Home heating oil & natural gas prices expected to stay low this winter....LA Times/AP article

[imacman]

Looks like more people will be able burn oil or gas this winter, and save those expensive pellets for occasional "ambiance" burning, or for next year......there's a BIG GLUT of HHO & Nat. gas. I hope their right.......

(broken link removed to http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-meltdown-101-winter-heating-costs,0,453031,full.story)

 

[strangemainer]

let 'em gag on it. BURN WOOD!!

 

[imacman]

let 'em gag on it. BURN WOOD!!

I agree for the most part Strange, but we have to remember that there are people that don't/can't have a wood or pellet stove (maybe they live in a condo, apt., etc). Especially in the NE USA, the people need a break from heating costs, and that includes wood and oil products.

 

[LIpelletpig]

Not sure if oil is going to be great this year...I just had a fill-up up at $2.69 per gallon. My average usage for the winter months is about 650 Gallons ($1750.00@$2.69 per gallon) . I was able to get 3-tons of pellets for $780.00. With manual labor involved and the joy of pellet burning I might be sticking to pellets vs. oil heat. I will say I am at the breaking point where I would supplement with oil if the prices go down.

 

[imacman]

Not sure if oil is going to be great this year...I just had a fill-up up at $2.69 per gallon. .......

Where are you in NY? Did you check if CODOIL.com will deliver to you? I just filled my tank 2 weeks ago....$2.21/gal., and I was mad paying that....I kept waiting for the price to go back down to the July price.....could have had it for $1.91/gal then, but i got greedy and thought it would go even lower....NOT. :shut:

 

[LIpelletpig]

The very expensive Long Island.....and that is my ceiling price with the oil company.. Might have to go COD this coming year. Problem is my oil burner is pretty old and I always want a service contract especially with kids in the house.

 

[imacman]

The very expensive Long Island.....

Medreach, I took a shot with zipcode 11720 (Centereach) and plugged it into CODOIL.com site....here's the prices as of today:

Pricing for ZipCode: 11720

Current Prices (per gallon)
as of 9/4/2009 9:07:00 AM


*100 - 149 gallons: $2.149
150 - 199 gallons: $2.129
200 - 299 gallons: $2.089
300 - 499 gallons: $2.059
500+ gallons: $2.039

*a delivery surcharge is applied on less than 150 Gal.

Another idea for you, since you need the service contract, is Heat USA. www.heatusa.com They are like a co-op.....you get a discount on the oil, plus you get a FREE service contract. If you subtract what you pay for a service contract now from their oil price, it really becomes a good deal. I'll probably be going to them this Feb. when my current service contract runs out (costs me $325/yr).

Hope this helps.

 

[dac122]

Just had my propane topped off at $1.99/gal. While lower, that's still on the high side and more expensive still than running the heat pump (down to certain temps), more expensive by a long shot from my BIS wood insert, and still more than space heating with my two pellet stoves.

 

[Lousyweather]

The very expensive Long Island.....and that is my ceiling price with the oil company.. Might have to go COD this coming year. Problem is my oil burner is pretty old and I always want a service contract especially with kids in the house.

the CODOIL thing is good, but like you mention, what happens on Christmas eve and that aging system decides it wants to die on you? Do they have service? I guess its good if you have an oilburner tech in your back pocket, just call him or her. I submit though, that most likely you'll have a very hard time finding a sympathetic ear calling an oil company who offers 24 hour service to their customers, given the fact that you are a viewed as a mercenarial oil customer.

 

[imacman]

.....the CODOIL thing is good, but like you mention, what happens on Christmas eve and that aging system decides it wants to die on you? Do they have service? I guess its good if you have an oilburner tech in your back pocket, just call him or her. I submit though, that most likely you'll have a very hard time finding a sympathetic ear calling an oil company who offers 24 hour service to their customers, given the fact that you are a viewed as a mercenarial oil customer.

Actually, the oil company that came to deliver the COD oil was a local company that I used a few years ago. They were very willing to sign me up for a service contract, so that part of it would be covered too.

IMO though, (if it's available in your area), the HeatUSA deal is the best all around.....lower price on oil, and free service contract. And it's not a "cheapie" service contract either....it covered all the same things my $325 "Platinum" contract has now.

So if you take the number of gallons you burn each year, and divide that into what you pay for your present service contract, you are essentially lowering the price HeatUSA sells the oil for even more.

For example, if I used 500 gals, and it was $2.75/gal, dividing my $325 current service contract price by 500= $.65. The per gallon price would effectlvely be $2.75 - .65 = $2.10/gal.....and I still have a service contract.

 

[LIpelletpig]

Well my service contract that is basically TOP Notch covers everything is only $50. per year. I just get a ceiling price though and that is really dependent on the oil futures and the current market price. They typicall sign me up for $100 service contrat and a $50 credit towards my first oil fill up. For me the safe way to go is to have the contract and because oil is so competitive on the long island you can actually bargain! My annual oil usage after my first year with the pellet stove is only going to be about 200 gallons of oil. That's heating water/minimal heat on the real cold days and off season. I'm still crunching the #s for this upcoming winter. We'll see how it plays out. I'm trying to make a little back on my stove investment. Af $5.00 a gallon last July 08 it would offset much faster, not at $2.69 per gallon.