We just got our latest bill.

#2 oil is now $3.41/gallon, making 154 gallons for $530! I feel bad for folks up in Maine and Vermont. Here's hoping for a mild winter.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

I pre-purchased 500 gallons for $2.50/gal back in August. Once in a while I do something right.

Good god! $3.41/gal is crazy. Somethings gotta give.

Can you use biodiesel?

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

I think biodiesel would work well, especially if the storage is indoors and the flash point of bio is near that of diesel. Furnaces use spark, not compression, ignition.

Just bought 461 gallons at $2.83.........and I thought I got killed........It's going to be a brutal winter..........

Something is giving..........your wallet.........Franklins..........lot's of 'em.

Crank down the thermostat.

Well, I guess the 65.00 NG bill I just got for last month isn't too bad, although I'm not able to convert and compare that on a btu basis to #2 HHO.
Went to Long Island last weekend. Gasoline prices were anywhere from 3.55 to 3.79 (West Hampton) per gallon for premium. Diesel was about 3.55 a gallon iirc. Going out to the MDVA GTG I noticed gas prices for premium were in the 3.50ish range in MD & DE.
Here, premium is 3.05 to 3.15 depending on location.

On another energy note, I had a chance to see the (in)famous Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, on Long Island's north shore. You all have heard of that one I'm sure. Cost in the billions to construct. Years of litigation. Never went on line to produce any electricity. Sits there idle as a massive monument to I don't know what.
What were they thinking when the decided to build it there??? How did the state & fed govts. approve that location?

Is that a vote for global warming?

Our house was built in the '60s so its not as energy efficient as a new home. Luckily it was built with separate heating zones for upstairs and downstairs so I can program them separately. The new thermostats easily pay for themselves. Now I have to see how much cold the rest of the family can bear.

Our fuel oil company has made some noise about biofuel, but I don't think it will be any cheaper.

I have also thought of converting our wood fireplace to gas, but I hear gas is increasing as well, since that is what everyone is heating their McMansions with.

__________________
1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Yep, going to be expensive. Although it will be somewhat satisfying to watch the people living in McMansions out in the new suburbs dish out vast sums of money to heat their mostly empty boxes.

They take a piece of land, with mature trees, and scrape it to the ground for a subdivision. Even remove the topsoil and sell that. Homeowners get a few inches for grass. God help any tree that tries to grow to maturity in a clay base.

Then they stick a token twig/tree on every front lawn. Which, in about 50 years, may become a nice mature specimen and provide windbreak provided it can survive the clay soil conditions. However, at the moment, the suburb is a big wind tunnel. The sheltered forests that used to exist are gone, replaced by a vast open plain with huge homes on it and a Charlie Brown twig on each front lawn, surrounded by a volcano of mulch.

Cue the North wind in January. Those homes will be battered mercilessly. Since they will have been built to absolute minimum code, they won't have proper insulation out of the gate unless a savvy homeowner got an upgrade or added some after purchase.

So...they will lose heat rapidly in these conditions and cost an absolute fortune to heat. A complete waste of resources. It's almost somewhat vulgar. Especially considering most can't really afford to live in the lifestyle they have fooled themselves into thinking they need.

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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon

..........and I always thought Canadiens were more frugal and had more economic sense than Americans..........

Sadly, it doesn't seem so. The McMansion virus is alive and well up here.

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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon

Wood and Pellet stoves are flying off the shelves here in MI, firewood has spiked from $40 to $60 cord. In my business I am encountering lower - middle income people that are have problem because of energy costs, it makes sense that if you take a few hundred out of average joe's income every month that it will have a lasting trickle down effect.

Personally I could use an extra stove to be self sufficent for heat oddly enough a propane tank fill is $1415 and a new stove installed and enough pellets/wood to last the winter is $1000 more than that.

The Geothermal guys are the only busy construction people in town right now.

Did you decide to go ahead with that? I wanted to check in on that thread and learn something, but couldn't find it.

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-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831799&postcount=13
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831807&postcount=14