OMG... My heating bill is huge

by **evie** on Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:28 pm

Well J Mckee, you asked and now you shall receive...
Just got my yearly budget payment amount for oil. $444.00 a month. That is for 12 months. So I will be paying $5328 for oil this year. More than double a month from last year. Plus I had a credit due me. Didn't have to carry over a penny. I have no clue what I will be paying per gallon. And to top it off I got my bill on Friday. This is a long weekend. Can't wait til Tueday to call and gripe. No way I can afford that. News reports have been saying that people heating with oil can expect to pay 25% more than last year. Apparently my oil company hasn't heard the reports.

by **Rob** on Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:55 am

I'm actually afraid to call my local oil co and ask what the going rates are. I have about 75 gal left in the tank and am hoping to make that last a while. My "old" house hasn't sold yet so the budget right now is super tight and there just isn't room for huge oil bills right now... :shock:

$444/mo is insane. How much oil do you use a month?

by **Gale Force** on Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:29 pm

Gosh you guys, that's terrible. We're on wood heat here and the price per cord is going up (like everything else), but not that much. We have two woodstoves and a fireplace insert to heat this monstrosity and we just got new ones installed this spring -- ordered them before steel prices took a hike. I am very glad we got it taken care of because who knows how high prices will go on *everything.*

by **J McKee** on Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:27 am

Time to bring in the "Draft Hunters"

Caulk, caulk cord, plastic window treatment, insulation, more caulk, spray foam.

This year we'll completely redo the window treatments. Everything will get remeasured and cut to fill. That is the cheepest thing we can do. From experience, after cutting the big drafts; the small drafts become easier to spot.

This thread is going to be a long one.

I'm trying to find a mason to build a chimney. When we moved this house; I poured a footing footprint for a woodstove in the basement. And layed 5 layers of block to the ground level. I need to go about 20 more feet up.

by **Rob** on Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:42 am

J McKee wrote:Time to bring in the "Draft Hunters"

Caulk, caulk cord, plastic window treatment, insulation, more caulk, spray foam.

funny thing, thats exactly what I went out & bought yesterday. The only mistake I made was going to the big orange box on a holiday weekend. :shock:

by **evie** on Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:45 am

Someone asked how much oil I used. Last year I used 1593 gallons. I heat a 3800+ square foot house and my heat was on from October til the end of May. That means I am paying more than $3 a gallon for heating oil this year. Called the company and said I couldn't afford this and I was putting in a backup heating system. They lowered my montyly payment back to last year's amount of $217. They said at this point they don't even know how much they were going to pay for oil so they just "guestimated" our budget plan bills.

by **Don M** on Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:58 pm

My charge for pre-purchased oil last year was $1.59/gal this year it is $2.29/gal and that is 3 cents/gal cheaper than my previous company is charging. :shock:

This was before Katrina hit the south east and damaged pipelines etc. Hopefully they will be able to get the oil I purchased. :evil:

I have a new boiler which is definitely more efficient than my old one so hopefully I'll save there. Don

by **evie** on Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:05 pm

Don,

That is how much I paid for oil last year too, $1.59. (I am in the Lehigh Valley area of PA so I am glad that prices were similar last year) They are either figuring I am going to pay over $3 a gallon this year or I am going to be using a whole lot more heat this year. We are installing a back up heating system, so I won't be paying it. They can't even give me a price on what I will be paying a gallon. I never even got my lock in notice.

by **Don M** on Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:31 am

Evie,
I hope your oil company gets this figured out soon; apparently they are unsure about what price they can deliver. The lock-in price I paid for my 1000 gallons was prior to Katrina but if oil becomes unavailable we could all be in trouble. I heard on NPR this morning that our elected officials are thinking about doing something with windfall profits legislation we shall see if this is just lip service or if they have some guts. Hope springs eternal! Don

by **majederr** on Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:48 am

Hi Evie,
Who do you use for oil? What type of back up heating are you thinking of installing? We are up in Lehighton and are experiencing the same problems as you are and we have a 2000 gallon tank to fill. We were thinking of installing a propane fireplace insert, but my propane was delivered yesterday and that was 1.79. Joanne