Just fired my Oil Co-Op...

...Well, not really. But I got a call from them stating that I did not order enough oil from their vendor, and the vendor is sending me an invoice of $150 for the burner cleaning agreement, which is usually included in the fee I pay HeatUSA. Since the only thing that made the deal attractive was the burner cleaning, I asked them to refund my $50. Apparently, Eastern Petroleum wants you to buy at least 600 gallons of their product per year. Their prices were not cheaper, but the burner policy made it attractive. I am not buying a thousand dollars worth of fuel just to get a cleaning.

That indeed would be an expensive cleaning Sue. You no doubt can do much better. Good luck....and congratulations.

Screw 'em. You can get that cleaning done elsewhere for less if you shop around. I do everything I can to avoid being baited in by these companies trying to 'lock in' your rate, too. I can't tell you how much money we've saved the past several years by NOT locking into any rates. My favorite thing is when the gas company called me several years back stating they wanted to come and check our meter out. Said there had to be something wrong as our heat bill (before we heated with wood) averaged 350 to 400 a month in the dead of winter. With the woodburner, it had kicked it back down to around 35 bucks a month, all year long! I told her the reason the usage was down so much was we went to heating with wood FULL TIME, mainly because I was sick of the prices of gas. They never did send anyone down to look at the meter....

I sure wish I was "self sufficient" enough to not need "internet, cell phone.....................even; electric and gas!


Go totally off the grid.............................I'm sure it'd drive Obama nutz!

Fuel, what's fuel???

You go, GF!!

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. I think my nephew-in-law can do my yearly cleanings, and Alliance Fuel was as cheap if not cheaper than Hoffberger. In a perfect world for Sue, Wood heat would be 100%, but so far that is impractical for me. I think I can get by with a tank a year (250 gal). As long as my wood dealer is reasonable, and I have the strength to move and stack, I will stay toasty this winter.

...Working on it...

We go through about 300 gal of fuel oil a year heating our HW, running the tractor, and load testing the generator.

The cheapest time to buy fuel oil is late June, early July. Then it climbs for the rest of the year. Most burners aren't hard to clean (I do gun style gas burners at work), but make SURE that the person working on it is familiar with turning a wrench on something that makes a big flame.