Oil prices...

[Dr. Blutarsky]

What a cop out.

I don't see it that way.  Seems like you're itching for an argument for arguments sake.

Either that or you are conducting a survey 

[SLCPUNK]

Yet another cop out.

Hey listen, you come here asking for solutions, I'm providing the answers we have RIGHT NOW for this problem. Adopting this outlook saves you money and helps lower our dependence. I guess it's better to just sit around and bitch about it instead huh?

[pilferk]

The future energy demands will be met by the dissociation of water( Hydrogen fuel cells). That is where the research is at. It is a win/win.

I 100% agree.

The hybrids are a great situational stop gap right now.  I wish they worked for me...I'd be in one in a heartbeat.

Instead, I drive the best MPG car that fits my needs (AWD) that I can find, considering I do mostly highway driving.....and keep my eye out for new tech that will work better for me.

The next step is to find another source of heat for our house.  We chose oil back in 2001, when we commissioned our house to be built, because it was the cheapest and, I though, most efficient option available to us (the other being electric).  I'm starting to seriously reconsider that option, and might be converting over this next summer....we'll see.

[SLCPUNK]

I'm scared to ask what those heating bills are?

[GeorgeSteele]

Radiant floor heating is the way to go.  You can keep the thermostat about 5 degrees lower and still feel just as comfortable.  It's amazing how much warmer you feel so long as your feet are warm.   

[pilferk]

I'm scared to ask what those heating bills are?

We were VERY lucky this year.  We locked in in July at 2.39 a gallon.  We're currently robbing our oil company blind and paying about $140 a month (over 10 months).

Our lock in ends May 1st.  Our price will jump up to about 3.69 a gallon.  Ou payments will end up, assuming THAT price (and I bet it'll be closer to $4 a gallon,  by the time we can lock in in July, again), to be around 220 a month...or more than a 50% increase over this past year.

I'm considering moving to electric...which I hate, but...our monthly electric bill tops out around $120 to $130 a month (keep in mind...family of 5 with a stay at home mom and 3 YOUNG kids), in the heat of summer, with our AC's running.  We'd made the house (from light bulbs to appliances) as energy efficient as possible with out going solar or using alternative energy.  If we go electric heat, in CT you pay a lower rate.  What I need to do is figure out what the cost increase would be in electricity + cost of conversion compared to the cost of oil heating over the next 5 to 10 years.

I may have to bite the bullet and pay the oil prices for now...I don't know yet.  It's the question we're going to tackle in the next month or so......I HATE going to electric heat, but we're not candidates for natural gas in our area so our options are pretty limited.

[Smoking Guns]

Radiant floor heating is the way to go.  You can keep the thermostat about 5 degrees lower and still feel just as comfortable.  It's amazing how much warmer you feel so long as your feet are warm.   

George, that sounds like a great idea!   

[pilferk]

Radiant floor heating is the way to go.  You can keep the thermostat about 5 degrees lower and still feel just as comfortable.  It's amazing how much warmer you feel so long as your feet are warm.   

We love radiant floor heating...but it just doesn't work well as a "retro fit".  It also seems to work best in "solid" flooring applications...otherswise you lose some efficiency......which wouldn't work for our structure.   We considered it when building.  We've got a full (finished) basement, so the ground floor and the upper floors are on sticks (with pressed support joist/beams).

Either way, you still need a way to heat the water....electricity or oil.

Or you use electric panels...

[Smoking Guns]

I'm scared to ask what those heating bills are?

We were VERY lucky this year.  We locked in in July at 2.39 a gallon.  We're currently robbing our oil company blind and paying about $140 a month (over 10 months).

Our lock in ends May 1st.  Our price will jump up to about 3.69 a gallon.  Ou payments will end up, assuming THAT price (and I bet it'll be closer to $4 a gallon,  by the time we can lock in in July, again), to be around 220 a month...or more than a 50% increase over this past year.

I'm considering moving to electric...which I hate, but...our monthly electric bill tops out around $120 to $130 a month (keep in mind...family of 5 with a stay at home mom and 3 YOUNG kids), in the heat of summer, with our AC's running.  We'd made the house (from light bulbs to appliances) as energy efficient as possible with out going solar or using alternative energy.  If we go electric heat, in CT you pay a lower rate.  What I need to do is figure out what the cost increase would be in electricity + cost of conversion compared to the cost of oil heating over the next 5 to 10 years.

I may have to bite the bullet and pay the oil prices for now...I don't know yet.  It's the question we're going to tackle in the next month or so......I HATE going to electric heat, but we're not candidates for natural gas in our area so our options are pretty limited.

I know its too late now, but if I had the money I would do a spray foam insulation that makes the house air tight.  Its amazing.  However, on a house I just finished, the quote was $27,000 to do it.  The quote for traditional insulation was $3,500.  So look how long you would have to live in home to make up difference!

[Smoking Guns]

Radiant floor heating is the way to go.  You can keep the thermostat about 5 degrees lower and still feel just as comfortable.  It's amazing how much warmer you feel so long as your feet are warm.   

We love radiant floor heating...but it just doesn't work well as a "retro fit".  It also seems to work best in "solid" flooring applications...otherswise you lose some efficiency......which wouldn't work for our structure.   We considered it when building.  We've got a full (finished) basement, so the ground floor and the upper floors are on sticks (with pressed support joist/beams).

Either way, you still need a way to heat the water....electricity or oil.

Have you atleast switched to the tankless water heater that way it only comes on when you need it?

[SLCPUNK]

How much is a conversion to electric?

[SLCPUNK]

Have you atleast switched to the tankless water heater that way it only comes on when you need it?

Do you have those? Right now, I just keep my water heater off, only switch it on ten minutes before a shower, turning it back off before I even get in. I like the coil method and will be installing soon, or my "final" house.

I know its too late now, but if I had the money I would do a spray foam insulation that makes the house air tight.  Its amazing.  However, on a house I just finished, the quote was $27,000 to do it.  The quote for traditional insulation was $3,500.  So look how long you would have to live in home to make up difference!

27k is a big chunk of change. I guess they would have to show you what your percentage of savings would be, in order to figure out the savings on the back end.

[pilferk]

Have you atleast switched to the tankless water heater that way it only comes on when you need it?

We didn't switch.  That's what we had put in the house when we built it.

The furnace, at the time, was also the single most fuel efficient model we could find.  That's how we heat our house, bathe our kids, do 5 people's worth of laundry and dish washing for somewhere around 60 - 75 gallons of fuel per month in the dead of winter.  That, and high end digital thermostats with timed programs.

[pilferk]

I know its too late now, but if I had the money I would do a spray foam insulation that makes the house air tight.  Its amazing.  However, on a house I just finished, the quote was $27,000 to do it.  The quote for traditional insulation was $3,500.  So look how long you would have to live in home to make up difference!

We did spray foam in all our exterior walls (except in the basement...that'd be pointless), and the floor in the area over the garage.

Traditional fiberglass "pink panther" through the rest of the house.

Double paned "energy efficient" (ie: allow heat transfer INTO the house, but not OUT of the house) windows throughout the house.

We really did try to keep all this in mind when we built.

[Smoking Guns]

I know its too late now, but if I had the money I would do a spray foam insulation that makes the house air tight.  Its amazing.  However, on a house I just finished, the quote was $27,000 to do it.  The quote for traditional insulation was $3,500.  So look how long you would have to live in home to make up difference!

We did spray foam in all our exterior walls (except in the basement...that'd be pointless), and the floor in the area over the garage.

Traditional fiberglass "pink panther" through the rest of the house.

Double paned "energy efficient" (ie: allow heat transfer INTO the house, but not OUT of the house) windows throughout the house.

We really did try to keep all this in mind when we built.

Wow, you did great!!!!!  Nice. 

My customers looooover their tankless water heaters.  The only downfall is if power goes out, you are out of luck because it does require a 110 amp outlet to power the ignitor. 

[pilferk]

Do you have those? Right now, I just keep my water heater off, only switch it on ten minutes before a shower, turning it back off before I even get in. I like the coil method and will be installing soon, or my "final" house.

Ours is awesome.  "Instant" hot water....takes maybe 30 seconds to get hot water to the top floor.  I heard every pitch in the book from our plumber  when we were building as to why we should get a tank, rather than go tankless.  We'd have long waits for hot water.  It wouldn't get as hot. Etc. Etc.  All of it has turned out to be untrue.  I told our GC that either the plumber was going to do it our way, or we'd have to find a new plumber to do the job because we KNEW we wanted to go with tankless.

27k is a big chunk of change. I guess they would have to show you what your percentage of savings would be, in order to figure out the savings on the back end.

The difference between the cost of fiberglass insulation (with good vapor barrier, etc) of sufficient R factor to be what we wanted vs spray foam was pretty negligible.  NOT 27k.....not, I don't think, even 3k.  I'll have to revisit to check...I know it was more, but I don't think it was MUCH more ($-wise.  % wise, maybe). Our house is about 2500 sq ft-ish...pretty straight forward colonial "box", so nothing too tricky.  And the nice thing about spray foam is that, should ANYTHING get by the exterior wall...water, wind..whatever, for any reason, the spray foam will continue to actually DO it's job while the fiberglass will get wet and disintigrate or get shredded by wind/air flow.

  A retrofit, I'm sure, would be EXPENSIVE since you're talking about ripping holes in drywall, removal of the old fiberglass, and then spray.  That'd be a manually intensive nightmare.

[pilferk]

Wow, you did great!!!!!  Nice. 

My customers looooover their tankless water heaters.  The only downfall is if power goes out, you are out of luck because it does require a 110 amp outlet to power the ignitor. 

Yeah, that was one the plumber pointed out, too.   It was a drawback I could live with, all things considered.

Luckily we don't lose power often. 

[pilferk]

How much is a conversion to electric?

I don't know yet.

We're going to have a contractor out to take a look in early May.

I'm hoping less than 10k.

To be clear, I'm not going to completely dump the oil.  I'd go dual fuel.  I'm not sure HOW we'd implement that quite yet.  The guy we have coming out seems to have some good ideas, at least in talking to him, but he needs to see our physical set up first.

[AxlsMainMan]

Pilferk, you should look into wood stoves.

Wood pretty much never goes up in price, and it's alot more environmentally friendly than burning oil to heat the ol' homestead.

[SLCPUNK]

Oil prices up to 117, after an attack on a Japanese oil tanker.

That's driven on fear of instability in that region.

See a pattern here?