Home Heating Oil is becoming the alternative

[cogger]

I love it.

Here're, here're, here're. We here at the wood pellet fuel organization (woodpelletfuel.org) are now saying and declare , keep it in the well. Oil is becoming the alternative as pellet fuel will be the primary home heating source in a decade or less. In my home pellet fuel is primary and oil is the alternative. We told you so 15 years ago.

I started this thread just to get some thoughts of others

 

[Souzafone]

No argument here, but I can also say gasoline is the alternative fuel for transportation to diesel, and water is my alternative drink.

 

[MCPO]

For some folks, yes.

 

[SteveT]

I can't imagine a large percentage of pellet burners in the country. Ever.

The primary reasons I feel that way are (a) it is very labor intensive compared to delivered oil/gas and (b) pellets will never provide HUGE savings even if the price of oil and gas skyrockets. Heating with pellets might save 40% or 50% now. If oil goes higher pellets will too; it's supply and demand and the pellet mill owners realize that when all is said and done they are competing on a BTU to BTU basis with other fuels. My guess is that if oil doubles pellets double too.

Nice savings but not enough to motivate a majority.

 

[hoverfly]

I can't imagine a large percentage of pellet burners in the country. Ever.

The primary reasons I feel that way are (a) it is very labor intensive compared to delivered oil/gas and (b) pellets will never provide HUGE savings even if the price of oil and gas skyrockets. Heating with pellets might save 40% or 50% now. If oil goes higher pellets will too; it's supply and demand and the pellet mill owners realize that when all is said and done they are competing on a BTU to BTU basis with other fuels. My guess is that if oil doubles pellets double too.

Nice savings but not enough to motivate a majority.

However this is the first time that a fossil fuel has had serious competition, prices my not increase as much as you think. If there is not much savings people may stay with oil or gas.

 

[DiggerJim]

I can't imagine a large percentage of pellet burners in the country. Ever.

The primary reasons I feel that way are (a) it is very labor intensive compared to delivered oil/gas and (b) pellets will never provide HUGE savings even if the price of oil and gas skyrockets. Heating with pellets might save 40% or 50% now. If oil goes higher pellets will too; it's supply and demand and the pellet mill owners realize that when all is said and done they are competing on a BTU to BTU basis with other fuels. My guess is that if oil doubles pellets double too.

Nice savings but not enough to motivate a majority.

Maybe not, but when you can buy your heat a week at a time instead of 200 gallons at a clip, that's compelling for a lot of people. Many people in this country live from paycheck to paycheck and having to drop $1,000 or even $2,000 at a time to fill up their oil tank is simply not possible. Dropping $30 or $50 or even $100 every week to buy your bags of pellets is far more doable for many people.

The current discount oil dealer near me is charging 3.69/gal with a 150 gal minimum COD. That's over $550. When I got my tank filled from my regular dealer back in July the bill was $943 and I had almost a third of a tank at the time. Even on a monthly plan, my oil bill is $350/mo and they want to tack on a $40/month surcharge for upcoming price increases. Those kind of numbers will drive people to Wal-Mart to buy pellets by the bag. Especially if oil doubles and even if pellets do too.

 

[terryjd98]

I think oil will be a secondary fuel for a lot of people myself. This year my oil dealer wanted $422.00 a month on my equal payment plan. Knowing 2 people that have used pellets for a few years now and they tell me they use around 3 tons of pellets and maybe $1,000.00 worth of oil a year was enough to make me buy a pellet stove. As far as the extra work I think I will be able to find 10 min a day to do the work. I grew up on a farm and we always burnt wood and coal. Hard to get coal around here and I really never wanted the work of wood but pellets make sense.
If I was in an area where I could get natural gas I would have gone with that over oil, anybody I know that has gas seems to heat pretty cheap also but thats going up also. I think they will keep pellets in line with the price of oil but if oil goes up then pellets are still going to be cheaper.

 

[sinnian]

Current cash price for oil here is $3.02, and gasoline is down to $3.34.

Seems as though I am in "bizzaro world".

 

[slls]

I am moving, #2 oil here is $3.50 a gallon.