Gas prices are only part of the problem. Try living where it gets cold in the winter.

[Tab]

If you live in the northern part of the U.S. you'll understand, but if not...

Whether you own a house or just rent, the problem is the same. There are generally four ways of heating a house:

- With electricity, which makes for a very dry heat, and for so many years it was one of the most expensive ways to heat a house, and the least enjoyable.

- With natural gas, but that's not cheap any more and a lot of people are weirded out by having gas piped into their house.

- With wood, which is a nice heat, but hard to distribute throughout the whole house, and then there's all the work getting the wood, stacking it, bringing it inside when you need it, and tending the wood stove.

So, most people heat with oil. There are oil burners and oil tanks in most of the homes.

Tanks typically come in 275 gallon sizes. Unless you have a huge house (my old house actually had 3 of them - thank god I don't live there any more), you usually just have the one tank. The oil company will come and fill it up when it gets low.

In a cold winter (some are worst than others) a tank might last you 3 weeks. So, when it was about $1.19 a gallon or so, it'd be a little over $300 to fill it (you usually don't let it run down to nothing). Maybe 5 fills a winter - if it was cold, depending on the house and everything else - you could spend $1200 to $1800 to heat your house for the winter.

Now, with oil running $3.59/gallon as I think it was last year (not gasoline, oil), a fill can run you close to $1000, so a winter bill (if you don't change habits) could push $4000 to $5000. For many people, this is just TOO much. But they have no choice - they have to heat the house. They can cut back on their driving, but gasoline costs can be nothing compared to heating costs. Some of the states offer a heating assistance program so those who are needy can afford to heat, but the funds are limited. Sometimes if the winter is extra cold, or oil is extra high in cost, the heating assistance program runs out of funds far too early.

Your oil company will maybe let you ride for a fill or two, but then they'll refuse to fill you up until you pay (particularly now, since a delivery can push $900). If you're unemployed, or underemployed, you can't afford the oil. You may not be able to get assistance to get oil, and you won't be able to heat your house (and an unheated house in the dead of winter is damned cold), and if you have kids... anyway, you get the picture.

For many of these people, putting gas in the car is the least of it. Keeping oil in the heating tank is the real killer.

[gateley]

1. And Venezuela -- VENEZUELA! --

helped out by donating oil to help out those who couldn't afford it because apparently this administration couldn't be bothered to do it right. It's because of this administration's crap that oil prices are off the charts, it won't take the responsibility to take care of its own citizens.

This is a BIG deal with me! :grr:

[fight4my3sons]

11. Yes :)

I've said it before, but they helped us just as we were at the bottom of our tank. The program gives 100 gallons of fuel and we were very happy to have it. We were just over income for LIHEAP because the program takes your paychecks from the previous three months. My husband had been working a seasonal job so that we could get the kids Christmas presents. We applied in January so they took Oct, Nov & Dec pay stubs. In Jan we applied for and received food stamps and medicaid assistance, but were turned down for LIHEAP. Crazy, but that's how it works. (My husband works overtime every week, but gets paid a crappy wage.) It was very cold here in Maine and we were out of oil. I called the Citgo program and they sent the information. I sent it back, didn't hear anything for a week or so and called back. The man on the phone checked my record and said we were approved. I started crying and couldn't even speak to him. He said "It's ok ma'am, we'll take care of you." I'll never forget it. We were doubling our kids pajamas at night to keep them warm. We have a woodstove and keep the heat in the 50s, just warm enough so the pipes didn't burst. We went through 4 cords of wood this winter. The man is a neighbor and I know he didn't charge us what he charged other people. We have been putting $50 of oil in our tank at a time because that is what we can afford after feeding the kids (we get $140 food stamps/mo for family of 5). I am so happy that warmer weather has arrived!

[gateley]

15. And our -- your -- country didn't come through for you.

It makes me cry.

I'm so glad you were able to get help. :hug:

[fight4my3sons]

16. Thanks

We have been told by family members that we should be able to 'pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.' Even though my husband was working literally 100 hours a week last fall. Now he only works 60.
That was nice of you to say. :hug:

[gateley]

17. Your family members should

try living on what you are, and working the hours your husband works before they offer any sage advice.

It is unconscionable that a man has such a difficult time providing for his family in America. It's just so wrong. :(

You're in my thoughts.

[featherman]

2. Yes, I recently paid over $900 to fill my kerosene tank here in

the mountains of Northern California. We have what are called monitor heaters which burn kerosene, probably similar to or same as heating oil. The monitors are quite efficient but filling the tank is a budget buster.

[fed-up]

22. I put in a Monitor heater when I lived in Sonora in the 1990's-cost $100-150 year-neighbor

had a propane heater-their cost was about $450 a year for a 1500 square foot insulated house. Wood had cost me about $300-400 a year for two cords of pine at $100 a cord and one cord of oak at $150 (1990's prices).

It was the best thing I ever did and it meant no more stacking of a few cords of wood or carrying in wood/snow and spiders in the winter! I also loved the timer so that it would start an hour before I woke up and the house would be toasty warm in the morning when I was working about 60-80 hours a week doing family daycare.

For those that don't know the heater was a direct-vented heater with a hole/small pipe in the wall to vent the toxic fumes outdoors.

Sadly, my new home has caused me some financial issues as no-one wants to rent a room in what I found out after purchase was a former meth lab. So this year I could not afford heat at all. Last year my natural gas bill was about $50 a month for this smaller (1150 sq foot), older (1910), uninsulated house with one vent in the floor in the living room. At least it does not snow here and there is only a month or two where temps hover in the low 30's.

My heart goes out to all those living in the mountains and any other colder region of the US.

For cooling in the summer I use a small window air conditioner and fans. Wet hair helps also along with playing in the sprinkler when the heat goes up past the 110's.

[kestrel91316]

3. Here's an idea:

Use the oil furnace just enough to keep the whole house at, say, 50 degrees. Not comfortable, but at least the pipes won't freeze and no person will either.

Then use a wood stove or electric space heaters or whatever to heat JUST the room you spend most your time in, and close the unused rooms off. This is how people did it for hundreds, if not thousands, of years anyway (minus the oil central heat).

We did a similar thing with our ski cabin in CO when I was a kid. We left the propane furnace on, but the thermostat was turned all the way down. Then when we were there we always had a wood fire going in the centrally-located fireplace. We all liked to sleep cold, so we let the fire die down at night.

[Tab]

14. Most people in the more dire conditions can't afford to get a wood stove in on short notice

ASSUMING you have a chimney, you might need a relining, and if not, you need to get a proper flue installed, plus a ground area for the woodstove that conforms to firecode, not to mention the woodstove itself. You can spend thousands just doing all that. Long term, you may need to do that, but many people can't pull it off.

Two of my previous houses I heated with wood. One had electric heat, and I couldn't afford to change it (it requires replacing all the baseboards, etc), so we just ran this big assed woodstove.

My last house, I replaced the woodstove with a nice one ($2000) and had to reline the chimney (it shared a flue with the furnace - a big fire no-no), and that was good for $4500 or so, and then I had to buy 5 cords of wood, and that was when I could get wood for $140 seasoned.

The last time I bought wood it was over $200/cord, and I think that was green price ("green" wood is unseasoned, so you have to buy it in the spring and keep it around at least one summer until it's seasoned enough to burn. Seasoned wood costs more). The price of wood has been going through the roof. It's cheaper than oil, but still - it ain't cheap.

I'm not saying there's not ways to cut down, but many people, like fight4my3sons, who posted above, aren't in a position to dump money into improving the efficiency of the heating. I understand, having been there. You're screwed either way. You can't afford to heat with what you've got, but you also can't afford to improve the building enough either. You can get some tax credits, but that doesn't mean shit if you can't front the money to begin with, and if you end up paying no taxes anyway. And deducting is not the same as free.

And don't forget, water heaters in a oil-heated building also run off of oil. A woodstove won't cover that.

So, you don't have the money to pay for current heating, and you don't have the money to pay for the upgrades you'd need to save some money.

There are a lot of people up here (I'm in northern New England myself) who are probably dreading next winter, assuming they even made it financially through the last one.

Everyone's so focused on gas, but in some ways, gas at the pump is more optional than heating your home. People are getting nailed, and no one's talking about it (except us :) )

[fight4my3sons]

18. we were lucky to have our own woodstove

a friend's dad gave it to us for $200 a couple of years ago. We rent a house, but the landlord let us put the woodstove in so that we could cut down on heating expenses. We also have plastic on all of the windows. We still have plastic on the upstairs windows since there is no heat up there and it is still cool at night.
We thought we were getting a good deal paying $200 for a cord of pretty green wood this past winter. I know it was cheaper than what most were paying.
We are taking our stimulus check and buying wood for next winter. We are terrified thinking about heating costs for next winter.
Hopefully my husband will have a higher paying job by then. Our twins don't go to kindergarten until the following school year and that is when I will be going back to work.

[trashcanistanista]

4. I wonder why this issue hasn't really come up yet?

In No Calif. I have paid over $400 a month for propane, that is WITH using my wood stove when I'm home. My home is about 1200 sq ft, to many it would be considered a cabin or the size of the average bedroom. I can't imagine what one would pay for a "normal sized" home in a colder region. Why has there been no outrage about this? Nothing has been said about this, only how people will "manage" paying higher gas prices for their commutes or cutting back on driving. Home heating costs can easily wipe out a food budget.

[smoogatz]

5. We heated our drafty, 3200 square foot 1901 house

for about $300 a month this winter with natural gas. We live in West Central Wisconsin, where we had one of the longest, coldest winters in recent memory. The trick: we installed a high-efficiency, two-stage furnace last summer. We almost went geothermal (and may live to regret the decision not to), but the initial outlay was around $13,000 more than the gas furnace, with no reliable way to figure the savings, since the previous owner had heated with a basement corn stove, mostly. This summer we'll be beefing up the insulation quite a bit, so if gas prices hold steady we should save 20-30% or so next winter.

[izquierdista]

6. Biofuels

Since you mention home heating oil, I would like to point out that it is the same thing as diesel fuel and substitutes for diesel fuel can also substitute for heating oil. It's even easier, since an oil burner is not as finicky about fuel as a diesel engine is.

The reason that vegetable oil is chemically processed into biodiesel is because of the viscosity and flow characteristics. However, hot vegetable oil is of sufficiently low viscosity for both diesel engines and oil furnaces.

If you really want to stretch your petroleum based heating oil, you can use bacon grease, fat from the deep fryer, used motor oil and many others to heat your home. All it takes is a little more attention to detail keeping the burner clean and the lines from the tank to the burner warm.

[CanonRay]

7. You forgot about propane.

I buy it on a bulk contract at the beginning of August, and get to be immune from price hikes for a year.

[Breeze54]

8. Call 1-877-JOE-4-OIL

CITGO, Venezuela Distribute Oil To U.S. Services

http://wcbstv.com/local/joe.kennedy.citgo.2.624860.html

Joe Kennedy Program Delivers To Hordes Of NYC Qualified Residents

Provides 112 Million Gallons Of Fuel To Social Services In 23 States

snip-->

According to CITGO, The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program will provide an estimated 112 million gallons of fuel this winter to be distributed in more than 224,000 households and 250 social service providers in 23 states. These totals include the CITGO-Venezuela Tribal Heating Oil Program.

Kennedy's office disclosed the income limit as 60 percent of the state median. So a New York family of four, for example, must make less than $43,302 to qualify. The only income verification is your signature, certifying you are telling the truth.

Santiago applied on Dec. 4, 2007, and a week later received a voucher to pay her oil company when it delivered 100 gallons on Dec. 14.

Santiago says it's almost $400 she won't have to spend, warming her home. For many, that's a warm thought.

[demobabe]

9. There's always Geothermal

Heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer...

[Breeze54]

10. Really? How?

:shrug:

Expensive?

[demobabe]

12. The whole thing works on the ground being at a relatively constant temperature

It works on the same principal as an air conditioner or refrigerator. Except with those, you use electricity to cool the liquid, and the excess heat is blown out the back of the unit.

With geothermal, they run a tubing loop containing refrigerant down into the ground where it stays around 55 degrees. So in the summer, the refrigerant is cooled by the earth, then it goes back up into the unit and works just like an air conditioner. In the winter, the refrigerant is heated by the earth, then it comes back up into the unit to where the refrigerant is compressed which ups it's temperature to around 100 degrees, and it heats your house.

The system still uses electricity because you have to blow the air through the house like a normal system and pump the refrigerant, but it's a fraction of the cost.

Additionally, there may be Federal and State rebate programs that can help pay for the system. The cost is determined mostly by digging to place the tubing... if you have to go straight down because you don't have a lot of yard space, it's more. The cheaper way is to dig up the yard horizontally and run the tubing in coils shallower depth. I've seen estimates of $4,000 - $11,000 for a 3 ton system.

As a disclaimer, I haven't used this technology, but I am interested in general. There are other DUers that have posted their experiences before, and some seem really pleased with their systems, and others not so much.

[NutmegYankee]

23. Digging in New England = $$$$$$

I had a neighbor who wanted to put in an in ground pool, and had to move it 3 times because of house sized boulders. I've even seen the locations of houses moved, because they couldn't dig the basement.

[Ilsa]

13. Or really hot in the summer. Heat kills also. nt

[Tesha]

19. I don't understand why people heat with oil.

I've lived in the Northeast all my life and in New Hampshire
for quite a few decades now and I don't understand why
*ANYONE WHO HAS THE CHOICE* still heats with
oil. It's expensive, messy, and unreliable compared to gas
heat. We switched our last house over from hot-water-by-
oil (with a 1000 gallon underground storage tank!) to hot-
water-by-gas (an ultra-high-efficiency boiler) and saved
a huge amount on operating costs; certainly enough to
pay back the equipment costs within a very few years.

Our current house is hot-air-by-gas and this heating
season, gas for heating, hot water, cooking, and clothes
drying has cost us $1111, and this is for a pretty big
house (~4,000 sq ft), albeit with fair insulation and
modest solar gain on sunny days. But still in New
Hampshire where it was plenty cold in December.

Yes, the relative prices of fuels shift from year to year,
but gas has been a long-term winner compared to oil,
and this year, it is positively astounding how much
less expensive gas heat costs compared to oil. If you
threw out all your equipment last fall, your investment
would have paid you back by next spring. And gas
equipment also costs far less to maintain than oil
burners.

Switch to gas if you can. You won't regret it.

Tesha

[Tab]

20. Well, keep in mind

that many people don't build a house, but are buying a used house, and oil heat is the predominant heating source in New Hampshire (and northern New England).

Most of the houses I've looked at when buying (I've gone through a few) had oil heat. Not too many heated with gas.

Many are just stuck with what came with the house.

Until recently, oil was still a reasonable fuel source, costwise, for home heating.

[Tesha]

21. Few people are "stuck" with what came with the house, especially in light of...

...operating costs that are running thousands of dollars a year
versus equipment costs of (say) $5,000. The payback period
for a conversion is one to three years. And you may even find
the gas company will help finance the change-over.

For several decades, heating by oil has been a "tie" at best
and a loser in many years. Now it's an appalling loser. If
there's gas coming down your street, you should be using
it!

Tesha