I hope this is the right forum for this...I had to call our oil company about another matter on Thursday, and they told me that the day's posted price for heating oil was $4.19 a gallon that day. Holy cow!!!!!! At that price, we'll spend about $6,000 a year to heat an 1,176 square foot ranch house. Yikes!!! DH and I have decided that it's actually okay, though, because it gives us six months to figure out an alternative heating source. We're looking at a pellet stove that drops into the fireplace, or an infrared electric heater at this point.

Just thought I'd give everyone a "heads-up" so you can start making a plan for heating for next winter, too.

Michelle, were you the one that had a problem with the oil company a while back? How'd you make out? Did they charge you the emergency fee even though you were on automatic delivery?

yikes ours is not that high yet i called a couple weeks ago to check prices and they were only at 2.99(we use #2 wich is basically diesal fuel) i still have over half a tank from this winter so we are going to top it off next month one tank lasts us all winter our fuel guy does not know how we do it most people around here use a couple tanks in the winter.. we did re-insulate our old house when we got new siding and windows and we keep it down to 62 while we are sleeping and not home so that helps us as well...

at least you have a heads up its gonna be real high and have some time to figure out some alternatives.

No - that was not us. But, someone we know had to get oil delivered as an emergency delivery. She had to stop them when her delivery reached the $670 mark, because that was all the money she had. Crazy, isn't it?

I work for a heating & cooling company. We also sell fireplaces & pellet stoves. I HIGHLY recommend buying a new system this year. Fuel oil is sooooo expensive. For example, 1 million BTU's (this isn't a lot of heat, maybe a few days worth in the middle of winter) with fuel oil costs right now over $34.00. If you were to buy an electric heat pump 1 million BTU's is only $10.00. If you were to put in a geo thermal system, you need a bit of land and it is expensive, it is only $5.00 per million BTU's. You can see how quickly the savings add up. If you were to spend $5000.00 on a new heating system, you could easily recoup your money in a few years & the savings each month would pay the payment on the system. Plus, of course, heat pumps are air conditioners in the summer. Even, if you didn't use it too much to cool, it will pull the humidity out of your house at the height of summer.

Finally, if I haven't confused you thoroughly, the electric heaters should be researched thoroughly. A lot of them are expensive, puny heaters that you could just buy a $10.00 ceramic heater at Wal-Mart for each room & be better off. They are a rip off (usually) so really make sure of what you are getting. We refuse to sell them. We also refuse to sell non-vented gas fireplaces as no matter what any one says, they can kill you, or at the very least turn the white walls in your house yellow.

Anyway, please contact your local HVAC dealer before the next heating season!!!