Fuel Oil Sucks
Just for the record. It does. We live in an 80yo house with a furnace that runs on fuel oil/furnace oil. Our income is too high to get traditional assistance in general. Our credit is too poor to qualify for getting the 550 gallon tank filled and then pay it over the course of the year. The minimum delivery we can get for our house is 125 gallons, at $3.50/gallon. Sorry, but we just don't have that kind of money. Not all at once. And no, we don't do credit cards either.
So instead we go to the local gas station and fill up 5 gallon fuel cans, bring it home, and pour it into the tank (it's an underground tank - a pipe sticks up out of the ground that we pour the fuel into). Typically, 10-15 gallons will last us a week. Well, not in this frigid weather. We ran out of fuel last week Wednesday. By the time Friday came, the house temp was roughly 54 degrees. Normally we have two electric heaters running, but one blew out on us. When I did get fuel oil in the system, it took over an hour and a half of constant running for the furnace to bring the temps up to 68deg (where I keep it). And then we ran out again Sunday evening.
Rick put another 15 gallons in. I'm going to drop the temps to 65 overnight to try and save a bit more, and run the other electric heater to keep some of the chill off, but I'm still nervous about running out.
Hell, I don't even know how one could get any help with this issue. It's not like it's a public utility or anything. I'd much prefer paying for it AFTER I use it, like the natural gas company's budget plan, where they break up your average annual cost over the course of the year. So it's not so horrible as having to pay huge fuel bills when there's less work (because this time of year things inevitably slow down - they're starting to pick up finally).
Bah. If this whole rebate check thing that congress is trying to put together goes through fairly quickly, we'll use it to get fuel for our house. But it's horribly aggravating. Because we've spent $90 on fuel this week alone. And I don't know if it will last us a week. That's just not right.
So instead we go to the local gas station and fill up 5 gallon fuel cans, bring it home, and pour it into the tank (it's an underground tank - a pipe sticks up out of the ground that we pour the fuel into). Typically, 10-15 gallons will last us a week. Well, not in this frigid weather. We ran out of fuel last week Wednesday. By the time Friday came, the house temp was roughly 54 degrees. Normally we have two electric heaters running, but one blew out on us. When I did get fuel oil in the system, it took over an hour and a half of constant running for the furnace to bring the temps up to 68deg (where I keep it). And then we ran out again Sunday evening.
Rick put another 15 gallons in. I'm going to drop the temps to 65 overnight to try and save a bit more, and run the other electric heater to keep some of the chill off, but I'm still nervous about running out.
Hell, I don't even know how one could get any help with this issue. It's not like it's a public utility or anything. I'd much prefer paying for it AFTER I use it, like the natural gas company's budget plan, where they break up your average annual cost over the course of the year. So it's not so horrible as having to pay huge fuel bills when there's less work (because this time of year things inevitably slow down - they're starting to pick up finally).
Bah. If this whole rebate check thing that congress is trying to put together goes through fairly quickly, we'll use it to get fuel for our house. But it's horribly aggravating. Because we've spent $90 on fuel this week alone. And I don't know if it will last us a week. That's just not right.