Heating Fuel Oil time.

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reckedracing

TTIWWOP
VIP
Its that time of year again. Time to fill up the fuel oil tank while the price is still low.
Local price near me has dropped a couple cents in the last couple weeks to 3.329/gal.
Thats the price for 500+ gallons. I think I used about 300-350 last winter(added my 2nd tank 2 years ago), but I group buy with family so should have no problem getting a reduced rate. Plan to call around this week to see who has the best rate.
My brother will be getting around 1200 gallons at his rental property and my sister will need 550 to fill her 2 new tanks.

So I was just wondering if anyone else has multiple tanks and is planning to pre-buy their fuel oil to save some money. Also wondering what the prices were looking like around the country.
 
that's pretty good pricing. 3.35 is the cheapest i can find in town right now. My guy is 3.39, but i get a free furnace cleaning with it ($100 value). Takes a lot of 4 cents off a gallon to hit 100 bucks. I don't use a ton of oil due to the pellet stove. most of it is honestly for hot water.
300 gallons is VERY light though IMO. i used more, and like i said, it's my backup heat source/hot water only.

I'm not sure that pre-buying is smart this year. prices keep dropping. futures are low. Supply is capped. That all may change tomorrow though.
 
I am filling for the first time ever. Do prices generally go up through the season? The tank is getting empty so I need to do something soon. I have 2 138 gallon tanks. I am hoping the wife doesn't go crazy turning the heat up.
 
.....100 degrees here...
how's your ac bill? I used my central air once this year.
I am filling for the first time ever. Do prices generally go up through the season? The tank is getting empty so I need to do something soon. I have 2 138 gallon tanks. I am hoping the wife doesn't go crazy turning the heat up.
it basically follows the price of diesel, minus 50 cents or so (it doesn't have the same tax schedule) There's no rhyme or reason to it most cases. Sometimes its real cheap through january, then it spikes up as demand kicks in.

I highly recommend getting a solid fuel burning appliance. I cut my oil bill about 80%
 
Using digital programmable thermostats help a lot as well. Learn to live with it slightly cooler Set for 60deg overnight , increases to 64 for getting up in the morning, drops back to 60 all day while we're at work, and bumped back to 65 for he evening, at 10pm it drops back to 60. Use blankets etc to bundle up. Heat and hot water for me with a 1750sq ft house over the course of a year runs me about 450-500 gals.
 
When I was in SA and Austin, my electric bill never broke $100 a month. In Dallas the prices are a bit (5c a KWH) higher...so I pay about $120, but that's with 3 computers running full time and keeping the place at a cool 72 degrees. Since all our heaters are less efficient electric models, we dont buy oil during the winter, but we spend more on AC during the summer, so I guess it's a wash.

7c in San Antonio and Austin
12c in Dallas.
 
your power is cheap. with generation and service, its about 15c/kwh and they are trying to raise it by 60%. time to go solar!
 
electric is 8c here in Maryland, it was 12c when I was in Baltimore.

Heating oil price peaks in September-December. It's low at the first of the year, then back up in time for February. Last fill I had in Baltimore was 3.69/gal IIRC.
 
Just put in 100 gallons at 3.29cents a couple weeks ago, B check out CES Fuel http://cesfuel.com/.....

i have the pellet stove and estimate 4 pallets at $1400 delivered to heat my home for the Winter. So when all is said and done...$1729 for the season ...we barely use oil any more. only for the hot water heater
 
There are definitely benefits and drawbacks to buying now. A large part of my book of business that I insure and I work with in New Jersey is the home heating fuel industry. Plenty of these mom and pops are hurting from the exodus from oil to natural gas the last few years. Many are still in the good old day mindset, as their business currently dies, that they can work hard in the winter and then have the summers off. (The smarter ones diversified into HVAC operations that pick up in the summer time or into something petro related like paving). With that said, some are really hurting for cash and are willing to cut deals in the summer time, if you are willing to push them and negotiate with them.

The flip side of the coin is what B said. Prices continued to climb to unreasonable levels and now they are falling again. I foresee them falling for another month at least and then depending on if it starts to get cold early this year, will determine if we have reasonable prices in October or if they start to climb.
 
300 gallons is very light use indeed. new efficient boiler placed in service in spring 2010.
i think my 1st floor of my house (the livable area) is around 1200 sqft
i have programmable thermostats, 58 at night, 62 to wake up, 58 during the day, and 62 in the evening
if the OL is work at home, or cold at night she bumps it to 65, but she is always too hot anyway

2 winter ago was my first year with my second tank installed. last summer i took about 320 gallons, and from the guage reading i will need about the same this year
before that i would run out and end up paying close to $4 a gallon in february or march.
this isn't a pre-buy contract, this is just filling my 2- 275's
2 winters ago i ran the house at 58/65 split, and last year we ran 58/62 split so it saved on fuel through the colder winter
 
Last winter we spent in Baltimore (2012-2013), we used about 150gal. I was pissed that I left so much oil in the tank, especially since the landlord didn't credit me for it.
 
Just put in 100 gallons at 3.29cents a couple weeks ago, B check out CES Fuel http://cesfuel.com/.....

i have the pellet stove and estimate 4 pallets at $1400 delivered to heat my home for the Winter. So when all is said and done...$1729 for the season ...we barely use oil any more. only for the hot water heater
what brands are you looking at this year? i'm going to get 4 skids myself
 
what brands are you looking at this year? i'm going to get 4 skids myself

right now I have two pallets of Greene Golds which I have never burned... http://primopellets.com/greene-gold/ but I believe I paid a tad less than that because I bought early summer when they had a sale...i'll go through two of those and see how they Burn...so far I have only used Hammer Hot ones and Lacrete's but people keep telling me because of the stove I have I can burn the cheapest pellets an get the same results and I am just wasting my money on these premiums brands...but like the cheapest ones this guy has is $274 vs $299 ...I figure whats $25 bucks gonna do to my wallet to get a higher quality pellet less ash and higher BTU's?
 
In my experience the cheap shit is never worth the price savings. most stoves will burn it just fine, thats not the issue. The problem is that they are super ashy and less btu, which means you burn through them faster and have more cleaning to do... if yo'ure burning more, you end up using more bags, it ends up being a wash in price AND you had to do more cleanings, which means downtime when the oil pig kicks on, etc too. I don't get top of the line, but i get mid-high stuff usually.
I never heard of greene golds.
that place doesn't have much variety thats for sure...
i'm probably getting 2 skids (60 baggers) of north country and 2 skids of lacretes from btpellet.com this year. i ordered from ctpellet.com last year but they don't seem to have shit for inventory this year. interested in the Spruce Pointes as well, but not sure im going to go with it.
i liked the lacretes last year. good stuff. my favorite burn last year, and i had a ton of Barefoots and a ton of Oaknagans as well to compare against.
new englands SUCK and the energex aren't great either.
 
Energex used to be really good. Burntime has always been great to deal with. I usually pick up a ton or 2 there for my mom each year.
 
Talking with my neighbor we have a gas line running near our rd and several people on the road want to hook up so maybe we can get it done in the next year or two.
 
NG is currently dirt cheap, but it's poised to pop soon as demand hits. I'm not sure it's the right deal for a long term.

If i could chose from the factory what to put in a new house, I'd do electric. It's the cheapest to install and get a CoA, even if it is fairly pricey to use. And then, i'd install a pellet boiler system (but laws dictate that solid fuel can't be the #1 source for some stupid reason so thats where the electric comes in)
I would also have a wood stove in a lower level for power-off backup.

having electric also gives the option to go solar to offset demand/use/cost as electric prices go up and solar comes down and panels get better in the next 10 years....
 
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