Heating Oil was at $1.85 a gallon, It's on the rise again!!! $2.09 today http://www.cashoil.com/

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I am with Wilbert
I am hooked up to propane and last year we paid $248.00 per month used 975 gal. We did the math and bought a pellet stove in September and started burning pellets 10/1/08 as of tonight were on the 10th bag. We will be getting snow and rain by Wed. and temps will drop to low 20's. Propane tank is topped off a cost of $579.00 for 190 gallons. I am hoping to keep the propane furnace off this winter or on very little. Even at a bag a day I will still be ahead on cost of propane and stove will pay back in a couple of years.
 
sydney1963 said:
http://www.cashoil.com/

$1.98 today.

It is going to be lower than that shortly no matter what OPEC trys, the OPEC folks are in for a rude awakening. Demand "ain't" going to be increasing for some time.

It is all circular and when they shaft us they get it back with barbs attached.
 
Ductape said:
I'm being scammed. How is HHO 50 cents/gallon cheaper just two hours away from me??

We in NH are being scammed as it is cheaper in southern Maine and cheaper down around Boston.
We are smack in the middle and paying higher prices.
Someone told me it was because oil comes in to Boston and Portland but I think oil comes into Portsmouth as well.
I figured at what I bought my pellets for the oil needs to go to $1.60 a gallon to break even.
I will purchase an other 100 gallons if it hits $200.00 here.
 
A lot of price has to do with what your local distributor paid for it when he bought it 3-4 months ago on his contract. I use Kerosene is is $3.30 per gallon...100 gallons or so is a ton of pellets..pellets I paid $230.00 per ton for..why would I switch?? www.cashoil.com prices are not in my neighborhood nor a lot of others for that matter..Just my 2 cents.........
 
I already did. Filled my tank @$2.00 per gal. Cleaned my pellet stove , and told him to enjoy his vacation.
My personal mantra is I burn pellets when I can realize at least a 20% savings vs using HHO. At $2.00 per gal, that equates to
a ton of pellets(delivered) at $188.00.

It's great having choices!
 
I don't know.....just got fuel delivered today...Used 42 gallons since last month (I have radiant floor heating in basement and garage that I keep on very low and have oil hot water). Last year the # of gallons in the same month was 128, and it's been a lot colder here the past month than it was last year at this time. I'm definitely using less fuel oil. I might be dead by the time I actually recoup my investment but at least I'll be toasty in the meantime.
 
Not going to happen here, I am burning pellets for the year reguardless of the cost of oil. But I am hoping that all these pellet users that stop burning there pellets this winter and up needing cash in the spring, list there tons of pellets for sale around 125 per ton when the market changes.
Major pellet pig plans for next year...
 
Bushbuck said:
Not going to happen here, I am burning pellets for the year reguardless of the cost of oil. But I am hoping that all these pellet users that stop burning there pellets this winter and up needing cash in the spring, list there tons of pellets for sale around 125 per ton when the market changes.
Major pellet pig plans for next year...

Gee, I thought we're all friends.
 
itworks said:
Bushbuck said:
Not going to happen here, I am burning pellets for the year reguardless of the cost of oil. But I am hoping that all these pellet users that stop burning there pellets this winter and up needing cash in the spring, list there tons of pellets for sale around 125 per ton when the market changes.
Major pellet pig plans for next year...

Gee, I thought we're all friends.

we are, I am sure I am not the only pellet pig on this site...
 
I finally got my stove installed and have been reaping the benefits of increased warmth throughout the house. One thing that is interesting . . . last year, the oil was filling my tank every 3 weeks to the initial tune of $650, when the heat was set at 65. I lowered it to 63 and it went down, but not enough. I lowered the heat to 61 and it went down further, though still delivered every 3 weeks. Lowered it down to 59 and got to ~$400/3 weeks.

Now, we've had the pellet stove running for 2 days and have been using oil. They last got a payment from me in late October - I still have the oil temp set to fire up at 50 degrees. It's been over a month and we still have 1/2 tank left. I saved money by being cheap and telling the kids to put on sweaters. Now that the pellet stove is in, we use way less oil.

I say, fill up the oil now while it's cheap. We'll have that, just in case, while our pellet stove burns bright. Saving money in the long run. By the time we need oil again, the prices will have risen and the pellet stove will be making the oil fill less and less necessary. Sticking with pellets, even though we got screwed and bought 6 tons of Pennington'a from last year. Wow. Way inconsisent and it jams easily. Regardless, less oil is being used and we are toasty warm in a way we weren't last year using oil, due to our setup.
 
Im really happy oil is down for the people who have no choice in these tough times.
BUT I will never go back to oil no matter how cheap it is.

My 55-SHP-22 englander will heat my entire 1800 sq foot house nice and toasty. I plan on installing an electric water heater soon, then the oil furnace will just be for emergencies. I'll fill it up cheap, and sit on it.
 
Wet1 said:
cac4 said:
Wet1 said:
The only way you might actually save some money is if you don't heat the remote areas in the house as much and use the stove as the main source of heat in the main living area(s)... this way you are using less total energy to 'heat' the house.


I think thats the whole point. btu x efficiency vs. btu x efficiency when comparing oil FURNACES to pellet STOVES is not a fair comparison. Its the "stove vs. furnace" thing that makes the difference. This is something that the "pellets ain't much of a bargain" camp leaves out of the equation.

All things being equal....well, thats another point. they almost never ARE equal.

So, let me give you my rationale for why I think pellets are still a bargain, in MY house.

I have a oil forced hot air furnace. NG is not an option. Water is already being handled by electricity. The furnace is "80% efficient", but that is calculated by measuring the exhaust temp. The air that actually flows into my living space? I don't think I'm getting anywhere close to 80% of the btu's in that oil into my living room.

The "irl" friends I have that have been long-time pellet burners have told me what they actually use for pellets in a season. Their houses are similar in size to mine...one is a little bigger. Neither are well insulated. One has a huge open cathedral ceiling. The other has lots of small rooms. They use 4 to 4.5 tons a year. My house is smaller, low ceilings, 6" of insulation, double pane glass, etc, etc. its "new, and tight". It also has a very open floor plan. all in all, "optimal" setup for a pellet stove. I should use significantly less pellets than my friends...how much? we won't know for sure until next spring, but I suspect it'll be 3 to 3.5 tons. But the "btu math" says I'll need 4.5 tons to replace my average 600 gallons of oil.

In the long run, I think it'll be cheaper "per btu", as well, even though it may not be right this minute, but you have to also consider the overall efficiency of the method of heating, not just the cost per btu.

I agree you most certainly have to consider the efficiency of both. Very seldom can we exactly compare apples to apples, but we can make good rough estimations to try making reasonable decisions. It sounds like you have a fairly inefficient oil burner so it might be a little cheaper to burn pellets in your case, but I'm not sure you'll be saving as much as you might think.

You also have to look at the big picture. My guess is when using your stove, you'll probably have warm and cold spots throughout the house that you wouldn't otherwise have with your central heating system. You'll also probably use more electricity running the stove and fans to move the air (I know I do) vs. what you'd use with your central heating system. Let's not forget the cost and depreciation of the stove itself as a supplemental heat source. Then you have the hassle of storing / feeding the pellets throughout the season, which is basically a non-issue with oil. Oh, don't forget the weekly stove cleaning... When you add it all up, you MIGHT save a few dollars, but at what cost? Is it all worth it to POSSIBLY save one or two hundred dollars a year??? Now if you're burning pellets for another reason (other than to save money), that's another story.

Don't get me wrong, I've been burning pellets since 2000, but when oil or "X" is cheap (like it is today), I'll be the first to tell you burning pellets is sometimes more hassle than it's worth for the few cents you might be saving.

My pellets cost me $205/ton delivered to my house this season. That's fairly cheap by today's standards. I would save a few dollars compared to burning oil at today's prices, but maybe not enough to make it worth the hassle.

OTOH, my NG rates are so low it's almost silly to burn ANY pellets, even at $205/ton. In oil terms / dollars, the first 30CCF of NG I burn (at 85% efficiency), which is about the equivalent to 22 gal. of oil, cost me about $30/month (that's about $1.36/gal in oil $). Anything more than this per month cost me an additional $0.53/gal. when convert into oil $. Hardly makes any sense to light a fire! But I will continue to burn a little here and there as I like the fire(s).

At the end of the day, when mainstream energy is cheap, there certainly isn't much money to be saved burning pellets when you add up ALL the expenses AND inconveniences... Especially when folks are paying top dollar for pellets.

JMHO.


i agree with you.. many people don't realize they ARE comparing apples to oranges...
how much money would you save by turning your furnacr temp up/down.. having different zones or simply shutting off rooms and letting the heat from another heat it (even though it will be cooler)
this is what pellet and wood stoves do in medium to large houses.. they heat an area and that heat will move around but usually is never the same temp throughout i have up to a 10 degree difference at the furthest point from my stove.. which is ok... but thats running 24/7 and working on my wood stove (putting in wood) my pellet stove which heats a much smaller area is the same ..
however i can live with this to save money.....but i have a great furnace that runs between 88-93 % ... with a zoned out house!!
if oil goes to 2 or less it might be cheaper for me to burn.....but don't tell the wife.... (got a sjrtload of wood in the yard)
bottom line is we should continue to do what we do to make prices go down...(wood, pellet burners etc)
 
I've got a garage full of pellets at $250/ton and a tank full of oil at $1.98/gal. I'm not planning on changing anything. I heat with pellets and use oil for backup and for my hot water. The $1,000 I spent on pellets went into the pockets of Maine producers and middle men. The $500 I spent on oil mostly went into the pockets of oil traders and OPEC producers. Sure, I burn pellets to save money but I feel just as strongly about doing it to support the local economy and to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
 
"The $500 I spent on oil mostly went into the pockets of oil traders and OPEC producers"

Actually, that's not quite true. Canada is the #1 source for imported oil, and by quite a large margin. So if you go with importing around 0 of our oil(not sure of the number anymore), only a much smaller percentage comes from OPEC.

I just ordered an oil fill online and my price is $2.17/gal in central Ma. My pellets were $340/ton. Oil is much cheaper, but as everyone has noted, pellets are a different kind of heat. We used wood for 30yrs. Great coming in from outside and having a nice warm spot where you can immediately get warm.

Jim
 
I went through my LP bills again, on average for the past 3 years we've burned 1200 gallons of propane. The current rate is 2.35 per gallon. So it would cost 2800 a year in round numbers. I can heat my house with 3 tons of pellets, so call it around $900. With a couple hundred gallons of LP for hot water, I think Im still ahead about $1000 a year. Plus intangibles like coziness, the house is warmer, its more cozi and fun to look at the pellets burning.
 
joe_pinehill said:
I went through my LP bills again, on average for the past 3 years we've burned 1200 gallons of propane. The current rate is 2.35 per gallon. So it would cost 2800 a year in round numbers. I can heat my house with 3 tons of pellets, so call it around $900. With a couple hundred gallons of LP for hot water, I think Im still ahead about $1000 a year. Plus intangibles like coziness, the house is warmer, its more cozi and fun to look at the pellets burning.

Yes, I agree!
So far it looks like we may be able to heat with 3 tons also. (We bought 4)
24' X 32' Cape is quite small.
We burned about 900 gal/yr and at today's price of $2.60 that's $2340!!
We paid $314/ton delivered. So that would be $942 plus oil for hot water.
There is no way that we will spend ($2340-$942=$1398) to heat water!!!

Plus intangibles like coziness, the house is warmer, its more cozi and fun to look at the pellets burning.

I am warmer for sure!!
 
Lobstah said:
"The $500 I spent on oil mostly went into the pockets of oil traders and OPEC producers"

Actually, that's not quite true. Canada is the #1 source for imported oil, and by quite a large margin. So if you go with importing around 0 of our oil(not sure of the number anymore), only a much smaller percentage comes from OPEC.

I just ordered an oil fill on-line and my price is $2.17/gal in central Ma. My pellets were $340/ton. Oil is much cheaper, but as everyone has noted, pellets are a different kind of heat. We used wood for 30yrs. Great coming in from outside and having a nice warm spot where you can immediately get warm.

Jim

Yes, it is true that we get most of oil from our friends from the north, Canada. The pricing decisions that OPEC makes has a significant effect on the world crude futures, and more specifically it has an impact on the prices that we pay from Canada. When OPEC reduces production to artificially prop up crude prices, the lack of supply effects the demand price for the available crude from other producers, like Canada. So, while his money may not have gone into the pockets of the OPEC countries...the OPEC countries played a large part in the inflated price that he paid. I bought Canadian pellets, but at least the prices weren't impacted by Saudi Arabia. Also, while pellets are higher than they have been historically, there is no Pellet Consortium that know of that works behind the scene to control prices. The demand for pellets will normalize soon and prices will go down from where they now are. I think that we can expect a lot more pricing volatility in the oil markets than we'll see in the pellet industry over the next few years.
 
the difference in HHO price for NH is because there is no oil delivery ports, farms, or tanks the way there in Boston and Portland.
drive up I-295 in Portland, ME and just as you pass the airport look over to the other side and see the big tank farms, you may also see a tanker or two. If you are driving to Logan airport in Boston look off to your right you will see some of the tank farms that your oil comes from. Or even more instructive take a boat up Chelsea Creek (just to the east of the Tobin Bridge), the creek is just a road for oil tankers and all you can see is tank farms. The extra price you are paying for oil is because they don't unload HHO in Portsmouth, NH. My uncle owned a local oil company in Ashby, MA he couldn't give as good of a price on oil because it had to be trucked in from Boston 10,000 gal at a time. If a company can just fill up the delivery truck at the tank farm there is one way to save you money. So if you want cheaper oil in seacoast NH start a petition to put in a HHO port in Newington, NH.
 
DOBS said:
My forced hot water system never produced the comfort level I'm getting out of the XXV. I did a quick test last night just to be sure. After putting down a couple of Miller Lites sitting in front of the oil furnace, and a couple more in front of the pellet stove... although it was a tough decision, the pellet stove won. :coolsmile: I bought the 5 tons and I plan to enjoy every one of them this season regardless of oil price. If next years HHO pre-buy price competes with pellets, I might consider splitting the difference. But I like the effects of the stove (heat and ambiance) way too much to go without it.

"baby, Come back... you can blame it all on me, I was wrong, and I just can't live without you!"= OPEC
 
How low do ya'll think oil will go? Heard on the news the other day Light Sweet Crude
could slide all the way to $25 a barrel.
But remember, they said it would hit $200.
 
i could really care less. if oil does drop to like $1.00 a gallon, i'll buy a bunch.lol. if it goes up i'll stick with wood pellets, it's all about having choices for me now. :)
 
"...the OPEC countries played a large part in the inflated price that he paid."

Actually, the recent spike in oil prices had little or nothing to do with OPEC...they just went along for the ride. Remember, there were no headlines saying "OPEN RAISES PRICES...AGAIN!!!) Oil speculators caused the spike by holding contracts instead of reselling them, thereby "locking up" a significant part of the supply and driving the price up. Everyone who produced oil benefited from that. When the economy crashed, oil speculators were OUT of the market, because they didn't want to get take huge losses...they knew that demand was going to fall, and the future was uncertain, at best.

It's interesting that pellet prices haven't fallen at all in my area at all (still $345/ton + $40del), despite oil prices having dropped in half, from $4.25/gal to $2.17 This is exactly the type of pricing behavior that has had everyone calling for gouging investigations and windfall taxes on oil companies.

I'm not defending the oil companies, I just don't like revisionist history ;)

The basic idea though is yes...it's great to have choices.

Jim
 
If oil was $2.00 a US gallon up here I would install another tank and fill it ASAP, we are still at about $2.80 to $3.00 in US dollars for a US gallon given rough estimate on conversion from metric and currency exchange. My reason for not running the furnace is that over half of the oil in my tank cost me almost $4.50 US for a US gallon. That last oil delivery in the spring was what sent me looking for an alternative this summer.
I have no sympathy for any local oil suppliers in our area, I know where they live and will never be able to enjoy or afford the life style they lead(huge homes/ sleds/ 4 wheelers/ F350's/ Escalades). These are the folks that did auto fills on many in September on July/ Aug contracts at over $5.00 a gallon.
I don't think I'll see the number of for sale sign's on their lawn's compared in relation to the massive job loss in manufacturing.
Simply put I will use as little oil as possible based on the screwing we have been taking the last few years from my government, big oil and the fund managers that thrived off of a system that allowed this to occur.
 
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