Still going to burn like oil is $4+/gallon. But wow $1.61 heating oil

[Z33]

Right, but if I stop processing a cord a month, can I keep eating chocolate chip cookies like they are going out of style, or get fat, or start spending X dollars month on a gym membership, or drop a few hundred on equipment and take up cross country skiing... I like the metabolic rate that comes with being a wood burner. Especially dark thick sweet stouts with a head on them the color of well seasoned mesquite.

Are you me? Do I have an alter ego on this forum ? Chocolate chip cookies might as well be crack cocaine for me and I'm just finishing up a home brew double chocolate oatmeal stout. I'm currently 6'1 185 all thanks to working up about 5 cords a year and the occasional run.

There are DEFINITELY intangibles to processing wood.

 

[billb3]

I'm seriously considering saving my nice oak and burning pine on the weekends when I have time to keep loading the stove.
I filled at $1.86 a few weeks ago and it's down to $1.70 here now .
I'll sing a different tune when it gets real cold and the hoarder in me gets a little more charitable.

 

[Brian26]

Another big drop. These are wholesale prices coming into the port in New Haven, CT. Heard through a friend that if you live close to the port there is a company delivering for $1.50 a gallon.

 

[billb3]

HHO price range retail locally is $1.649 to $2.49

What seems odd to me is diesel at Mobil at the highway exit at $2.79

 

[Swedishchef]

I find there seems to be a fair amount of profit off of wholesale furnace oil!

 

[billb3]

Seems like if you live close to a wholesale distribution point ( I live near a port here ) the price can be fairly low .
Too many business models and margins and overheads to make any sweeping gens about what they should be,

 

[Seasoned Oak]

IF you dont have an excess of wood burn the oil in the shoulder season,save the wood for when its really needed. Ill be buying oil for same long dormant heating equipment iv decided to reinstall as a backup.

 

[Dix]

I have a 550 oil tank, it's been about empty for 5 years.Heated with fire wood exclusively for all of that time. I neglected to drain the heating pipes a few years ago, and one busted on the lower level of the house, never fixed it.
Pipe is getting fixed, burner is getting a tune up, and I'm keeping the T Stats at 62, and will run with oil for a base ( less than $2 a gallon here currently) ) and supplement with the firewood.
I will keep stocking and stacking because the current oil prices will not last forever ( like after the next election, but I digress).
I have more firewood coming in, and will continue that.
Get ahead, 'cause these prices are not going to last.

 

[Ashful]

I don't think $1.69/gal is cheap oil. Heck, I was paying $0.70/gal before Katrina. Still burning here, but I'll be burning no matter what the oil prices do. Can't sit in front of the boiler and watch a movie with the kids.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

I don't think $1.69/gal is cheap oil. Heck, I was paying $0.70/gal before Katrina. Still burning here, but I'll be burning no matter what the oil prices do. Can't sit in front of the boiler and watch a movie with the kids.

X2

 

[Seasoned Oak]

$1.69 may not be cheap compared to the 90s prices But were comparing it to todays other inflated fuel prices . In 2002 coal was $80 a ton now it $200.
Ill do a cost analysis today to see just how it compares ,there are plenty of BTU heat content chart available on the internet.

 

[Swedishchef]

I have learned something lately: my stove is too big for the room it is in. The room is 20x16 but my couch is 8 feet away. We sweat to death when trying to watch tv downstairs! My kids cheeks get all rosy red. Lol. The little one says "dad I am too hot, my face is on fire! I am going upstairs"

That being said, if oil was 40 cents a litre here, lots of people would be filling their tanks. Locally the price is still $0.79/litre. Which is aboutn$3 a gallon.

A

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I have learned something lately: my stove is too big for the room it is in. The room is 20x16 but my couch is 8 feet away. We sweat to death when trying to watch tv downstairs! My kids cheeks get all rosy red. Lol. The little one says "dad I am too hot, my face is on fire! I am going upstairs"

That being said, if oil was 40 cents a litre here, lots of people would be filling their tanks. Locally the price is still $0.79/litre. Which is aboutn$3 a gallon.

A

Must be the Govt taxing you or your far from the oil terminals. Crude oil was below $1 a gallon briefly this week. Another 50 to 60c for refining puts you at about $1.60 a gallon

 

[Brian26]

Seems like if you live close to a wholesale distribution point ( I live near a port here ) the price can be fairly low .
Too many business models and margins and overheads to make any sweeping gens about what they should be,

Correct. I live a few miles from the port in Hew Haven which is one of the biggest entry ports for heating oil. Oil in the immediate New Haven area is much cheaper than other areas as they don't have to transport it far.

I was crunching some numbers. I tune my own furnace with my cousin as he is an HVAC tech.

I had maybe 2 fires so far this month. With these oil prices I have been just turning up the t-stat and not even bothering with the stove.

My furnace is fired at .68 gallons an hour and my Venstar t-stat tracks runtimes.

So far this month I used about 11 gallons. 11 gallons at local prices at $1.50 is $16.50. Im guessing the whole month will probably cost me less than $20 in heating oil.

As much as I love the insert and burning its nice to just set the t-stat and have the whole house evenly warm. Something my insert just can't do.

 

[Swedishchef]

Must be the Govt taxing you or your far from the oil terminals. Crude oil was below $1 a gallon briefly this week. Another 50 to 60c for refining puts you at about $1.60 a gallon

Must be taxes...and transportation fees.
(broken link removed to http://www2.nrcan.gc.ca/eneene/sources/pripri/prices_bycity_e.cfmPriceYear=0&ProductID=7&LocationID=66,8,39,17#PriceGraph)

 

[Redbarn]

Bought 400 gals of oil at $1.33 per gall today.
Still burning wood & pellets.
The oil is a hedge against higher future oil price rises. Should last years.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Bought 400 gals of oil at $1.33 per gall today.
Still burning wood & pellets.
The oil is a hedge against higher future oil price rises. Should last years.

Im planning on filling my empty tanks soon as a backup heating source and also shoulder season source and a going on vacation in winter heat source. So ill actually have 3 ways to heat, Oil,coal and wood. I have at least 2000 gals worth of empty tanks.

 

[Ashful]

I have at least 2000 gals worth of empty tanks.

Wow! The house I grew up in had a 1500 gallon buried tank in the back yard, and it was always a notable deduction in the check book when that was filled. Never heard of anyone sitting on 2000 gallons, unless their residence was floating, with displacement measured in tons.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Wow! The house I grew up in had a 1500 gallon buried tank in the back yard, and it was always a notable deduction in the check book when that was filled. Never heard of anyone sitting on 2000 gallons, unless their residence was floating, with displacement measured in tons.

One 1000 Gal. buried tank installed in late 90s and about 4 or 5 275 gal. above ground tanks in the garage and work shop. Im also in the process of reinstalling my oil boiler in my house cuz when i sell it, my wood stove and coal stoker are going with me. Ill use the oil when i go on vacation or in shoulder season.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I had so many tanks cuz i could buy oil for 79c in summer as opposed to $1.60 in winter. Paid for the tanks in 1 year.