Scary Pre-Buy Prices in South Central MA

[begreen]

American Standard Heritage 16

 

[escobarmj]

Real easy solution, dont give them your money.

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.

Options are great to have. I bought 4 tons of greene team pellets back in July from lowes and paid about $270 per ton. I still have 20 or so bags left, but I am burning them until they are either depleted or when spring arrives. With oil being so cheap, I would be much better off saving the pellets and burning oil, but I want to recover my space in the garage. I recently added yet another heating option. I had a 15 SEER AC/Heatpump unit installed this week. Based on a calculator that I found online, I would be better off using the heatpump when oil goes over $2.50 per gallon. I am going to have to think long and hard about buying pellets for next year.

I also have a 15 SEER heatpump and live in Georgia. Even down here it gets COLD. We had a 13" snowfall a few weeks ago. At anything below about 40 degrees the heat pump is pretty useless unless you use the heat strip supplemental heat, which is really going to hurt your pocket book, especially if the rumored huge bump in electric rates goes into effect. I found that for above 40 degrees, you get about a 50 degree boost in temp at the registers versus outside air temp, FYI.

Thanks. Thats what I thought as well. The initial plan was to just put in AC, but the guy that installed it offered the heat pump for about $350. I couldn't pass it up even if I can only use it during spring and fall. I didn't bother with the heat strips. Oil and pellets would have to really take a jump before that becomes an option. If that were to happen, I would assume electricity rates will follow.

 

[Lousyweather]

We had to run the propane furnace (now gone) to supplement the pellet stove when the temps went below 30. Now the pellet stove is out and the heat pump is in. For us, it's doing a better job at lower cost.

Our system has an 17 SEER heat pump in a much more northern climate. It was the first that our installer had put in of this series. The first winter, it was good down to about freezing. This year the installer came out for yearly service and spent about an hour tweaking it. As he left, he said, you might notice an improvement when it gets cold. That was an understatement. It has held up pretty well even at 24 degrees. We had a burn ban during a stagnant cold spell and I was impressed with how well it heated. Yes, it ran long cycles, but it did the job without switching over to the resistance heaters. At 35 degrees we are getting about 112 degree air from the registers.

never having lived in WA, what kinds of temperatures do you get there, consistently, in the dead of Old Man WInter? Im not looking for "the Dreaded Cold Snap of '89"-type temps, but TYPICAL temps.

 

[jtakeman]

of course won't tell you who that is...because i want to him to still have pellets....not have the pellet pigs descend on his place like flies to a carcass!

Be careful....we're watching! LOL

And as for why the prices in the NE are so much higher than in the Mid-West, it's the same thing as why gas prices are higher here (except NJ).....their feeling is that people in the NE are all RICH, and can afford to pay more....

It's not that we are rich...it is because we are more educated....
and can grasp higher numbers I guess!

Might be they're more Educated, We are the Idiots paying the higher prices!

jay

 

[Xena]

Gee this is a no brainer.
Buy oil for the rest of the heating season cheaper than pellets. DUH
Force the price of pellets down. What evers cheaper.

Yeah that might work if we could reach the majority of the pellet stove
owners in this Country. I'm sure only a very small fraction know about
this forum.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Real easy solution, dont give them your money.

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.

Options are great to have. I bought 4 tons of greene team pellets back in July from lowes and paid about $270 per ton. I still have 20 or so bags left, but I am burning them until they are either depleted or when spring arrives. With oil being so cheap, I would be much better off saving the pellets and burning oil, but I want to recover my space in the garage. I recently added yet another heating option. I had a 15 SEER AC/Heatpump unit installed this week. Based on a calculator that I found online, I would be better off using the heatpump when oil goes over $2.50 per gallon. I am going to have to think long and hard about buying pellets for next year.

I also have a 15 SEER heatpump and live in Georgia. Even down here it gets COLD. We had a 13" snowfall a few weeks ago. At anything below about 40 degrees the heat pump is pretty useless unless you use the heat strip supplemental heat, which is really going to hurt your pocket book, especially if the rumored huge bump in electric rates goes into effect. I found that for above 40 degrees, you get about a 50 degree boost in temp at the registers versus outside air temp, FYI.

Thanks. Thats what I thought as well. The initial plan was to just put in AC, but the guy that installed it offered the heat pump for about $350. I couldn't pass it up even if I can only use it during spring and fall. I didn't bother with the heat strips. Oil and pellets would have to really take a jump before that becomes an option. If that were to happen, I would assume electricity rates will follow.

For just a $350 bump in price, you made a good move IMHO. The next step, though, is the jump to geothermal heat pumps, which are REALLY EFFICIENT in all areas of the country. They can be very expensive to install but the Federal Gov't is giving a 30% break on your bottom line taxes if you get one and there's no ceiling on the rebate. You'd have to check your state, but mine, Georgia, give another 35% tax break if you get one. Tell me that isn't tempting!