here (cheapest price I've found) is going for $3.47/gal. :gulp:
%#@&*^! New York
I paid $3.46 per gallon a few weeks ago. I had a credit with the company so next summer I will shop around more.
So, I am all set for this coming winter with 3 tons of pellets at $197 per ton for heat and a full oil tank for DHW that will last till next summer!
It will be my cheapest heating season in a very long time
I am ready for it!! See pic
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tumbles
Member
I'm down to about 250-300 gallons of oil for mainly DHW. I use to burn about 700 -750 gallons. We locked in our oil this year for 3:19 but I only had to buy 300 gallons as I didn't use all my allocated oil last year. Didn't have to even do that as both my oil tanks are 3/4 full. In my HO, Oil companies and speculators are shooting themselves in the foot by keeping the price up. When I bought my stove, it was to give my household options about what to use for heat. I was tired of being held captive. I save a little over a thousand $ a year by burning pellets plus I'm keeping my house warmer (about 75 at night). Win win if you ask me. I mainly use the oil for back up heat (when gone skiing for the weekend) and DHW, but when it's time to replace it, I will be looking at alternatives. Not sure what would be best. Time will tell. Government ought to be having people weatherize their homes and using cheaper alternatives before just giving them money for oil. Not a solution to the problem as it will be the same deal again next year and the year after.
tumbles said:
Yes, when I was using 931 gallons a year, I ripped out the R7 insulation in the attic and laid down R4 foil with R19 Fiberglass on top and crisscrossed with R30 for a total of R53. That and a few new double pane windows got me down to about 700 gallons a year with 300 for heat and 400 for DHW. So then I got the $1500 tax credit for the wood pellet stove I put in my basement just outside the boiler room. That got me down to approx 400 gallons per yer just for DHW. Then I snapped up the New Hampshire State Rebate of $600 for a new Triple Pass, cold start Boiler with the Outdoor reset tuned to use a 0.65 GPH nozzle using a SuperStor Lifetime warrenty indirect DHW tank with a switch to turn off if I go away for a few days. That got me down to 225 Gallons per year.
The next big savings would be another Superstor with a DHW Solar Panel using the new Drain Back technology. There is approx $3,000 tax break on that currently. This would save realistically 70 percent so I would be down to 67.5 gallons of oil per year!
If everyone could cut down a bit then maybe the price would not be so bad!
tumbles
Member
Do you think the outside reset saved you much? I added the super store about 3 years ago and that made a big difference (about 15 % ). My boiler is for 1996 and is still at 84% efficiency so I can't justify changing it quite yet. My next move was the outside reset but I'm not sure if I should pull the trigger. I will talk with my boiler man this fall. I heat my garage too so burning 300 gallons a year isn't so bad. I'm pretty happy with the set up I have but I will concider the outside reset too. Thanks for the information.
tumbles said:
Yes, I think the outdoor reset really helps. I got the Tekmar 260 that dumps residual heat left over in the boiler after heating a zone into the Superstor water tank!! The outdoor sensor is mounted on the North side of the house so on a mild day in the winter the boiler water is only heated to 140 degrees instead of 180 degrees. I am sure that is saving me oil. You can set it for lower but 140 degrees is needed to heat the hot water.
Anyway, if you do get the Tekmar 260 outdoor reset, I have all the program settings. Do not leave it just up to your boiler man to program it. I checked my neighbors Tekmar 260 and they had it set up for cast iron baseboard instead of copper baseboard!! So you want to understand what these settings mean so you can be sure you are saving the most money
Tekmar 260 Overview
http://www.younits.com/tekmar-boiler-control-one-stage-dhw-tekmar-260-p-341.html
Tekmar 260
http://www.tekmarcontrols.com/media/literature/260_c_01.pdf
Tekmar 260 manual
http://www.blueridgecompany.com/documents/Tekmar-260.pdf
slls
Minister of Fire
$3.12 a gallon is great! I'm in upper Fairfield county CT and i was quoted $3.64 by two companies. Last year (Sept -> Current) I used 1050+ gallons of oil. 450 of that was between October and Dec/Jan. After getting my first bill in Nov for $1000+ I insulated my attic and basement, and kept my wood stove running almost 24/7. Trying to predict prices for this year now and if I should do a prebuy, budget/cap program or just pay market rate. With all the tree's down I'm thinking I am best off going and buying a chain saw and putting together a few cords! May even be best to get a 2nd stove for the other side of my house.
smilejamaica
Feeling the Heat
the place i get oil from is in waterbury they come all the way up past hartford for me . pm me if interested in the co they might deliver to youjosserman said:
roadking88
Feeling the Heat
well with oil up over 3 bucks a barrel, i just ordered oil before it goes up tomorrow..
got it for 3.31/gal...
probably not gonna get any better...
got it for 3.31/gal...
probably not gonna get any better...
Yup prices are heading up.roadking88 said:
100 gal delivered here yesterday for $3.64 or $3.44 if paid within 10 days.
Sure glad we have the pellet stove
Huskyforlife
Member
Being tied to the market swings is the painful part of being on oil. That and the fact that increased world-wide usage means the price is not going to drop, long-term. My stove paid for itself, last year when oil was $2.50/gal. The HP hot water heater will pay for itself this year. Now my oil boiler with DHW sits unused. Nice to have 2+ years of wood stacked in the backyard and not have to worry about where the market swing is the day I have to fill the oil tank!
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