Heating bills to be about 10% higher this winter (unless you heat with wood)

[tradergordo]

Heating bills to be about 10% higher this winter

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:21 AM ET Oct 9, 2007

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Colder temperatures and higher fuel prices will force U.S. households to pay about 10%, or $88, more to heat their homes this winter, the Energy Department said Tuesday in its monthly short-term outlook.
The government expects temperatures in the lower 48 states to be about 4% colder than last year, but 2% warmer than the long-run average. Prices for all common fuels are expected to be higher than last year.

Households in the Northeast will be hit hardest. About a third of homes in the Northeast are heated with heating oil, the most expensive fuel. In addition, the Northeast pays the highest prices for natural gas, propane and electricity.

For 103 million households, heating bills are expected to average $977 for the six-month heating season, compared with $889 last year.
Fuel expenditures for individual households depend largely on local weather conditions, the local market, the size and efficiency of homes and their heating equipment, and thermostat settings, the government agency said.

Most households use natural gas for heating. Those 59 million households can be expected to pay $891 to heat their homes, up $78, or 9.5%, from last year.
The 31 million households that use electric heat will pay about $855 this winter, up $32, or 4%.
The 8 million households that use heating oil can expect to pay $1,785 this winter, up $319, or 22%.
The 5 million households that use propane will pay about $1,570 this winter, up $221, or 16%.

Meanwhile, gasoline prices are expected to be slightly higher next summer, rising to $2.97 per gallon on average compared with an average of $2.93 this past summer.

 

[titan]

Those predicted #'s could make a pumpkin puke!I might go home and hug my woodpile now.

 

[burntime]

Kinda makes me want to start scrounging for 09-10 season

 

[NewtownPA]

Updated link:

Heating bills to be about 10% higher this winter

 

[eba1225]

I'm with you Titan,

Makes that time spent with the wood worth while, and the only way I see it going is higher in the future.

Erik

 

[titan]

I suddenly have that urge to source more wood;somebody stop me.....i'm about to scrounge again. :ahhh:

 

[carpniels]

I keep getting more and more convinced that I made the right choice focussing on wood heat. Granted, the investments and learning curve have been steep, but I should be ready for a nice warm house with little interruptions in heat supply. Plus the exercise keeps me warm.

Carpniels

 

[nshif]

Does this mean I need to add 10% to my wood pile???

 

[karl]

Only if it wood that's been imported from the middle east.

 

[MrGriz]

The value of the stacks in the yard and all the effort to get them there just went up!

 

[leowis1]

The summer of Katrina I bought an old big house. Wife was pregnant with twins. The following winter I was paying almost $500 a month in NG. Heating the house part time in a warm winter! What the hell is a cold winter going to cost full time plus formula and diapers!? The next summer I bought a coal boiler. Its a self-feeding boiler. I just dump ashes. Installed it myself. I have a dual fuel system. Gas and Coal. I kept telling myself that I was crazy for burning coal. I still think I'm a little crazy. But I saved alot of money last winter and seeing these price increases makes me feel alot better about my decision to go coal!

My basement is a dungy, dirty, damp basement. Perfect for a coal bin.

 

[begreen]

Given that oil futures are running about 30% higher than last year, I'm surprised the prediction is only for 10%. As for temps, heating here started mid-September this year. So far this has been a poopy fall for us, cold and damp.

 

[tradergordo]

Given that oil futures are running about 30% higher than last year, I'm surprised the prediction is only for 10%. As for temps, heating here started mid-September this year. So far this has been a poopy fall for us, cold and damp.

Only 8 million households heat with oil (they are getting hit the hardest). Most people heat with natural gas, and even though nat gas prices have been volatile, they are currently not much changed from last year's average:
http://www.wtrg.com/daily/gasprice.html

I expect nat gas prices to rise if we get the colder winter that is being forecast. The poor folks still heating with oil are probably going to continue getting squeezed harder every year.

 

[WILDSOURDOUGH]

Round here (NH) it's oil fired hot air. Did that for a dozen years.
Looked around on day- don't see any oil wells, but see lots and lots (and lots) of trees.
Burn wood-like the fire, wood is cheap (or free), no watching 'what is the pre-buy ?' of oil.
Looks like NH oilers will face a 25% increase in heating costs this year- There goes Christmas !
Seoriously- don't know what more some of these families can cut out to pay for heat ? It is not like some extravagence.
Crude oil topped 85.00 BBL today- wasn't that long ago it was 35.00 BBL
I think the country is in real trouble- Just my opinion.

 

[leowis1]

I agree that the heating prices are beyond rediculous. I think the only real and meaningful solution lies in nuclear power. There's no pollution and its power output is endless. But we would need several hundred more powerplants to provide for this solution. And we need to upgrade the electric grid to handle all this power. A huge investment.

 

[woodconvert]

Heh, I love to tell people I heat my house for less than $600/year (300 gallons of propane to be exact...whatever that is going for). And to see stories like this makes me feel better yet (though I do feel bad for people that struggle to pay their heating bills). I take a lot of guff from people that don't understand the "wood thing". We'll see who laughs last.

 

[WILDSOURDOUGH]

LEOWIS1: I think the only real and meaningful solution lies in nuclear power.

I would go with that- but ONLY if I could have a MNPS= "mini nuclear power station" in by basement- say the size of a hot water heater or clothes dryer. Lots of free electricity and that nice warm radioactive decay heat.
The problem of the fuel cells (Rods), some of the materials are not from the US, and what to do with the waste.
I designed one decades ago- but could not find anyone to build it. Think GE stole the idea, made one (or more) for the Moon landings- than covered up the design- Everyone should have one.
Guess I'll stick with wood.

 

[leowis1]

My brother-in-law works for a nuclear power plant. He said that the spent rods are dropped into a deep pool at the facility. He said that the newer power plants create small amounts of the super hazard waste. The kind that takes 10,000yrs to decay. I think nuclear waste, while important, is treated too heavily. There's plenty of room at the facility to store the spent fuel rods. Or we could paint'm like candy canes and send them to the Middle East!

Do you know who is the #1 consumer of nuclear waste is? Hospitals! All that big equipment runs on nuclear power. MRIs, CatScans, XRays, Chemotherapy.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I would rather be able to collect, store and keep an eye on the waste generated by power production than have it spew uncontrollably from the stack and be carried wherever the winds blow it, causing who-knows-what longterm suffering and misery.

As for the 10,000 years----pffft. There won't be anything resembling civilization, and probably not humanity, around in 10,000 years. So radioactive half-life, especially if it's buried in some mountain in New Mexico, isn't really an issue for whoever or whatever inhabits the earth then.

 

[tradergordo]

Most people don't realize how little waste a modern nuclear power plant generates. As mentioned - in most cases the waste is simply stored on site, there is not even any need to transport it. The spent fuel rods are so small they sometimes have trouble finding them when they need to account for them.

I agree, we need to build more nuclear power plants. Plutonium is NOT an unlimited resource, but there's an awful lot of it to be mined, it can get us over the hump to the next great power source. The more that goes into power production, the less there is for nuclear weapons. Eventually solar power will be viable and we'll switch to that, long before we run out of radioactive isotopes.

 

[NewtownPA]

I like the idea of solar power. My parents built their own solar house (they are not connected to the electric grid). Solar electricity and solar hot water and they also designed the walls with special insulation, orientation of the house, vents etc etc. My parents even use the sun to cook food in a solar oven (they do have propane for the kitchen). My Dad still installed a wood stove because it's so "homey" to have fire.

 

[KeithO]

Folks: When one is spending $500/month on heating, the best ROI one would get is spending money on insulation every year to reduce those costs. Really, insulation is not that expensive. Some of the related work like re-siding or new windows and doors may be more expensive, but for every bit that the american consumer puts into insulation, it will come off the heating bill every year thereafter.

The same applies to transport. If people could only get over their ego and buy smaller pick ups like the Colorado, it could easily save $1000 a year in fuel cost, not to mention reduced insurance because of the lower purchase price to begin with. Even better, get a subcompact for the daily commute to cut the gas bill by more than 50%.

When building, specify 2x code minimum insulation. When planning, scale down. Avoid the "mega house" syndrome. You are only making the utilities and the state rich from heating / cooling costs and property taxes. Not to mention how much it costs to cram that cavern full of crap so that it "looks right". Think back on how big your daddy's and gramas house was. Why and how should we expect to live in houses 4x the size of our grandparents ? If we do, it has its price: one will be the lifelong slave of the mortgage, utilities and property taxes. At some point, if one stops the "expansionism" one may pay off the mortgage, but the other costs stay with you for life.

 

[tradergordo]

KeithO- YES! Also some big new modern houses are poorly insulated (sloppy construction). My friend has a nice new house, should be extremely well insulated, he paid a lot of extra $ for the tyvek wrap. Well his heating bill were always outrageous. And what do you know, when his son slammed the front door back into and through the drywall, he discovered cold air pouring through that hole. Turns out that even though he has 6 inch studs, the builder used 4 inch insulation! There is a wide open gap between the inside drywall, and the insulation in the wall, and guess what's at the top of this huge gap? Soffit vents, of course! So cold air pours right down into the house, its like having no insulation at all.


Newtown - just curious, where is your parents house located?

 

[hfjeff]

Every year seems to be warmer than the previous, yet costs still rise. It's like if you use less, they charge more to make up for the reduced demand. When you really get hit is when we do have a cold snap and now pay the higher rates. In WI, WE Energies is actually predicting a drop in heating costs this season.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=672984

Who knows. A few years back we were in the middle of record warm temps and I get a post card in the mail that says "Due to unusually cold temperatures this season, costs of natural gas are expected to rise". They say whatever they want to raise the cost. It doesn't actually have to be true. The part that really burns me is here in WI, legislature approved the natural gas companies to add a "market adjustment fee" when necessary to compensate for unusually high costs. It's not a charge for what you use. It's an extra charge they tack on our bill. Sometimes it's an extra $100 a month! What that means to us consumers is now they really have the right to just charge whatever they want.

 

[leowis1]

Tradergordo, that's a horrible story. But I'm not surprised one bit. I just got finished building a kitchen addition by myself. Its an 8x13 add-on into the back yard. My house was built in 1882. It had a very small kitchen. Anyway, I refused to hire anybody. I think every trades person cuts corners. Bastards! Like the previous post, I went 2x code and tried to keep it simple. Code here is 4x studs. I went 6". R15 for the walls and R38 in the ceiling. I went r30 in the walls and r60 in the ceiling.

2x code + scale down. True wisdom!

Now if I could just get the jets to work on my 12 person jaquizzi!? Just kidding