On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:01:27 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:47:08 +0100, MM wrote:

I read on BoilerJuice.com that electricity is now cheaper than oil for
home heating.

Comments?

(Oil price estimate today: 53.90 pence per litre for 10000 litres.)

Paid 48.85 last week just before a 2.5p price rise was applied (+ 5% VAT).

It's close, burn a litre of kero in and hour you get about 10kw of energy.
So divide the p/l price by 10 for the cost/kwhr but that does not take
into account boiler effciency or rather lack off...

Thing is, the lecky companies have just increased their prices, so
they are likely to remain the same for the foreseeable future. There
would be a major political outcry if the companies increased the
prices yet again, after the 12/14/17% increases. However, I reckon
that heating oil is the Cinderella fuel that no one cares about. One
never sees headlines about the massive hike in home heating costs with
this fuel as one sees with gas and electricity. And so I firmly
believe the oil price is likely to just keep on rising. And if the
dollar still stays weak, then oil will soon become so exorbitant a
luxury that the government will have a real crisis on its hands. I
expect right now there are thousands of pensioners and others on low
wages or on benefits who are borderline hypothermia cases already,
especially as this winter has been (and continues to be) so miserable
and cold.

I have decamped to my computer room, normally the smallest bedroom for
families with a young child. But it costs a lot less to heat a box
room with a fan heater than a relatively massive sittting room. At the
moment I'm keeping nice and warm on around 8p an hour (thermostat on
fan heater), plus the heat from the computer and UPS. Tomorrow, one of
the computers is going to go, and I'll bring my bed in here as well.

MM