Gas Prices

I think I started driving our Odyssey to work in the fall of last year because it gets slightly better mileage than my Ranger.  We also have have an E350 with the V10 (YAY POWER! BOO HIGH GAS PRICES!) because we have 6 kids.  About 2 months ago, we have figured out how to get the whole family in the Odyssey for trips for short trips instead of the E350.  

We also have worked on limiting our trips to town (20 miles each way) to only what is required.  I have also started getting up earlier for work so I can drop my speed a bit for the drive in.

I noticed a jump.  But to be honest I calculated my total expenditure over normal prices since the Ukraine invasion started and at last check (a few weeks ago) it was like $50.  Insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

gearheadE30 said:

Just wrapped up a 3000 mile trip at 9 mpg average in the Suburban. Going to be eating ramen for a while until my bank account recovers....worst single gas stop was $142.

3000 miles at 9mpg, with these gas prices, good lord I hope you really needed that Suburban on that trip!

Seeing diesel at $6.35 today almost makes me happy to have a gas powered excursion sitting in the driveway doing nothing.

I paid $4.999 per for 93 today. New Hampshire.

RevRico said:

Seeing diesel at $6.35 today almost makes me happy to have a gas powered excursion sitting in the driveway doing nothing.

It's interesting to compare gas-only cost per mile between my MINI which gets decent mileage (mid-upper 20's and occasionally 30), but I run premium in it vs. my minivan running regular (high teens to mid 20s, depending on mostly local vs. mostly hwy).  I have enough tanks through both to have reasonably decent numbers: 9 cents per mile for the MINI and 12 cents for the minivan.   Total cost/mile favors the minivan since I drive it a lot more (plus, it has gotten a lot of miles reimbursements for work trips).  That may improve some over the next few years for the MINI as I've switched it to classic insurance. 

I am a bit confused. We live in a "Fee Market" world right? Does that not mean that people are "free" to charge whatever the market will bear for their goods?

When I see people paying stupid $$$$ for vehicles and houses and food,  and useless educations, why would I not want to get me some of that action for my sweet petroleum products? The country is built on "Freedom"  right? If you don't like the price invest some of that spare $$$$ in oil stocks, No?.

What am I missing?

NOHOME said:

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What am I missing?

We like to bitch about the high cost of gas.

Thread jack.

Gas and diesel must be cheap.

I see all kinds of LARGE vehicles rolling down the road at 75 mph +.

Back to the thread.  And please move this whole thread to the minor rants thread.

I was talking with my neighbor the other day.  He's recently retired, and his wife drives a school bus.  He said they just had to get another 100 gallons of heating oil since the tank had run dry and there's still apparently a few gasps of winter around here.  When he told me it was $5.29 a gallon I about did a spit take.  He said when they got the tank filled last fall it was about half that price. 

We can all bitch about how much it costs to put premium fuel in our hobby cars, but when it hits folks who are just trying to keep warm, that's when it gets personal.  And they're not trying to heat a McMansion, either.  It's a rancher, probably about 1200 square feet, that they've lived in for several decades. 

They used to burn a lot more wood, but now they're older and splitting and stacking is harder.  There was a neighbor who used to lend him his splitter but he moved away.  Coincidentally I just got a splitter last fall.  So...guess I'll be helping him out with wood, now.  ;-)

Indy - Guy said:

NOHOME said:

........

......

 

What am I missing?

We like to bitch about the high cost of gas.

Well, the level of bitching tends to vary depending on how close to the financial "edge" a person or family is.  I'm fortunate in that a few more $ per month in gas doesn't really affect my quality of life. There are many others not so fortunate. 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

$5.29?!?! Holy berkeley. Yea, my oil tank can sit empty and rot at that price. 

Our highest fillup last year was in March at $2.39 and that was ridiculous to me when we'd paid under $2 the whole winter. 

So glad we were able to buy a pellet stove after Xmas this year. 

Out of curiosity, how much heating oil does a 1200sq ft house consume during a year?  Is that 100gallon tank filled once?  So we're talking about a ~$250/year increase in costs?  Or every 60 days?  or ???

In reply to ProDarwin :

My 1750 square foot 2 story house used 200+ gallons a month keeping the house at 64 degrees. Oil burning boiler with wall mounted radiators upstairs and in one room on the lower level. And it would run from October to April, then sporadically into mid May. 

If I added a cord of firewood a month and fed the wood burner every 2 hours I was awake, I could stretch that out to two months per 275 gallon tank. 

There are other style oil heating methods, but I can't speak for any of them. 

200 GALLONS A MONTH? HOLY BERK 

ok wow.  I didn't know it was anything like that.  That really puts things into perspective.  $500-1000/month heating cost.  My heating cost peaks at like $40 and $10 of that is the mandatory "connection fee"

I know our office has saved a lot of money using Zoom meetings instead of getting on a car or plane to meet in person. Quite a few people are saving commuting costs by working from home. If the gas prices stay up, this is our future. You look for reasons to not drive and methods of getting things done without driving.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Unless you're spending that kind of money on heating oil, apparently.  Then it's probably cheaper to crank the heat waaaay down and drive to the office to be warm for the day!

wae said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Unless you're spending that kind of money on heating oil, apparently.  Then it's probably cheaper to crank the heat waaaay down and drive to the office to be warm for the day!

Yep.  Unless you're retired.  The neighbor's house is probably ~30 years old, and hasn't been updated much at least visually from the outside.  So I'm sure its not terribly energy efficient.  Also, when folks get older they tend to not deal with being uncomfortable very well, so I'd guess keeping the t-stat at 64 isn't an option.  I'd wager the furnace isn't the most modern thing either, although he did used to work for a HVAC company, so it's probably been well maintained.

I used to live in a 1400 sq foot house that heated with oil, and keeping it at 62 and using electric space heaters where needed I'd go through 100 - 150 gallons of fuel per month in the winter.   Home heating uses a good bit of fuel.

We have electric baseboards in the downstairs of our current home, with a wood stove, and electric mini-splits upstairs for HVAC.  Electric has been as high as $400/month in the dead of winter if we're not using the wood stove as much.  Our house is about 1700 sq feet, but an old farm house so it's pretty leaky.  I've been making it better, and it's way better than when we first bought it (when there were literally broken windows letting in cold air) but it's still not great.  Or barely good. 

wae said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Unless you're spending that kind of money on heating oil, apparently.  Then it's probably cheaper to crank the heat waaaay down and drive to the office to be warm for the day!

I have never lived in a house that used heating oil. That must be a regional thing. Every house I have ever lived in has had natural gas heating except for one in the boonies in Colorado that had electric baseboard heating. Of course my natural gas bill for heating has doubled including a surcharge allowed by the State of Texas to pay for the fiasco in the snow we had a few years ago. So heating with gas won't save you much money.

ProDarwin said:

200 GALLONS A MONTH? HOLY BERK 

ok wow.  I didn't know it was anything like that.  That really puts things into perspective.  $500-1000/month heating cost.  My heating cost peaks at like $40 and $10 of that is the mandatory "connection fee"

Old house, older 80% efficient furnace, questionable insulation, big windows, and southwest PA. I may be an edge case usage wise I may be not. 

But that's why I bought the pellet stove. I buy 4 tons in June for around $1k, and that will keep the house 70-80 all winter long with a few bags left over. 

$700 oil, $200 wood, $750 pellets, $1600 stove and pipe. So I spent $3200 on heating the house this winter, with the caveat I've also made future winters considerably cheaper. 2020 when we used oil exclusively and it was $1.80ish a gallon we spent around $2k for the winter, which scared me enough about future prices to start looking at any available alternative. 

Edit 1520 eastern time. I just went back through my calender from the year we used oil exclusively.  September 22 we turned it on for the first time with a full tank. December 10 189 gallons, January 13 205 gallons, February 15 215 gallons, March 17 195 gallon, and then may 17 a 200 gallon end of year top off.

Baseboard radiators are bullE36 M3.

Wow... 200 gallons per MONTH?  My house is a lot smaller - about 600 sqr ft - with a 35 year old forced air oil heater and crap insulation - and I use about 200 gallons over the entire season keeping the house between 62 deg (the set-back temp) and 70 (normal temp). Since I'm now home all day, I will occasionally turn it up early if I start feeling cold while working.  My last oil delivery was in late Jan for 140.5 gallons at $4.429/gal.  It's been somewhat unseasonably cool this Spring, so my heat is still on and I have just over a 1/4 tank remaining.  That said, I'm sure the bill for the next fill up will be eye-watering.  Probably near 4 figures as the $/gal price is usually a bit higher than the hwy diesel price.  Eventually I want to convert the heat to gas, but that will require a lot of work.

Here are some nationwide energy prices over time per the EIA:

The projections for 2022 in the charts don't seem to account for the Ukraine situation. Like always, control what you can control.

Slight OT - I would burn my house down if I used 200gal/month in oil.

• Milwaukee, WI
• 1000sqft single story ranch with finished basement
• Forced Air
• 64 when home, 53 when sleeping or gone (Nest Thermostat)
• Well insulated, good windows and doors, decent northern and western windbreak
• Use 225 gallons give or take per season, get my tank topped off in February
• Run the heat from October to April, although this year its still running in May because spring hasn't sprung.

Currently we're paying $107/month on a budget plan for natural gas for heat and hot water.  We have a triangle tube prestige boiler and 1950s copper hot water baseboard.

That's for 1400sq split with ready ply roof sheathing (R5), several single pain windows and two boys that can't seem to remember to close a door some days  

We keep the temp 65-67 at night and I've seen the thermostat set as high as 71 some days when I get home from work.