Picking up Nickels

Friday, October 20, 2006

New England home heating oil price check

We use home heating oil to heat our house and hot water. Our oil tank is topped off three or four times per year, to the tune about about five hundred gallons annually. That may not sound very expensive until you consider how much heating oil prices have skyrocketed over the past few years.

I initially paid about 50¢ per gallon for heating oil, which rose to $1.19 per gallon three years ago, and peaked at about $2.50 per gallon last spring. The result is that it now costs more for a single oil delivery than it did for a one year supply of heating oil in 1999!

I have been getting my heating oil from the same company since I bought the place, and several local price searches via telephone have shown that they have very competitive prices for oil delivery and 24 hour emergency service without requiring a contract or a budget plan.

I have also been comparing regional oil prices at NewEnglandOil.com and see that the prices there vary from 11¢ less to as much as 38¢ more per gallon than the latest price quoted to me by my oil company ($2.04). Knowing that, I am comfortable sticking with the same company since it is not worth the $55 dollars per year that I would save by switching to the company with the lowest price.

2 Comments:

  • 500 gallons at $2 a gallon = $1000 !!
    That is sure expensive for just heating your house.

    By Blogger GolbGuru, at 10/21/06, 1:53 PM  

  • The sad part is that 500 gallons per year isn't really that much.

    It is not uncommon for people with less energy efficient houses to have their 275 gallon oil tank filled every two or three weeks during really cold winter periods.

    By Blogger Frugal Frugalson, at 10/22/06, 10:43 AM  

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