There's a heating/air conditioning forum where they're probably talking about this! As for us, I've got furnace guys here today, installing a new, more efficient boiler and burner that will HOPEFULLY cut down our previously astronomical oil consumption! Wish we lived somewhere where natural gas was an option -- but we don't (I heard this morning on the radio that THOSE prices will be going DOWN this winter.)

I also heard that home heating oil was down recently; my son's living off-campus at UMASS and locked in on the higher rate a few weeks ago. Duh!

We've got gas heat, but I'd also love to get solar hot water, because the cost of electricity is driving me wild.

Nice try, prairiemoon, tying this thread to gardening! I suppose that, as long as it's not inflamatory, nobody will turn us in to ivillage.

We had our 45 year old boiler replaced a couple of years ago, just before the oil prices really started going up. It probably cut our oil bill by about a third. It is also repairable, something the oil company didn't tell us until they had the old one safely out to prevent jinxing.

I've lived with natural gas, and what they don't tell you is that if there is a lot of demand on the pipeline, your house doesn't necessarily get enough gas to keep the house warm. Sort of like an electrical brownout.

For the first time in a long time--ever?--I have not locked in a price or cap. I'm walking on the wild side, I guess. Just think the oil market is too volatile and the trend, at least for now, is downwards. Remind me of this next January.

Oof. I have natural gas heat and am cringing at the thought of the Keyspan monthly bills this winter.

So, I stocked up the firewood and, like last year, will use the woodstove to take over some of the heating. If you have a wood or pellet stove, it can help considerably, particularly if you have a cheap or free source of wood.

Keeping it about gardening....well, let's just say that my thermostat stays low enough that pansies happily germinate in my "living" area...not the basement!
I used to pre-pay, but have not done that for a couple of years. It's a gamble, but maybe it forces you to become more creative in conservation?
Emily

ctlady...
Thanks, I found that forum. :-)
Good luck with your new furnace. I am sure they are more efficient. :-)

dtd....
you never know, it might still be higher than expected, so he may look pretty clever come January. :-) I always wanted to go solar too. We had all electric heat at one time and it was SO costly and not as comfortable.

Here is another try, dtd...I wish I had a huge sunroom on the south side of the house. That would be passive solar heat, right? Also a great place to grow houseplants and overwinter tender annuals. [g]

mad gallica....
That boiler did well to last 45 years. That was a significant savings in oil. I imagine it will have paid for itself before you know it. I didn't know that about gas. Good to know.

ginny....
I think a lot of people are doing that ginny, so you won't be alone. :-)

cady...
Lucky duck to have a woodstove! I love them and wish we had one. It is expensive if you don't have a cheap source of fuel though, right?

Emily....
We keep our thermostat about 68 during the day, and about 65 at night. That seems to be as low as we can go without feeling uncomfortable. We also have heat registers under most of our windows, which makes it hard to grow 'pansies'. [g] We do have one window without a heat register and it works out great to grow houseplants that like cooler night temps. :-)

Here are some interesting links:

The Northeast Heating Fuel Market: Assessment and Options
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/nehfuel/index.html

NewEnglandOil Price Comparisons
http://www.newenglandoil.com/massachusetts/zone2.asp?x=0

Here is a link that might be useful: Hedging bets on heating expenses

Thought I would share that our local energy group has been training techs. on the installation of closed-loop solar hot water systems in combination with electric water heaters. I do wonder however if these water heaters will wind up in the same landfill as the electric car! kt

I was just reading an article on solar panels on the roof and the advice was that in the Northeast, where we have cloudy weather 50% of the time, they would not be effective. They recommend them for the Southwest part of the country, but do they really have that much of a need for heat there? [g]

My neighbor got hers when the feds were subsidizing them, and it's had a *significant* impact on her electric bill. She has an electric hot water heater, and the solar panel preheats the water whenever the sun is out.

Sometimes the recommendations put out by federal agencies and repeated by the media are not quite as impartial as they might be. You really have to check a lot of sources before making up your mind what's going to be worth the effort. I'd go to great lengths to avoid paying the utility companies any more than necessary, just on general principles.

Thought I'd include these two items we recently published in a newsletter for a CT science academy (I like the second one best -- I have visions of popcorn filling their basement!):

"Going Underground. Oil prices were still comparatively low when George and Heidi Fellner planned their new home in East Haddam more than five years ago. Fellner brought something unique to the designÂan environmental sensitivity. They chose a geothermal heating system, a system that is more attractive by the day in a time of soaring energy prices. Fellner chose one that involved sinking two wells 300 feet deep and installing a polyethylene pipe filled with an antifreeze solution. In winter, that liquid is heated by the earthÂs warmth and circulated to a heat-exchanger in the homeÂs basement that converts that heat energy to hot air, which is blown through the house, just as in a conventional forced-air system. In summer, the process is essentially reversed, with hot air taken from the home and essentially dumped underground. Fellner calculated that the average monthly cost to heat and cool his 3,240-square-foot home, including the electricity necessary to run his system, was $70 a month, while a conventional oil-fired system would cost an average of $142 a month."

and the even neater item:

"Corny But Not Crazy. It sounds crazy, heating your house with kernels of corn. But the Petersons of Washington, Connecticut, who bought a corn-burning furnace nine years ago, get the last laugh. "People thought we were weirdÂup until it started getting cold this past year," said Todd Peterson. The system is analogous to a coal-fired system, only cleaner. The Petersons buy 6 tons of corn kernels from a farm in Salisbury in the fall and dump it into a basement storage bin 8 feet by 10 feet. About once a week, a hopper connected to the furnace is filled with corn kernels, which are automatically fed into the firebox. Even in the coldest weeks of winter, the hopper needs to be filled only once every seven days. "We love it. ItÂs great," John Peterson said. "We started it last October, and it ran all winter. We burned just short of six tons of corn. Cost: $620. We still have some left."

"Food" for thought! ;)

I locked in at 2.699 ($1700 pre buy, pre paid). I am not a happy camper right now. Prices in my area are currently at 2.399 - which is exactly what I paid last winter.

PrairieMoon,
I saw a letter in Sunset Magazine (dunno why I like to read about living on the West Coast!) where a person was complaining that small homes (Those of us with smaller homes and New England's overcast weather may never see a full return. I think I'd have a more efficient heating setup if I could convert my chickens' poop into fuel. lol

lol cady...couldn't we find something less odor-ific to use as an alternative fuel..lol. What ever happened to corn? [g]

I have been calling around and one company said they don't have a program for locking in a price for the winter. Instead, they have a 'cap'. So there is a maximum that they can charge you if prices go up, but if they go down or stay the same you pay that price. That seems to be a middle of the road option. Not sure what we are going to do yet either.