[Revi]

I went to the heating oil folks and asked if there was a "lock in price" for oil next winter. We don't use much, but we like to lock in the price of the small amount we use. The secretary said there is no price. She doubted that there would be one. This means they aren't sure that they can get any oil next winter. The price if you buy today is over $6 a gallon. Next winter will be very difficult for people. No way around it. There are strategic heating oil supplies in the Northeast, but they won't last very long. Please comment.

[Tanada]

I went to the heating oil folks and asked if there was a "lock in price" for oil next winter. We don't use much, but we like to lock in the price of the small amount we use. The secretary said there is no price. She doubted that there would be one. This means they aren't sure that they can get any oil next winter. The price if you buy today is over $6 a gallon. Next winter will be very difficult for people. No way around it. There are strategic heating oil supplies in the Northeast, but they won't last very long. Please comment.

Some use Kerosene for heating oil others use Diesel #2. When my father passed away in 2012 I had to take care of the old house and fix it up enough for the sale as I was appointed executor in his trust accounts. When the delivery truck was delayed three days I had to go to the local filling station that sold road diesel and fill up three 5 gallon cans to keep the furnace working over the weekend until the delivery truck could get there on Monday. It was inconvenient as all get out, but the furnace cared not a wit that the road taxed diesel was what it was burning. It turned out to be a good thing I put those 15 gallons of road diesel in the tank because when the delivery truck finally arrived there were just 3 gallons left in the tank. If you recall back in February 2013 we were in one of the harshest cold snaps of the 21st century and I was thankful there was a substitute available even though I had to pay road tax on it.

It you don't use much fuel and you do use #2 you should be aware that farm diesel and heating oil #2 are the same chemical, in the states where I have lived both are dyed the same red for tax free status and the distributors treat them as interchangeable. The road diesel I had to buy back in 2013 was dyed a brilliant green yellow color but using it for off road purposes was completely legal. Using off road heating/farm Diesel in a road vehicle on the other hand is not. If you "don't use much" and you just need to top up your system it could be less expensive to just tote your own road diesel in cans and gradually top the tank up.

[Newfie]

Yeah, long story short I put a second auxiliary tank in the basement, filled it with road diesel. Worked just fine.

Living in temperate regions is a luxury that will not survive peak oil. Not that we have much to worry about at our age.

Probably a good time to think about....
1-how to reduce the required heat, shut off house sections, protect plumbing
2-alternative fuel sources-wood, etc.

Last winter living on our boat we burned through a bunch of diesel for heat, up to 1-1/2gallon/day in the teens.

Seriously, if you can reduce your living space sufficiently you can get by with a truck idling furnace. Espar is a very popular brand sold by over the road truck vendors and eBay. An install may run you $2k. Think of it as a way to provide zone heating.

There is another quaoty outfit that is considerably cheaper but that does not have the distribution network. Planar I think.

Then there are scades od cheap Chinese knock offs, like $200. But you could buy 3 for spares.

[Revi]

The average house around here uses about 4-5 gallons a day in the cold season. That's going to be around $25 a day, and $750 a month. Nobody can afford that around here. We'll all have to create unheated zones in our houses and move into a small part of the house. We have a woodstove and a heat pump, but it's going to be chilly. I heard that the price of diesel is going up again in the next few weeks. It's going to be a disaster around here.

[Newfie]

Yes, I understand. My above massive was meant as a POSSIBLE way to facilitate that consolidation of heated space.