[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lawnchair', 'R')ural users may stay on oil for a while (where midwestern rural is propane), but where gas is available, oil may be as rare as a coal chute in five years.

[Arsenal]

Unfortunately we have oil heat where we rent. (Had to move because of a job and renting until our house sells) The landlord said we could switch to nat gas but we would incur all the costs. We have a plan for this winter.

1. Keep the oil tank topped off with the thermostat at 40 degrees.
2. Electric heater and blanket.
3. Try to buy a kerosene heater.

Unfortunately it is illegal to purchase/run a kerosene heater in Massachusetts so we are going to have to find one out of state. The kerosene heater is for emergencies only.. I.E. If there is an issue with the oil furnace and the grid is out.

F#*@!k Massachusetts!! Hard to believe that the Boston Tea Party started here. The bureaucracy is so thick you can cut it with a knife. (as long as it is under 2.5 inches)

Arsenal

[Lighthouselantern]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '
')
At current regional rates, electric is $44.00 per million BTUs, Heating Oil is $26.50 per million BTUs and propane is $34.00 per million BTUs.

.

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lighthouselantern', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '
')
At current regional rates, electric is $44.00 per million BTUs, Heating Oil is $26.50 per million BTUs and propane is $34.00 per million BTUs.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lighthouselantern', 'l')ights convert 100% energy into heat, they are great heaters.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lighthouselantern', 'l')ights convert 100% energy into heat, they are great heaters.

[mersa]

I know, we are trained to turn out the lights, this is silly. If electricity is cheaper than 15 cents per kilowatt hour.

We had a day when our heat pump froze up and the fan went out, it was -10 degrees.
all we did was turn on every light and the chandeliers and the electric range and the house stayed toasty warm until the repairman could come


also instead of running a 1500 wat heater in a dark house, just turning on 15 100 watt lights not only is nice and bright and happy but costs the same and keeps the house the same warmth,

Also if you want to buy a 1500 watt heater it would be cheaper to get a string of 100 watt bulbse on a rope and hang them across the ceiling, they are very bright, very bright.

We have two metal halide 800 watt lights in our house in the living room on the roof, extremely bright, it is like summertime in the house and both of them together put out 1500 watts just like a heater. It is the way of choice to heat a house it is so nice and bright and pleasant.

it really works and is much cheaper then buying dedicated heaters

[mersa]

But the absolute best way to heat a house is a heat pump we are so amazed at how much one of these 15 amp unite pumps out, it is like a 8 by 15 inch stream oof hot air at high velocity, our house is always seventy and it is way cheaper than our electric space heaters.

a couple metal halide lamps and a heat pump and you are in warm hawaii all winter for cheaper than if you were in a dark room with a space heater.

just get some coconut oil suntan ltion for better effect and you can save 4000 and stay home for the winter instead of wssting money in hawaii.

then put on blue hawwaii on the big screen.


make some popcorn,

have fun.

NICE HEAT PUMP very efficient works great(AND IN THE SUMMER IT WILL AIR CONDITION YOUR HOUSE)

14,000 BTU is 4 kilowatt of heat and that is what it puts out.

It takes only 1.2 kilowatts to run it

you get 2,800 free kilowatts per hour of heat as long as you run it, it takes the same power as one small space heater.

yet puts out the heat of 4 small space heaters.

cmon, forget solar and ethanol this is free heat, it comes from outside and all you do is pump it inside.
its free,....

[Lighthouselantern]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lighthouselantern', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '
')
At current regional rates, electric is $44.00 per million BTUs, Heating Oil is $26.50 per million BTUs and propane is $34.00 per million BTUs.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')t least 10 cities and towns and thousands of Massachusetts consumers are paying more than $2 a gallon above market rate for their heating oil this winter after locking into prices that seemed like a bargain only a few months ago.

Experts were predicting last summer that rates could rise as high as $5 a gallon and thousands of panicked customers, including some local governments, signed on to a fixed rate - then watched the price of oil plummet as much as 50 percent.

They are now discovering that terminating or renegotiating their contracts will be costly, if it is even possible.

"This is a very unusual situation where fuel prices have dropped dramatically," said Jeremy Solomon, spokesman for the City of Newton, which buys its fuel as part of a consortium with nine other suburbs west of Boston each year.

[Arsenal]

I almost locked in a price when oil was starting to go up and I am really glad I didn't. Instead I bought 1 kerosene heater and 2 electric heaters to slow our oil consumption down. I have a 200 gallon tank which I have not had to fill since April. Our house is at 58 degrees with warm blankets and the heaters for specific room heat if needed. The kerosene heater was bought for emergencies only.

The only complaint I have is when I get up and take a shower. Freakin cold but my wife and I love the cold so 58 is not a bad temp. Setting your thermostat at 70 so you can run around in shorts in your house is stupid IMO.

[3aidlillahi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Setting your thermostat at 70 so you can run around in shorts in your house is stupid IMO.

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t included a fixed termination fee that ranged from $399 to $599.

[hope_full]

I live in a 1920s streetcar suburb in Norfolk, Virginia. There are about 1,400 homes in our little historic neighborhood, and the great majority of houses were built in the 1910s and 1920s. These houses are architecturally diverse - ranging from 1,500 square foot foursquares to 3,000 square feet Colonial Revivals, but most are around 2000-2500 square feet. In other words, they're very average houses.

And the great majority were converted to oil heat in the 1940s and 1950s. When you drive around, you can see the 275-gallon tanks in every back yard.

This winter, my husband and I had a heating bill in late November of more than $500. I about had a conniption. This is Norfolk, Virginia, not Wisconsin. In late December, Mr. Oil-Truck-Driver showed up again and put another 170 gallons in our tank (cost about $570). I talked with him for a bit and he said, "Yeah, that's about average. I'm putting 170 to 200 gallons in these tanks around here every month."

That's $500 - $600 PER MONTH.

I found out through our list-serv that people with oil heat are paying $450 - $600 a month to heat their homes. That's shocking.

I also found out that many people in our neighborhood are putting in high-efficiency (95%) gas-fired boilers. Two people ON MY STREET did this this month. Five people went with heat pump and two went with geothermal.

We're going with the high efficiency gas-fired tankless boiler. Cost of the unit (plus installation and permits) is about $7000. Average utility bill after installation is $125.

Here's the question: Thanks be to G*d, we have the resources to dump $7000 into a new boiler. Frankly, I don't think we can afford NOT to do that. But what are people doing who can't afford to throw THOUSANDS of dollars at the problem? I'm told that - due to new government regulations - you can not put a replacement gas-burner into an old oil-fired boiler.

In other words, the cheapest path out of this problem is the $7,000 path.

If you don't have $7,000, and you can't afford $600 a month to heat your old house, what do you do? While the media is making lots of noise about the cost of gasoline going up, I think they're forgetting that lots of America still uses oil to heat their homes.

And one of my neighbors told me that he hasn't paid for the last two tankfuls of heating oil, and now needs a third (at $650 per fill up).

What's going to happen to people who can't afford to heat their homes and can't afford to convert?

I find this to be a very worrisome - yet rarely mentioned - aspect of crude oil shooting up.

Rose

[papa moose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hope_full', 'B')ut what are people doing who can't afford to throw THOUSANDS of dollars at the problem?

[Rabbit]

I don't understand how someone could have a 40-50 year old heater and not expect that sooner or later it will need to be replaced. People need to spend less on luxuries and save more of their money for needs. I can't believe how many poor people smoke/drink/overeat. Take that money and put it in the bank and in a few years you will have enough to replace your heater. Then you also get the long term savings of the lower cost of heating. Many families are also having more children than they can afford. $7,000 is really not that much for a device that keeps your family warm for 1/2 of your lifespan.

[timmac]

They got some pretty good electric heaters out there, I am sure those can be used to keep the house from freezing.

[cephalotus]

500US$ per months is how many US$ a year? (you certainly need less during summer)

Solution for the poor: Heat only one or two rooms.

People did that for centuries.

+ next time learn to put money away if you want to own a house. There's always something to fix.

Do you think it is wise to replace one fossil (oil) fuel by another one (natural gas)on the long term?

[Adelaidewonderer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat's $500 - $600 PER MONTH.

I found out through our list-serv that people with oil heat are paying $450 - $600 a month to heat their homes. That's shocking.

[hope_full]

The boiler I'm replacing is eight years old. These are not antique boilers. My neighbor's boiler was six years old. If you're not heating with oil, you may not understand that right now, heating oil is running $3 a gallon and up, and it's costing a fortune to heat an old house.

When these old houses were built, fuel oil was 17 cents a gallon.

This is not about "setting aside money" to replace a crummy old boiler. If you read my first post you'd see that we're now putting in a high efficiency unit.

This post is not about me. We've solved the problem, but it took $7,000. This post **IS** about people who don't have $7,000 to install a high efficiency boiler right now. This *is* about figuring out how to not freeze and die in your own house when the simple process of trying to stay warm for one winter could cost thousands of dollars.

In an old house with radiators, you can't cut them off by zone or by room. It's all or nothing. My point is, there are tons of people like me, living in older homes and trying to decide between groceries and heat. It's an ugly spot to be in.