…with propane. I received a delivery yesterday and WOW!!
183 gallons/lbs @ $4.19/gallon/lb = $766 and change!!! 
My defibrillator is still buzzing!!
(last delivery was 2 months ago, if that even matters)
Its pretty darn cold up here in New England!!
Ouch,
I pay $1.85/gal here in eastern Montana.
I have a natural gas forced air furnace. Problem is the electric has been off since 11pm Tuesday night. Without electric the thermostat and the blower don’t work. I have 2 kerosene heaters keeping the inside temp in the 40’s, far from ideal, but survivable. Kerosene is about $4/gal around here.
Les Stroud are Bear Grylls would call this luxury!
Hey, you know that Stroud and Grylls stay at the Ritz when they are not being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the stuff we see on TV. At least Stroud does have a film crew to help him fix his shelters. They may be good but I will bet you a dollar to a donut, they live well when not on screen.
But Norm and MTWFF verify my rule of being connected to natural gas.
I bought an el-cheapo noisy as all get out 2 stroke generator that cost me about $150.00. I had an electrician do the necessary wiring. He put in a circuit to isolate the furnace from the regular house wiring in the event of a power outage. Now when the hydro goes off I can go down to the basement switch the furnace over to the generator power. This allows the house to remain warm and toasty. The generator is adequate to drive the furnace motor and thermostat and It also gives me two 60 watt light-bulbs to keep the darkness at bay with a lamp in the kitchen / dining room, and one in the bathroom.
My natural gas kitchen stove has no electrical system at all so is always available for use. One session with frozen/broken pipes during a power outage convinced me of the necessity to do this. Total bill including the electrician was less than $300.00. The generator is very noisy and barely adequate for the job so I do plan to upgrade to a quieter 4 stroke one about 4000watts so I can run a few more lights and the tv. That was about 6 years ago and of course now that I have a back up system we haven’t had another power outage since then.
PS … Its Les Stroud and Bear Grylls’s job to freeze for a living. Ergo I don’t care if they get cold. My job is to keep warm and snug, Drink plenty of Hot Rum’s and laugh at the weather.
Bass Bug,
Here is something you can look at for use when the power goes off. I have central heat and air with natural being the fuel for the heat system. The outside unit has a safety check built into it that will not allow natural gas to enter the unit when the electricial supply is off which would leave me with no heat during the power outage. For a back-up heat system I have a natural gas wall mounted unit that requires no electric to operate. It is 19" wide, 23" tall and sticks out from the wall about 6". You fire it up just like you do your outside gas grill with a push of a button. Once it is lit there is a small flame in front of 3 ceramic grids which will glow red and provide heat. One grid glowing for low, 2 grids for med and 3 grids for high heat. You control what you need. Our unit will maintain 70 degrees in our kitchen/dining combo and the living room. The rest of the house will be in the 60’s. This unit can be purchased through your local gas company and they will have it installed for you and if you choose they will spread the cost of the unit and installation over several months on your monthly gas bill. I think the cost of our unit plus installation was less than $300. There have been times in the Fall or Spring when we do not need the central unit on because it will just heat up the entire house and we just wanted to take the chill off in the early morning hours or evenings and this unit will do the job very quickly. This unit can be fueled with propane also if that is what you are using.
Just offering something that has worked great for us during power failures and is a cleaner source of heat than kerosene.
Check with you local gas company and see what they have to offer.
I’ve noticed in the past that propane in MT is much cheaper than it is in the east, and poor Norm is paying 2 1/4 times what you do. I always wondered why there is such a big price discrepancy from east to west. Anyone know?
We were lucky to be in Helena a couple times during the middle of the summer when Montana Propane had their annual summer propane saleabration. We got a 30# tank filled for under $10, and had free lunches that would have cost well over $10 if we had to buy them elsewhere - so they way I looked at it, I go to take my wife out for a nice lunch, and got the propane for free!
Here in SE PA, we have total electric, and heat with a heat pump. Our highest monthly electric bill this winter has been $260 – it would be lower, except I like to sit in my sauna (it’s electric heat) which gets to about 265 degrees on the top bench!
That’s a bummer Normand!
There is a small swath in MT, WY, Sac (Canada) that has very cheap propane. This is do to the production of oil in our area.
That is what I have been told.
Wayne
In eastern Pennsylvania…
In my old digs I was using oil which was always around the price of a gallon of unleaded regular. So if I was buying today, I would expect to pay around $3.10 or more a gallon.
In the new digs I heat and cook with propane. I have a 1000 gallon underground tank and recently paid the highest price I’ve paid in the almost two years I’ve lived here: $2.35.
I ain’t complaining a whole lot.
If your on an automatic fill with a propane company call around occasionally and see if you can get a better deal from someone else, their prices can very greatly.
Eric
i have tried calling other propane companies. i have been told because i am such a small buyer in quantity, the price is higher. i’m only buying about 500 gallons per year.
Do you have any idea how much of the price is gas and how much is tax. The government make more off a gallon of gasoline than the oil companies do. CT and your neighboring states are not exactly known as low tax states.
i never said anything about ct taxes on fuels or anything else!
i said i am a very small volume buyer that has to pay a higher price. the ct taxes will be the same regardless of price per gallon
my father lives in a mobile home park 3 miles away from where i live, but the park owner has approximately 10 1000 gallon tanks spread out on the property. as a result of buying a large quantity of propane his costs about 2.47/gallon
I heat with wood and propane. The local distributor has a summer sale where you can buy what you want for the winter in Aug. I think it was $1.89/gal. It is surprising that propane is so high in the NE since they are pumping all of that gas out of the ground up there.
I usually just buy 300 gallons.
The inquiry was how CT taxes compare with other states; I know on gasoline and diesel tax vary greatly state to state, figure they do on propane, fuel oil, natural gas etc.
from the interweb
Connecticut’s gasoline tax stands at 41.9 cents per gallon (4th highest nationally), while its cigarette tax stands at $3.00 per pack of twenty (2nd highest)
thank god i dont smoke!
GA $.075 per gallon for gas & diesel & $0.37 for cigarettes
It appears if there are state taxes on heating fuels most of the states have done a good job of hiding them from internet search engines.
narcodog,
Oh yeah, they’re pumping a lot of gas out of the ground here in Pa. The problem is, the powers that be in Pa., aren’t charging the drillers a dime - how assine is that??? No money coming in to mitigate the damage they are already causing! 3 Mile Island nuclear power plant was supposed to give us cheap electricity - that never happened either. My electric bill last month - $470.00! (electric heat) Live alone and only heat the basement and first floor + 1 room on 2nd floor. I hate to see this months bill coming up! YIKES!!! I’m so energy conscious that you could say I’m anal. The only lights etc., on in my house are the ones in the room I’m in at the time!
Normand - Wow, the last time I had propane was around 1997 and it was less than a dollar. I could heat my whole house - top to bottom, for around $1000.00/yr, and that was in the U.P of Michigan. We all know the cost-of-living has not gone up since then, because our government tells us so. LOL!!! Welcome to the Twilight Zone!
Best regards, Dave S.
Not true, the natural gas industry in PA pays drilling permit fees to the state among other fees to state & local governments. They are also funding DEP for clean up and mitigation as well as road construction and improvement. If drilling is done on state land they get the lease money. They are hardly getting a free ride.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/oilgas.htm