Open Forum → First Fuel Oil Delivery Of The Season Today ($2.56 per gal.)

It probably won't. Geothermal is pretty much the same thing as a heatpump, except it uses ground water. So it uses less electricity than an A/C or heatpump, but it still uses electricity which ain't cheap from CE. Last time I checked, I think it 22 cents/kw, and I believe LI is even more.

quote:

---

And just as a side note RECORD SETTING MOVIES.... its all BS.... 50's a kids ticket was 25 or 50 cents, adults 75 cents.... but they base it all on DOLLARS taken in NOT ACTUAL ticket sales... ticket is now what? $9-10 most places? Again a 20X factor... I'd bet nothing modern has actually surpased say Gone With The Wind (when adult tickes were like 25 cents), as modern record keepers just looking at dollars not eyeballs, would have you believe.

---

I've seen movie lists that account for inflation. A quick google search gets you:

Top 10 Best Grossing Films of All Time in the United States of America - Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation

#1 - "Gone With the Wind" - $1,240,554,000 adjusted
#2 - "Star Wars: A New Hope" - $1,093,654,300 adjusted
#3 - "The Sound of Music" - $874,430,400 adjusted
#4 - "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" - $870,985,600 adjusted
#5 - "The Ten Commandments" - $804,340,000 adjusted
#6 - "Titanic" - $788,043,700 adjusted
#7 - "Jaws" - $786,403,900 adjusted
#8 - "Doctor Zhivago" - $762,191,700 adjusted
#9 - "The Exorcist" - $678,891,600 adjusted
#10 - "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" - $669,260,000 adjusted

That list seems pretty good to me.

Yeah that seems pretty realistic, but for the Star Wars one.... would think first or second higher.

The 2 biggest supply/storage problems with NG is the electric company's use it to power portable generators in the summer (no permits/construction needed, just place 2-3 dozen of these units on the ground, hook them up to NG, and wire them into your grid.) The other "new" big NG consumer is all of those ethanol plants use NG to cook corn (like over 25% of all NG piped into our state.) There's no cheap NG in the summer to buy/store for winter use anymore.

They no longer stockpile it to the degree they used to. I'm in Oklahoma (Heart of Natural Gas Country) and the thing is, you can't blame Middle Eastern Turmoil or China's consumption (like they do with Oil) as a price driving feature.

There are huge storage facilities in Kansas for example. The thing is, in the last decade you saw a lot of mergers and buyouts of various pipeline and Gas producers and storage facilities. While demand for Natural Gas has increased, supply as been increased as well. There's some support for some price increase, but nothing to support the price now being 4x 5x times what it was 5-6 years ago. A big difference is how the supply is managed. There's little stockpiling which drives prices down. The national distribution system is in the hands of several large Energy companies and they answer to stockholders and manage supply carefully to maximize profits.... plus there are various tricks to get around the "problem" of regulated utilities and tarriffs.... Such as spinning off the utility that is regulated while the parent company then can charge as much as they like.

It's true as Americans we need to re-think our energy policy, and move towards conservation and efficiency and also alternative energy, but, it's also true that the market is manipulated to generate higher prices and record profits.

Winter heating costs could rise an average 10.5%

"For heating oil customers the increase may be particularly dramatic. The average U.S. heating oil bill is expected to be a record $1,834 for the winter, up 28% from a year ago and double the cost seen four winters ago. Average prices are expected to top $3 a gallon, up from $2.48 last winter."

»www.usatoday.com/money/i ··· tialskip

They're lowing the price on natural gas here.»www.thenewstribune.com/n ··· 192.html

Notice it's not the Gas providers lowering prices, but the state Regulators ORDERING a price cut.

Kudos to your regulators for at least trying to do something about it. Still 13% vs run-up over last 5-6 years = ha.

Still, a positive step.

But it was at the utilities request for them to approve the lower rates.

/stunned

What, you guys have a utility company that thinks of it's customers? O.o

Congratulations

Yeah, I had to read his link twice.

The link below shows commodities future prices...can give one a brief glimpse of daily prices...Page should refresh itself each day to reflect change in market conditions/ prices.

Notice the jump in crude oil.
Gold as well.

»money.cnn.com/data/commo ··· dex.html

Winter heating costs expected to rise 10% on average
»www.usatoday.com/money/i ··· tialskip

Yeah and here they are saying like 22%..basically same article but either way we are going to pay through the nose.

_________

Heating Costs Seen Jumping This Winter

Government Predicts Heating Oil Customers Will Pay 22 Percent More This Winter Than Last

NEW YORK (AP) -- Almost all Americans will pay a lot more to heat their homes this winter, even though temperatures are expected to be warmer than average. That's the sobering message from an Energy Department report Tuesday that estimates heating oil costs are likely to jump 22 percent and natural gas bills, on average, will rise 10 percent between October and March.

»biz.yahoo.com/ap/071009/ ··· rinter=1

What I find funny is that other reports say the winter will be worse than last year and others say it won't be that bad. However - I do the same thing I do with the estimates on gas prices for the summer, which universally been off by at least $1.50 for the last several summers, and cut the estimates by 1/3rd.

If you swill enough liquor, sleeping in the car isn't so bad...

And here it is Oct 16 and oil still setting record breaking higher prices damn near daily..Will hit $90.00 bbl any day now.
__
Higher gasoline prices coming and this winters heating cost will be extremely costly for many! Higher than ever before.

Oil futures hit an all-time high Tuesday and increases are expected to follow at gas pumps -- but they probably won't be large enough to shock most American drivers, who have seen $3-plus-a-gallon gasoline several times already, energy analysts said.

However, high-priced crude also could help make this winter the most expensive in history for homeowners who heat with oil -- and costly enough to be painful for those who heat with gas. If crude stays at this level, the effects could lead to higher fares as airline fuel costs rise, and to higher prices for almost any product that is shipped by truck or rail.

Crude oil for November delivery settled Tuesday at a record $87.61, up $1.48 from the previous day's close, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Some experts credited tensions between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds for the jump.

"We could see higher prices at the pumps by month's end," said James Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, an oil trading advisory firm in Galena, Ill., "maybe seven to 10 cents a gallon."

Sarah Emerson, director of petroleum at Energy Security Analysis Inc., a consulting firm in Wakefield, Mass., said another 20 cents at the pumps by mid to late November is quite possible and that the timing will vary by brand. "Some outlets will want to pass the price on immediately while others might be a little slower, to try to steal some market share," she said.

Heating oil, which fuels most Long Island homes, averaged $2.963 as of Monday, a record high, according to the state Energy Research and Development Authority.

That's 37.2 cents a gallon higher than at this time last year -- a difference equal to an extra $102.30 to fill a 275-gallon home tank.

Until earlier this month, the record high average for heating oil on Long Island was $2.849, set in May.

»www.newsday.com/business ··· eadlines

For those of you that supplement your heating needs with stoves and fireplaces, you may be paying more than you think. If you own your own home, your homeowners' insurance is probably higher than if you didn't have a fireplace or woodstove. Get a quote for insurance with a fireplace or woodstove and without. The difference in premium may come as a surprise.

Just pointing out the hidden costs associated with alternate forms of heat.

With our oil furnace, we also have two wood stoves, the only thing that our company looks for is making sure we have adequate clearance and protective surfaces underneath and in back of the stoves themselves. Essentially a brick hearth type deal...for one of them we bought a brick like pad that the stove sits on.