Author Topic: Maine, fuel oil prices. (Read 1092 times)

deeker · « **on:** March 12, 2008, 03:20:14 pm »

I have a sister in Bangor maine that tells me she is paying $600 per mo in heating oil.

A bit high??? Any thoughts??

Kevin Davis
Ruff Cutts

bull · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2008, 03:23:58 pm »

how big is her oil tank, how big of a house is she heating,how old and how is it insulated.

ely · « **Reply #2 on:** March 12, 2008, 03:46:58 pm »

who really cares, thats a lot of money no matter how much you are heating

deeker · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2008, 04:16:25 pm »

I believe it to be small. And probably poorly insulated. I am suspecting she spends more on adult beverages to keep herself warm. Not trying to be mean. But I do know her. It sounds like a lot to me too, I don't use fuel oil to heat anything. Here we use natural gas, and woodstoves.

Kevin Davis
Ruff Cutts

beenthere · « **Reply #4 on:** March 12, 2008, 04:47:53 pm »

At the price of fuel oil, doesn't surprise me.
Do you know what price per gallon she is having to pay?

Propane is around $2 now, I hear. Going to call for some contracted at $1.60 and need about 300 gallon to fill the tank.

ely · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2008, 05:16:10 pm »

we heard propane was 2.80 the other day, but when they delivered it the boss paid 2.24 so i guess that was a good thing?

Ron Wenrich · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2008, 05:47:51 pm »

Turn the thermostat down. I have mine at about 63° and that keeps my consumption pretty low. Wear sweaters.

submarinesailor · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2008, 05:54:14 pm »

To put the price of oil in to some perspective, you need to convert it to some type of heat unit. At work we use a Decatherm (DTH) or 1,000,000 BTU’s. It takes about 7.4 gallons of #2 fuel oil to make a DTH. According to what little real pricing I can find for that area, the commodity price for oil is about (a low side estimate) $3.65/gal – I’m at home so I didn’t have all the tools I would like. So that equates to about $27.05 per DTH. The latest DOE monthly report has the average residential price of natural gas for the state of Maine at about $18.00 per DTH.

BUT, the price of natural gas on the east coast is following the price of oil. Currently April’s price on the NYMEX exchange is over $10.25 per DTH. And that’s down at the market trading point, down need Lafayette, Louisiana.

BURN MORE WOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bruce

isawlogs · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2008, 06:58:36 pm »

That was sclear ....

Then again ... colder it gets , da more wood gets thrown in the furnace , I guess thats whats you was tellin' me .... right

StorminN · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2008, 07:07:55 pm »

It's been years since I lived in Old Town (near Bangor, ME), but I don't recall there being any natural gas north of Portland... it's all fuel oil or wood heat. I do, however remember experiencing -40F in the winter and 102F in the summer. If memory serves me right, one winter (1993?) we had 23 days in January that were -20F or colder, and three or four that were -40F or colder. And yeah... lots of the houses there are old and poorly insulated.

Can I say how glad I am to now live somewhere that never gets below 20F? We average in the 60's, and people whine like hell if the temperature goes more than 25 degrees either side of that...

-Norm.

submarinesailor · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2008, 08:01:05 pm »

Norm,

The natural gas in that part of Maine, north of Portland is relatively new. The only reason I now about it is because I handle the natural gas for NSA Brunswick. And if memory serves me correctly, there are 3 natural gas companies in Maine now.

Bruce

RSteiner · « **Reply #11 on:** March 12, 2008, 08:34:54 pm »

$600.00 a month sounds a bit high but a lot depends on the size of the house and how tight the house is and the amount of insulation it has. With fuel oil prices in New Hampshire over $3.00 a gallon $600.00 gets you 200 gallons. A few years back I installed a new burner in my neighbors furnace and if I remember right the nozzle it had used 1/2 gallon an hour when running.

Could be the windows and doors are letting warmed air out faster than they could and maybe the insulation in the attic is not enough. There are programs to help people tigthen up their homes to help control energy use, maybe she would qualify for some assistance.

Randy

thecfarm · « **Reply #12 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:12:38 pm »

I live here in Maine and I have no idea how much fuel oil is,$3.40????Maybe????Is she using kerosene?that might be up to almost $4.I use only wood.

Dave Shepard · « **Reply #13 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:18:27 pm »

submarinesailor, thank you for bringing up the Decatherm. I often think that the people selling energy don't want people to be able to compare apples to apples, if they did, there would be more coal furnaces around.

I have many long conversations about energy with a friend of mine. We both run into people that are falsely comparing various energy costs. One even tried to tell me that electricity was cheapest.

Wood and coal are both a good bang for the buck at the moment.

Dave

Mooseherder · « **Reply #14 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:23:39 pm »

I talked with my brother in Northern Maine tonight.
Fuel oil 200 miles north of Bangor is 3.63 today.

Dave Shepard · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:35:36 pm »

That got me to thinking Mooseherder, I can't go 200 miles in my state. And still be in my state.

Dave

Mooseherder · « **Reply #16 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:43:49 pm »

Quote from: Dave Shepard on March 12, 2008, 09:35:36 pm

That got me to thinking Mooseherder, I can't go 200 miles in my state. And still be in my state.
Dave

That can be a good thing.

treenail · « **Reply #17 on:** March 12, 2008, 10:56:39 pm »

$600 a month wouldn't suprise me one bit. I went out and bought deisel fuel for my tractor tonight and it was now $4.00 a gallon. Fuel oil isn't far behind around here. Anyone that cuts his own cordwood to heat his home is going to be feeling pretty darned wealthy before too long.

Warbird · « **Reply #18 on:** March 12, 2008, 11:24:37 pm »

I just paid $3.54 per gallon for heating oil here. We consumed 85 gallons in just over 5 weeks and we typically use ~100 gallons per month.

lobsta1 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2008, 09:35:55 pm »

Here in eastern Ma. my parent's fuel bill in Jan was over $1000. This is in a
1954 built ranch with some insulation added since. My neighbor just told me her bill was over $1000 in Feb. This was in a early 1900's two story house that has been rebuilt & insulated.
Al

StorminN · « **Reply #20 on:** March 14, 2008, 02:39:04 am »

Hey Dave and submarinesailor,

About how many kWh's are in a DHT? I guess it depends on how you turn the electricity into heat, eh? Straight resistive heat vs. something else?...

Electricity is considered cheap here, it's $0.06 per kWh... and I know lots of people that use it for everything... heat, hot water, clothes dryer, range. I have a neighbor that has a ground-source heat pump (long tubes of glycol in the ground) and a well-insulated house, and he heats his home and domestic hot water for about $40 in electricity a month in the winter.

I live in a poorly-insulated 1910 farmhouse and it costs me about $140 a month to heat the house and hot water with electric (I have a propane dryer and propane range). Of course, our winters are mild here, compared to New England... (and having lived in Maine and Rhode Island for 20 years, I know the difference).

Fuel oil is near $4.00 a gallon here as well. It would be interesting to do a calculated comparison...

-N.

bull · « **Reply #21 on:** March 14, 2008, 07:58:53 am »

How about the price of diesel fuel, just hit $4.15 a gallon, just got notified of additional fuel surcharges, for trucking..... where the hell is this going to take us.......

isawlogs · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2008, 08:16:53 am »

I bought 25 liters of diesel the other day. 33,75$ That would be 6 gallons (US Liquid) and 4.83441 pt (US Liquid) That comes to 5.08$/US gallon .

Bull , hope it makes you feel better ..... sure makes me steam to see the price of fuel higher then gas

bull · « **Reply #23 on:** March 14, 2008, 09:10:23 am »

time for a transportation strike...... start with food first maybe it will wake people up......

boy the dumbing down of America has kicked into high gear !!!!
keep paying their price and they will keep jacking it up !!!!
supply and demand principals do control markets!!!

isawlogs · « **Reply #24 on:** March 14, 2008, 10:03:52 am »

All of North America is dependent on fuel for transporting of goods ... wether it be boat , train or truck . They have us where they have always wanted

What are we to do ... stop the trucks from rolling ... it would take about three days to empty the stores ... they have no back-store in wich stock was kept like it was only a few years ago ...
All of our needs are on trucks that deliver on a day to day basis , those oil compagnies know this too well and take advantage of this to the max . When this rolling back-store started 15 or so years ago fuel was ~~cheap~~ very affordable so the idea behind it was fisable and for the most part a good one , untill the greed of those that control the fuel took hold . $:-\$

mad dog · « **Reply #25 on:** March 14, 2008, 10:27:49 am »

I live in central Maine,I bought oil in sept.Ikeep the furnace on 60 and keep the woodstove just a huming,I am heating my domestic hot water off my furnace.like to change that. A few years ago My wife and I went to florida in jan.I would go jogging in the morning,then come back and jump in the pool.I was getting out one morning and tis guy said Where are you from ,Alaska? I said no I am from Maine He replied same differance!how can you swim in water this cold? I said our lakes are colder than this even in aug.

bull · « **Reply #26 on:** March 14, 2008, 03:04:59 pm »

Guess we all need to look at the new word in the dictionary, LOCAVORE......
Live local, buy local,survive and sustain locally, it was done in the past.... sounds like the old american dream !!!!

WOW, is someone fighting a war without guns,stop transportation, ruin the value of the dollar, cut their supplies, cut out food, suck the water dry, and on and on...

America is heading down the drain and doesn't even know it... and the best part is we taught them how to do it........ MAYBE ITS TIME FOR A WAKEUP CALL......

snowman · « **Reply #27 on:** March 14, 2008, 03:54:16 pm »

On the bright side

as heating fuels goes up so does value of firewood. As log prices plummet I may go into firewood business. The sky is never actually falling but every cloud does have a silver lining. Don't get me started on my stocks though, maybe my silver lining theory has an exception.

submarinesailor · « **Reply #28 on:** March 14, 2008, 03:58:51 pm »

Norm,

I’m at home and all my books are at work. BUT, if I remember correctly: there are 3,413 BTUs in 1 KW.

Bruce

musikwerke · « **Reply #29 on:** March 14, 2008, 05:28:19 pm »

The whole USA is way overdue for a wakeup call. Only this time when it happens it's going to be rough ride for all of us. I won't be surprised if a lot of folks won't be able to handle it and that could make for a very bad situation. This mindset that 'growth' is the only way to live and do business has to change.

News:

Author Topic: Maine, fuel oil prices. (Read 1092 times)