OK. I just paid $3.95 a gallon for #2 heating oil to heat this house for the winter. That is .51

[Purveyor]

more than the current pump price for unl/regular gasoline that has some .60 built into its price for road/use taxes. Heating oil does not have those taxes.

What the hell is going on here? Never have we paid more for a gallon of 'heating oil' than we have for gasoline.

Unfortunately, we live in an area that does not have access to natural gas so oil, propane or freeze are our only options.

Is that price the same up in the northeast region of the country where oil use is more prevalent?

I'm thinking of selling this place just to move to an area with nat. gas access.

This is insane and I just had to 'rant' as this price totally blindsided me. Last year we paid $3.19.

[Mr. Mojo Risen]

1. The invisible hand of the free market just picked your pocket.

[brush]

31. I know the feeling

I advise you to think seriously about a move. My wife and I are from New York and back in 1996 we bought a big ol' 1919 Colonial cheap, a foreclosure with 'good bones' as they say, that was in desperate need of refurbishing. It was a 'dead' house, every wall, ceiling and floor needed repair. The furnace was one of those old, small automobile-sized coal burners converted to burn heating oil. It was bone-dry and winter was on us and we had to get heat in the house before the pipes froze. We got the tanks filled (twin 225 gallons) and the price for oil then was the same as for gas, around $1.15. If you locked in a contract price with the oil company you could get it for under a dollar a gallon and that's what we always did. Anyway, long story short, we began rehabbing the house as a labor of love. We couldn't move in for 4 months but did steady work until it was habitable enough to move in. It took us 4 years of going to Home Depot every weekend but we restored that house and bought it back to life, even put in a new, more efficient furnace along the way. The price of oil/gas stayed pretty stable until the mid-2000s until it shot up to over $4.00 a gallon for the first time with Bush allowing his oil company buddies/clients to gouge the country for a months-long-billions-of- dollars-profit, hog feast. Remember? It was summer driving season and we weren't using the furnace but I did some quick math and realized we couldn't afford to heat that house anymore at over $4.00 a gallon oil, with 5 refills needed to get through the winter. Even though the house now looked great, we put it on the market and sold it and moved to Las Vegas where we don't have the heating oil pegged to the price of gas problem, and no harsh winters. Hot summers, yes, but you won't freeze to death.

[hfojvt]

2. I am just glad

that they are recycling excrement

#2 heating oil - who knew?

[kestrel91316]

5. No, no, no - the recycled excrement goes to produce electricity

here in Los Angeles down at the Hyperion plant. They stick it in digesters to ferment anaerobically, harvest the methane, and burn if at a special power plant just for that source.

Beats heck out of venting the methane to the atmosphere like most places do.

[demwing]

25. It was a joke :)

#1 and #2?

[jmowreader]

33. It's not vented, it's flared

They stick a 10-foot pipe into the methane source to vent the gas...and when it's going good they light it, so there's this little eternal flame as a tribute to all the Republican ideas being digested in the tank below.

This you'll like: Moses Lake, Wash., a very anti-federal-spending town, just took a federal grant to buy a small natural gas-powered generator set to burn the methane produced by their sewage plant. It's only big enough to power the sewage plant, but that's better than nothing. If they can start four more Tea Party groups, they can make electricity enough to run the town.

[hughee99]

3. I was paying a higher price last winter (in MA).

it looks like it might be down here this year, though. Perhaps the reason gas prices are on the way down is that less home heating oil is being produces so more gasoline can be made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil

[jmowreader]

4. Heating oil and diesel are the same thing

What would stop someone attempting to save 40 to 50 cents a gallon from buying an oil tank for their property, putting it in an appropriate location so it at least looks like.you're heating the house with it, and fueling their penis extensions from it? You would never be caught. They aren't worried about big rig drivers doing it; they use too much diesel for subterfuge and they report mileage, but all those diesel pickups could easily do it with no fear of detection. So...what better way to stop it from happening than killing the financial incentive?

Sucks for you and other legitimate users, though.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Do you honestly believe that there are enough idiots out there that would go

to this much trouble and expense that it would make any detectable difference?

[jmowreader]

14. Yeah, but I live in the tax hatred capital of America

North Idaho is one of the few places in America where a significant percentage of Priuses have Romney stickers on them. Up here people will spend a dollar to save a penny in tax...and also, used oil tanks are cheap - free sometimes.

[Kolesar]

28. The richest suburb in Ohio has Priuses w/ gop stickers, too

My commute takes me past the estate homes and horse ranches where the billionaires live. There are only three traffic lights on the whole route, though!

[Purveyor]

7. I can buy 'road' diesel for $4.09 which is cleaner and a bit hotter than #2 but here I go again,

the 'road' diesel also has road tax built into its price which heating oil doesn't.

We have used diesel fuel in the past when we ran out once (guess who forgot to monitor the tank level) and it works great but at the time paid a premium over the cost of heating oil. Think I bought 10 gallons of the stuff to get us through.

[Honeycombe8]

11. Here in TX, diesel always sells for more than gasoline. nt

[Historic NY]

30. Thing called Motor Fuel Tax...

the product is tagged and if most states are like mine eventually they will check. How do you propose getting it filled eventually the supplier has to file paperwork. On another note it is illegal to put diesel in a tank not designed for it. So a bulk suppliers will pay a hefty fine if they are caught. Diesel does leave behind a tell tale sign its colored and has additives.

[jmowreader]

32. How I propose getting it filled

The subject was Putting Heating Fuel In Your Car.

To do it you would need your own home, and an oil tank. You can get a used tank pretty cheap because oil is an expensive way to heat and people are getting away from it. Once you have the tank (they usually hold between 100 and 250 gallons of fuel) you call an oil company, and they come out and fill it up. If you have a 250 gallon tank, a rig that gets 20 mpg and you drive 800 miles a month, you will get six months out of that tank. No fuel company in the world would question a twice-a-year fill. If you have two oil companies in town it's even easier: "get ready for winter" in July with one company, and buy a midwinter fill in January from the other.

And no, they're not going to check. I drove for an outfit that is a magnet for DOT inspections, and the cops never once opened a fuel tank. The cops have bigger fish to fry, like drunk drivers and pot smokers.

[Historic NY]

34. In NY State its the TAX Agents that stake out the terminals ...

get caught and its lose all.

[thatgemguy]

8. Same situation here...

Paid nearly $620 for 150 gallons of #2. That will get me to February. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a program to help homeowners convert their homes from heating oil to another source. We pay sales tax on heating oil in my state, with all the price increases, the taxes increase too.

[PADemD]

9. Eastern PA here

I paid 3.519 for heating oil on November 1.

[Purveyor]

13. That is sort of what I expected to pay judging by the spot prices for heating oil. Paid 3.19 on Feb

1st of 2011 with the price of crude at over a$100bbl at that time.

Crude today is 88.69.

Go figure while I'll put some vasoline on my 'touch-hole' for getting raped today.

[PADemD]

16. Expecting an oil delivery, hopefully today

Last edited Wed Dec 5, 2012, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Will post price.

12/5 oil delivery still $3.519

[Honeycombe8]

10. Where are you located? nt

[Purveyor]

12. Mid-Michigan. Sadly a fucking 'red' county (Jackson). Even more incentive to pack up and leave.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Just wondering 'cause I'm not sure how that "heating oil" thing works. I've always had gas

or electric heat. You can't get electric heat up there?

I've never understood the oil thing. You go and get oil....and then I wonder...what do people do with the oil? They pour it into something, I guess, but what? A huge furnace in a basement? My heater is up in the attic attached to natural gas piping, like my gas stove. Gas used to be cheap, but now it costs as much to heat my house as electric would cost.

[Purveyor]

23. An oil furnace has a burner/blower that essentially 'fuel injects' a mist of oil across electrodes

with a fan blower to create a 'blow-torch' effect. The flame heats in my case, a hot water coil that then circulates the hot water (around 160 degrees) to the registers around the house.

Back in the day, when heating oil was .78 a gallon...it was the best of heating methods as hot water heat didn't dry out the household environment like forced air.

Right now...it is about a draw on heating oil versus electric.

Nat gas is the cheapest form of heat right now in this area as our electric rate is at the top of the scale thanks to our republican controlled gov't (michigan) and the monopolistic electric companies that get nothing but rubber stamp approval from the whores they have bought.

Oh yes, we do have a 'public service commission' that is supposed to have 'oversight' of the utilities but they are 'appointed' by the whores that the utilities have purchased.

[Honeycombe8]

24. Thx. I understand that more, now.

I always wondered about. "Oil?" I thought. How would you use oil to heat a house? So now I understand that a bit more. Not having heat dry out a house seems to be a good thing. I live with static electricity all winter because of dry heat...altho gas is less dry, IMO, than electric.

[Brickbat]

15. 3.99 here.

[Marrah_G]

17. I'm glad to be on gas heat now instead of oil

I live in Mass and I can't tell you how many times we went without heat or had to heat with space heaters and boiling water on the stove, etc because the oil would run out and you would have to buy 100 gallons minimum at a time.

[madokie]

18. I use wood pellets to heat with

cost a tad over 200 bucks a ton and I'll use 2 ton this winter. For less than 500 bucks I'll stay toasty all winter.

This will be either the 19th or 20th winter we've been using wood pellets. Oh and wood pellets are made from an otherwise waste product too.

[FarCenter]

19. Diesel (aka #2 heating oil) is being exported.

Europeans drive lots of diesel cars, so US refiners are using excess capacity to make diesel and sell to the Europeans who are relatively price insensitive because of the high taxes.

Diesel is priced on the basis of Brent crude, which is around $110 / barrel.

[Purveyor]

20. The December 2012 Heating Oil Price on the NY Merc is currently at $3.041. That is one heck of a

markup.

http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/contracts.html?r=NYMEX_HO

[Ikonoklast]

21. Because refined petroleum products are being exported at a record pace in order to keep

domestic prices high.

Even though we are producing more crude than any time in our nation's history, it doesn't mean that oil companies must sell it, or refined products made from crude, domestically.


http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/us-oil-exports-reach-record-highs-thats-rightexports?news=843228

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/u-s-was-net-oil-product-exporter-in-2011.html

[geckosfeet]

26. Is a wood or pellet burning appliance an option?

Firewood and pellets are relatively inexpensive once you get the appliance installed.

[Motown_Johnny]

27. Have you looked into wood pellet stoves?

Just as a less extreme answer than moving to a gas line.


http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/ContentView?pn=KH_BG_HF_Wood_Pellet_Stoves&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053

[sunwyn]

29. That's ridiculous and one of the reasons

why we haven't bought propane or fuel oil for three years now. When you have to decide whether to eat or heat....well, the stomach wins.

[retry]

37. $3.95 for heating oil

My daughter and her husband with 4 kids are out of fuel oil right now and they just paid $3.95 gallon and received 250 gallons. Now they're out! My daughter won't except my used oil because she thinks her house blow up. Please tell the difference between the oil she bought and my used motor oil. I have 10 barriers of it help

[retry]

38. $3.95 for heating oil

I posted a question about difference between motor oil and oil that delivered to you for heating.

[Kali]

39. hi there retry

here are some things I found from the google

http://www.ehow.com/how_7769034_mix-motor-oil-home-heating.html

http://www.uvm.edu/~cmorriso/AltEnergy/convertfurnace.pdf

more here

https://www.google.com/search?q=used+motor+oil+as+fuel+oil&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&channel=sb&q=used+motor+oil+as+home+heating+oil