Heating sticker shock
AP Story. Real fear among many people I talk to locally. Those who aren't wealthy can't see a way to keep their homes heated and still afford to live in them. Those people with a couple of thousand in extra cash are opting for wood pellet stoves. My local wood stove retailer is seeing this, they used to sell a couple a week, now it is four or five a day.
We just moved back to California from Connecticut. Heating oil in Winter 2007 was $1.95 a gallon, which was considered very high. Our last bill (just before we sold the house) was on May 5 2008 at $3.72 a gallon. It was costing us $150 a week during the worst of winter with the thermostat set at 64 during the day and 55 at night.
Now we live in the S.F. Bay Area where heating costs will be way less and we don't even have or need AC.
The article says some heating oil suppliers are offering a lock-in prices for 2009 at $4.60. Yikes.
If these prices are not a bubble, then the Northeast is in serious trouble. Connecticut magnifies the problems by having extremely expensive electricity and nosebleed property taxes.
One blogger in upstate NY said she kept it at 55 all the time this past winter and wore hat, scarf, sweater, coat inside the house constantly. She flat couldn't afford to pay more.
What will she (and others) do next year if prices rise more?
Posted by: Bob Morris | June 03, 2008 at 12:21 AM