Get Your Heating Bill Yet? Is It Making A Dent In Your Tackle Purchases

[5/0]

we are fairing the winter heating bills,not as bad this year,but I must admit the weather the past couple of weeks has been kind got a chance to open the windows & let some freash air in
I installed a 7 day programmable Tstat & man what a diff that makes.

All I can say is,that in 7 weeks I going to Panama for a 9 day fishing adventure,then in April IM off for a 7 day cruise with the wife & kids,Bring it on


5/0

[pmueller]

Just think, this has been a mild witner.

[ProfessorM]

Wood stove on one end of house pellet stove on the other. I hate winter

[Tburg]

I have a coal stove, so that help allot...I just got it last year and I am still deciding weather to build a coal bin to purchase in loose bulk or keep buying it by the bag...I just got a pallet of bags for $270 ( 60 40# bags ) that should carry me into next winter

[baldwin]

I'll burn furniture before I let oil prices affect my fishing. Of course, my wife would say we could heat the house for a month by burning my wooden plugs hanging from the basement rafters. Fat chance.

[Slingah]

wood stove...it helps a bunch with the oil consumption, plus sweat clothes and blankets....just like when I was growin up......
as for the tackle purchases...I'm so broke I can't even pay attention

[NIB]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Ben, I can't buy the supply and demand argument any more. I can't help but conclude it's pure price gouging and windfall profit-taking.

Why does the price of crude today result in an immediate spike at the pump, when the oil purchased on those futures might still be in the ground over in Saudi?

Prices went up $1.50 a gallon in the 3 days after Katrina, well before the extent of refinery damage was known and before any adverse affect could have occurred to gas supplies. Yet, in the next 6 weeks, when any shortages that occurred would have had their greatest effect, prices fell to below where they were right before Katrina Could it have had something to do with Katrina hitting the week before Labor Day, after people made their final vacation plans (seeing how prices had remained relatively stable since Memorial Day when they usually rise) and the oil barons saw the opportunity to take some quick windfall profits?

Home heating oil? Most of what's currently in the supply line was refined months ago. And it's been a mild winter. Yet, they cite the need to divert crude supplies to heating oil production as one rationale for the prices spiking after the first week of December.

Sorry--I'm not some wild-eyed lefty, but I ain't buying Big Oil's bullscheit any more

I'm with ya on this.The oil company's are enjoying record profits this yr.Enough said.We need a goverment to take control of these situations unfortunatley there in on the windfalls also.The US economy cannot run on a 100 percent oil increase for long.There will be ramifications as Slip Stated the trickle down effect will snowball to our next recession.Then what will it cost us an our kids.

[Mike P]

Just got the new KeySpan bill---$481.81 for last month

The bastards aren't even coming to read the *&^%$#@ meter--ESTIMATED usage. I know we haven't used that much.

[BigFish]

You didn't think they were gonna "UNDERESTIMATE"......did you Mike? Thats reason number one why I will never own gas ever again!

[NIB]

My bill was the same way estimate.off last yrs' usage?
This way they get all kinds of surpluss cash an bankroll it into more money.Meanwhile heating degree days are less than half of last yrs.says it right on the bill.

[Redsoxticket]

How about calling in your own gas meter reading. Its accurate but the gas co. would probably prefer to have it inaccurate, go figure.

Originally Posted by Mike P

Just got the new KeySpan bill---$481.81 for last month

The bastards aren't even coming to read the *&^%$#@ meter--ESTIMATED usage. I know we haven't used that much.

[Goose]

If you can add a wood burning stove to your home you can drasticly reduce your heating bill. I'm furtunate enough to come across wood all year through my job, it can be a lot of work but well worth it. Our home is a tri-level style home with the bedroom upstairs our stove puts out enough heat that leaveing the bedrooms open is enough and the furnance rarely comes on. Granted we'd had a mild winter so far our gas bill has been under $125 last month. Wood isn't just for plugs ya know.

[ProfessorM]

My gas meter is read over the phone lines via a modem they installed right to the meter a few years ago. No more estimated readings.

[seabass]

I upgraded to a high eff. gas furnace, I also use a pellet stove in the fam room. So far this year I have used only one ton of pellets, as compared to two last year, and the gas company lowered our monthly budget payment almost 1/2 of last year. So mild winter and better furnace= more boat fuel !!!

[TheSpecialist]

It all evens out in the end...

[MAC]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

It all evens out in the end...

That is what I figure. If the winter stays mild for the next couple of months they will raise prices even more to make up for lack of usage.

[5/0]

Originally Posted by Redsoxticket

How about calling in your own gas meter reading. Its accurate but the gas co. would probably prefer to have it inaccurate, go figure.

It's funny you mentioned that how they would prefer to have it in there favor,Well It's true!

Four years ago we switched over to gas for heat,we have it for stove & water heater anyway that first winter was record cold,not to mention our bills were record high!I called and tried to talk with them bill after bill.(phone line metering)they told me it's a cold winter & you have an old house.I got fed up & did some digging on the bills I went out side to my meter & read it myself & compaired it with the bills they were off by a country mile!WTF!

Also in there defense they told me that their metering based on last winters heating bill.
Really!Tell me how can that be?I had oil last year!!!
Then I get the...O-maybe your meter is faulty we'll come out and take a look @ it.Well it was faulty and they replaced it.They would come out each month and take a reading.
Our bill was fixed but WFT If i said nothing at all we would still be paying through the nose,but If it was anything to do on my end they would cut us off

[Sea Dangles]

Whenever they tie into the phone line to get the reading you are asking for trouble.I have heard of it screwing up home security systems and there are also privacy issues.People have also complained about the clarity of their conversations after this system is installed.Then if you call the bozos from the phone company they come and indiscriminantly start hacking away at wires.

[RickBomba]

2.05 is good Ross,
I filled up once in December, and I've been shivering for the rest of the winter.
Still got a 1/2 tank left, gonna try to make it on one fillup.
Lots O' cooking around the Bomba house..stews, etc...anything that makes steam.
Later,
Rick

[redcrbbr]

$2.30 a gallon, 200 gallons = killing me

[MoroneSaxatilis]

By the way, shouldn't it be called "heating day degrees" rather than heating degree days? I'm aware of how HDDs are calculated, but let's say the average temp on a particular day is 50. That means that there were 15 heating degree days on that DAY. How can you have X number of DAYS in any one particlar day? Wouldn't it make more sense to say that there were 15 heating day DEGREES on that day?
The nomenclature would then reflect the fact that the temp of your house was 15 DEGREES below the avarage temp for that DAY.
I've always wondered about that.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by MoroneSaxatilis

By the way, shouldn't it be called "heating day degrees" rather than heating degree days? I'm aware of how HDDs are calculated, but let's say the average temp on a particular day is 50. That means that there were 15 heating degree days on that DAY. How can you have X number of DAYS in any one particlar day? Wouldn't it make more sense to say that there were 15 heating day DEGREES on that day?
The nomenclature would then reflect the fact that the temp of your house was 15 DEGREES below the avarage temp for that DAY.
I've always wondered about that.

Just send someone to read the damn meter, like they did in the old days, that's all I ask.

My meter's outside, and easy to get to. Don't matter if no one's at home--just read the damn thing. I'd rather pay $200 every month than pay $500 one month and get a credit the next.

Same thing with LIPA, our "not-for-profit" electric company. 3 months out of 4 I get an estimated bill, or a card to mark. I wouldn't mind marking the card if Richie Kessel and his political cronies weren't making 6 figure salaries for heading up a "not-for-profit" utility. 2/3rd of LIPA employees make more than 100K a year. Can a few of those leeches and hire some meter readers for $25K a year

[Sea Dangles]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Just send someone to read the damn meter, like they did in the old days, that's all I ask.

My meter's outside, and easy to get to. Don't matter if no one's at home--just read the damn thing. I'd rather pay $200 every month than pay $500 one month and get a credit the next.

Same thing with LIPA, our "not-for-profit" electric company. 3 months out of 4 I get an estimated bill, or a card to mark. I wouldn't mind marking the card if Richie Kessel and his political cronies weren't making 6 figure salaries for heading up a "not-for-profit" utility. 2/3rd of LIPA employees make more than 100K a year. Can a few of those leeches and hire some meter readers for $25K a year

I'll save my opinions about lawyers.I can also look past bitching about the salary of "not for profit" companies(put in dummies so you get bad ideas).But please,try not to belittle meter readers.We have installed over 7,000 transponders for drive-by readings within the past year at our water department and that is a lot of work .
Irony is;.... a lawyer calling ANYONE else "leeches".

[Mike P]

[gone fishin]

Why is everyone bitchin about how much fuel costs -- just a thought, what was in that energy policy that VP Cheney wrote and nobody can get a glimpse of ??? Who are the Pols that are now in office that have MAJOR interests in the OIL industries?? How come a Mass politician can go to Venezuela and make a deal for low cost oil to be delivered to New England when the party in charge lets prices climb right off the wall. How many Billions of dollars are being spent on a 7 year trip to PLUTO? How many homes would that heat?? I think I will shut up as this is not a poitical forum. OR MAYBE IT IS AND WE JUST MISS THE POINT. I wonder how much fuel we burn in Iraq daily ???

By the way, I am on a fixed income and have the same gripes as you. I sometimes have to scrape to pay that @#%#$^%oil bill too.

And while on the subject .. A trip to the ditch with my Wrangler takes almost a tank of gas. I think this year will see less trips to my favorite fishing spots with the cost of gas. I think we will see a new group of politicians next election.

[BigFish]

Yeah.....a new group of politicians will right the ship!