People are rightly bothered by the high cost of gasoline these days, but for me, that’s more of annoyance. I can adjust how much I drive.
I can’t change how I need to heat my house.
We just got our first oil delivery. $6.20 a gallon. Last year at this time, $3.68. We’ve already spent 38% of what our oil bill was for the entire year.
The thing is, we’ve done what can be done to keep our heating costs down. The house is insulated, and we keep our thermostat at 64°.
Too bad you can’t switch: a lot of people in New England have been switching either to electric heat pumps or wood/pellets.
I would be freezing at 64 degrees.
I have family members who contract for a fixed price for the whole year. I don’t know what price they’re contracted for this year.
I’ve mentioned before that I have a severe form of low-output heart failure. Though I never used to, I have since run really cold.
We lost our dog in the Spring of 2025. Late last fall, I remembered that we had bought him two warming pads – one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Though he never liked them, I decided to fish one out, fire it up, and put my stocking feet on it while I was just sitting around.
It made a HUGE difference. I mean … huge.
If your body isn’t making enough warmth, then insulation – keeping that warmth in – isn’t going to buy you all that much comfort and relief.
Actually making more heat, OTOH, quite likely will.
For lots of us, we’re parked for a big part of each day, whether on the sofa, on the favorite chair, at the desk … wherever.
It doesn’t get that hot, so it has done nothing untoward to our laminate flooring after months of periodic use.
And if you split your parked time between more than one part of the house or more than one distinct geographic location (eg, home, office) … a couple of these will likely be very cost-effective in light of that heating oil price spike and the relative inefficiency of heating a whole house when that often isn’t what’s actually needed.
But, yeah: there are lots of news stories about the inevitable impact of home heating oil, particularly in the Northeast.
I’m so sorry for all affected, and hope – one way or another – all can make it through relatively unscathed. I am afraid, however, of the inevitable stories that will result …
I don’t know what your housing or income situation is, but some states have free energy efficiency programs for households. They can do an energy audit at your home (which may or may not be helpful), but also sometimes help provide subsidized — in some cases completely free — upgrades to heating and insulation. Might be worth checking.
We just took delivery of 2 tons of pellets. Last spring we had our oil tank filled, hoping to avoid a price jump while equally hoping the price wouldn’t plummet and piss us off. I think we paid $4.69 or so - the total bill was over $900, but in conjunction with the pellets, it should be good for 2 years. The oil, that is. Winter typically requires just over 2 tons of pellets.
We’ll be out of town for 3 weeks which will save on heating costs.
We topped off our tank earlier this year at $3.99 per gallon. Should be set for almost two years. Our local fire depts are anticipating a rash of chimney and structure fires this winter from people burning wood who have done it before.
Our supplier has informed us that they are not doing fixed price contracts this winter. This is not the first time. But it’s always when prices are very high in September.
I assume it’s because people will sign up for $4.00 and if the price collapses they will switch to a jobber and it’s difficult to collect from those people on whatever penalty is in the contract.
I’m surprised that a common feature of the fixed price contracts isn’t “pay in full up front at signing”.
I am deeply worried about this winter. I recently got 150 gallons delivered at $5.70. $1000 of oil in September and it’s only a little more than half my tank. Usually, I have a couple cords of wood this time of year for the insert, but because of nerve issues in my left arm I haven’t cut any this year. Even if I could cut it now (which I can’t) it’ll be too wet to burn this winter. I’m going to have to find someone to deliver me a couple cords over the winter to try and stretch what oil I have. I might make it to January. I decided that the only rational thing to do is buy minimum (150 gal) oil deliveries until the price comes down, but at $1000 I can only do that maybe once more this winter. Add in $200/cord for firewood and I’m looking at 3 times what last winter cost me unless we get very lucky and have a mild winter this year.
My oil company does this. You can pre-buy oil at summer prices up until mid-August. If I had had the funds (or even the credit) over the summer I would have done it, but I ran into $8000 of unexpected vet expenses for my dog.
Ouch! That sucks hard.
I’ll point out that whatever firewood costs today, it’s going to get a lot more expensive and a lot more rare when all the people who don’t plan ahead notice their problem w oil prices.
Buy early and beat the rush.