Oil Cost Comparison

[ishoot308]

With the cost of #2 heating oil in the lakes region hovering just under $2.00 per gallon. Compare that to the current cost of cord wood or pellets,... burning oil this winter would be cheaper!

I just bought 5 tons of pellets at a cost of $260.00 +or- per ton. Based off that price, every BTU calculator I look at says burning oil this year would be slightly cheaper... Maybe save the pellets for next year??

I realize that wood / pellet heat is a nicer heat, especially when heating from the basement up through the floors but heck who knows what next years pricing will bring.

Thoughts anyone??

Dan

[codeman671]

Part of that comes down to the efficiency if your boiler. In my last house I was burning 2200-2500 gallons of oil a year (when oil was $3.50). My boiler was probably 75% efficient. I went to LP, used 2000 gallons with a new 96% efficient system and saved not only in the cost difference in the fuel, but burned less even though the btu comparison shows LP to be 25% less per gallon used. I still think the best deal going is LP, it is historically low and is less prone to market swings. How many gallons of oil per year do you use?


A lot of my employees use pellets and swear by them. I would not save them, I don't think they endure long term storage that well.

[ishoot308]

Codeman;

I based my comparison on the efficiencies noted on both the oil burner 83% and the Harman pellet stove 78%.

[ITD]

I don't think oil will remain where it is for long. About 30 % of refinery capacity is scheduled to shut down this fall for maintenance. I'm thinking about $2.50 a gallon average, but that is just a guess. You need to convert the oil and pellets to dollars per million btus and then account for efficiency, that should give you an answer. The issue for pellets is that btus per ton can vary wildly between different wood types and brands. I haven't done the propane calculation recently, but except for the year oil was nuts, it usually edges propane when I do it. A large percentage of propane is made from oil Natural gas is the way to go if you can get it, although I think prices may be increasing this year for natural gas.

[SteveO123]

Hi everyone,

I find this chart useful to review cost per MBTU, it does the math!

I don't know how accurate the current prices are, but I can grab the calculator and "do the math" when I get specific rates/prices.

Sitting here looking out at the waterskiers on the lake... and calculating winter heating prices! Yeesh only in New England!

Cheers,

Steve

[Slickcraft]

And here is another site where you can plug in the numbers:
http://nepacrossroads.com/fuel-compa...calculator.php

In my case:

just paid $1.90/gal for oil, furnace just measured at 84%. Result is $16.31 per mil btu.

Just got pellets for $260/ton, stove is listed by EPA at 78%. Result is $20.20 per mil btu.

Agree that pellet btu/lb is variable but not enough to tip the balance at today's prices.

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

And here is another site where you can plug in the numbers:
http://nepacrossroads.com/fuel-compa...calculator.php

In my case:

just paid $1.90/gal for oil, furnace just measured at 84%. Result is $16.31 per mil btu.

Just got pellets for $160/ton, stove is listed by EPA at 78%. Result is $20.20 per mil btu.

Agree that pellet btu/lb is variable but not enough to tip the balance at today's prices.

You mean $260.00 per ton for pellets correct? If not I want to know where you got them!!😜

Dan

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

You mean $260.00 per ton for pellets correct? If not I want to know where you got them!!��

Dan

Yikes, yes. The correct value was used in the calculations. Prior post edited to correct.

[BroadHopper]

http://thecitizen.villagesoup.com/p/...winter/1423566

The article predict up to 25% drop in heating oil prices. Others to follow and not much of a drop in electricity.

[brk-lnt]

If you want to really get down to the details, you have to look at the operating cost of the furnace/stove as well.

Our house has 2 oil furnaces, and Harman stove (which is mostly for heating a large room at one end of the house). From doing my generator setup I realized that the furnaces actually use a LOT of electricity (relatively speaking) just to operate. I forget the exact data, but I recall each furnace using about 3x the wattage of the Harman stove (other than startup of course, the stove lights the pellets via electric current). It makes sense, the furnace has a large blower, plus the oil pump/ignition and the Harman has a small blower and the pellet feed motor.

If the price of oil and pellets are within a few % of each other it's probably a wash in terms of TOTAL operating cost. If oil drops significantly below pellets it might make sense to save the pellets.

You also have a sunk cost with the pellets, you're out that dough and using oil will burn (pun intended) even more money.

Overall it seems like it's in the "not worth worrying about it" range. Although if oil drops back to around $1.25 or less per gallon a better conversation might be "should I buy a couple of extra 250gallon tanks and stock up?"

[BroadHopper]

http://www.unionleader.com/Electric-...break-on-rates

Not much of a decrease from Eversource because of the Bow plant. There are plans in the works to extend the natural gas pipe lines to Bow to convert to natural gas, but that depends on approval of the pipelines.

[Blue Thunder]

I'm still going with pellets this year but I'm not buying my 4 tons in advance. The current $260-300 price point is just ridiculous. Oil will stay down until after the Election next year. There are pellets everywhere that just aren't selling and they can sit there as far as I'm concerned.

BT