I am unfamilar with heating a house with oil and I am curious what these price increases translate to in a actual cost increase to homeowners. Anyone heat their house with oil? Thanks for the info...

-- just curious (justcurious@123.com), January 24, 2000

Answers

i doubt there's really an accurate 'average' figure. Unless you just take the amounts of oil needed for *every* sized house, add them all up, divide by # of houses - and up comes a highly inaccurate number. yeah one could do that.

-- lou (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), January 24, 2000.

just,

Last year, when heating oil was still less than $1.00/gal., the cost was a monthly avg. of about $135.00. I am on a "budget plan" which guesstimates what the cost ought to be and then adjusts up or down based upon prices/usage.

No news from my oil company as yet, but Saturdays newspaper actually had a page 1 story on the price increases we've been watching here on TB2000. Also a statement that Richard Blumenthal, CT's AG, would be investigating the issue as he feels there may be price gouging.

Jimmy

-- Jimmy Splinters (inthe@dark.com), January 24, 2000.

just,

After reading the post just above my first one, I thought I might mention that my house is approx. 1600 sq. ft.

Jimmy

-- Jimmy Splinters (inthe@dark.com), January 24, 2000.

We are have an old stone house, 2000 sq feet. Several years ago we insulated the attic and crawl space, put in a couple decent windows (old ones 100 years old), got a new efficient oil heater to replace an ancient clunker. I think our bills dropped almost in half. So the prices depend on several factors.

-- lyn (lynhettler@hotmail.com), January 24, 2000.

Stone house owner: So how much were your heating bills before and after the insulating improvements?

-- just curious (justcurious@123.com), January 24, 2000.

Jimmy, We use around 100 gallons per month. Drafty 50+ y.o. house on the water with nothing to block the wind. About the same s.ft. as yours all one level in moderately climed Md. ymmv

-- Charli (claypool@belatlantic.net), January 24, 2000.

The choice of fuel for heat depends on where you live. Basically you are paying just about the same as your neighbors.

Between Electricity, NG(natural Gas), Oil, Propane.

Electricity is always more expensive except when your city is running the power company and buys/generates large amounts of Hydro power. (Hydro generated 2 cents/kw vs 14 cents for other and dont forget delivery charges.)

Natural gas heat is the almost the same cost as fuel oil for a normal house. The price of gas is raised so that they get as much as they can out of you without making you switch.

Propane is delivered like fuel oil but can only be storred in a max quantity of 500 gallons. There are no bulk setups for propane.

Fuel oil is easier to move than propane and is always cheeper than propane or electricity for heat capabilities.

Heat source:

Direct vent Gas or propane is more efficient(use less) than any other source for heating the same area. Kero Direct vent(kerosun design) is equally usefull and have the advantage that almost everyone who uses it pays cash for the fuel all year long.

Monitor system: Usually Kerosene but it's efficiency is in the 90% range. It's stong point is that it extracts almost all of the heat out of the exhaust prior to release. Due to its compact size its fan does not use that much electricity.

Forced hot air: Either gas or oil. Effiency is the name of the game here. Most systems in service are not above 80% efficient. Thus atleast 20% of the heating is going out the chimney. It also has a large fan to move the air by the heat exchanger which can add several KW(4 kw for me) to your electricity bill every day in winter. If you have to change the furnace go for the higher effiency, always. Fuel costs will only rise in the future.

Boiler/forced water These can be more or less efficient than the forced hot air. The costs depend on the insulation of the house and age of the setup. Many are old.

Electricity depends on the supplier and location. I lived in Northern NY and my heating costs were up to 106 in Jan and Feb for my appartment. Electricity was 2.5 cents/KW. I now have a house which is 3 times as big. I gutted the house/fully insulated the walls, changed the windows and placed a vapor berrior in the house. My heating fuel(gas, Forced hot air) cost me $128 this month. The cost would be about the same between houses except I added a Gas dryer which upped my Gas usage by $15. A clothes dryer heat recovery system is now installed and I should see the savings next month.

I do not know if it helps but almost everyone in the rural setting uses either Propane, Kerosene or fuel oil. The fuel oil if the largest followed by Kerosene which is making a come back due to the monitor systems. Propane is used in trailers around here. A Propane heater is compact and effieient which is perfect for a trailer. Also, in the rural setting, as heating fuel rises, people switch to Wood and cut down the rooms being heated. It depends on where you live and what you are willing to put up with.

-- ned (ned@nednet.com), January 24, 2000.

I just had 250 gallons of heating fuel delivered today. The price is $1.17 which comes to a total of $292.50. ($379.58 with tax). Our house is about 1700 sq. ft. and this should last us (I hope) the rest of winter. I live in GA.

-- jeile (tjfarrar@bellsouth.net), January 24, 2000.

In contrast to the use of heating oil in the NE we are using natural gas at my home in the SW. My bill was $72. with the thermostat set at 70 in a 2000 sq ft home.

-- tc (trashcan-man@webtv.net), January 24, 2000.

Ned,

Great info.; thanks. That was a very good overview. Let me add that propane may only be available to you in 500 gal. tanks, but here in "Hoosierville" (Indiana) I've had a 1000 gal tank forever.(These are routinely filled to 85% capacity to accomodate expansion/contraction, so a 1000 gal.tank is actually 850 gallons.)

Price has always been between 65-75 cents a gal., with very rare spikes to 1.20 as in a shortage a few years back. One common sense point is that the bigger the tank, the more time to ride out the spikes.

I have a boiler that heats water and circulates this around home perimeter. It's referred to as radiant heat/ a captive water system. This is the most even way to heat our ranch/2400 sq. ft. home. What I've seen of propane I really like. I had a new boiler installed around 1988. Last year it seemed to be acting up and requested it be cleaned and inspected. It was unbelievably clean; no residual crud of any kind. So my point is to factor in how dirty a fuel burns and the requirements/costs of mainenance.

I also have to add a diatribe of sorts. My Grandfather bought a home in a cowpasture. The main road(currently called 16th street) was dirt. The home was heated by a coal furnace in the basement. We were very confortable as far as heat went. We would receive a coal truck load and it cost around $6.00 or less. This would last more than one winter. My father converted to natural gas in the mid 60's, some 60 years after my grandfather had bought "that home" in the cowpasture. As houses got built around this home, it became known as Cicero, Ill., about 10 miles from downtown Chicago.My Grandfather lived to 93 years of age despite catching malaria in Cuba during the Spanish American War and getting an overdose of quinine that took all his teeth, most of his hair, most of his hearing and some eyesight. He also chain-smoked, from pipes, to cigarettes to cigars--non-stop. No carbon monoxide poisoning,and obviously the "pollution"(from all the neighborhood homes heating for years with coal or wood) did not kill him or our family.

The big scare during my elementary school years was that an Ice Age was approaching! Scientists "documented" that the earth would be a chunk of lifeless ice hurtling through the solar system! This had replaced the earlier fears in the 50's that man was destroying the atmosphere with commercial plane flights. We were informed by "scientists" that we were poking too many holes in the atmosphere, and causing untold damage to the planet and its weather systems.THEY WANTED TO LIMIT PLANE FLIGHTS!

Consequently I see the global warming/ enviornmental movement as simply the same old crud with a different conclusion. Until there are citris orchards growing along the Mississippi River as they did during Mark Twain's days, I think the whole idea of global warming and the consequent flight from fossil fuels to be nothing but stuff that people are willing to fall for, without knowing the history of recent years.

So, anyone "worried" about destroying the planet from your back-up heating systems, either crack some history books and older newspapers and periodicals to see the truth on these so-called "dangers", or join the ranks of the gullible.

I am quite alarmed at how many otherwise intelligent individuals have fallen for this propaganda. I am almost of the opinion that the history of these last 100 years might as well be "classified" material. But there always has been a fad or "cause" about such things. Crack a book that was written a few years back and get ready for a rude awakening! Global warming is nothing more than a figment of this generation's imagination! Volcanoes and water vapor have the greatest effects upon the earth's temperature from year to year. Water vapor is the greatest single so-called greenhouse gas.It accounts for over 90% of the earth's temperature fluctuations! This is the statement of the scientists who DO NOT GET FUNDING to demonstrate how true this is. WAKE UP OUT THERE! Either READ BOOKS or be a FOOL!

Regards,

-- (He Who) Rolls with Punches (JoeZi@aol.com), January 24, 2000.

Hi curious-stone house here, about 2000 square feet. Our budget plan in 1999 was $55/month for 10 months. We came out very close to that. It used to be $79 a month a few years ago; they adjusted it for the recent milder winters and lower gas prices. My husband said it used to be over 100 a month, but also the winters were colder and gas was higher, so it's hard to say exactly how it compares pre and post new heater and insulating.

-- carolyn (carolyn@luvmyhub.com), January 24, 2000.

I grew up in a 12x70 ft moble home with a 15x30 ft addition that included an insulated peaked roof over the whole thing. We filled our 275 gallon fuel oil tank once a year in the hills of southeastern Kentucky. If it was a realy cold we sometimes added 100 gallons towards the end of winter to be sure we didn't run out. I have a friend that had a house that went through that much fuel oil in 5 weeks instead of 5 months

-- Just passin through (nobody@nowhere.com), January 24, 2000.

When we lived in Philly, (newer house ~1600 sqft) it cost us about 500 per year (filled the tank in fall and once in mid winter). Probably isn't too unusual, although I liked to keep the house warm :)

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.com), January 24, 2000.