Stephen M. responds:

been on
an apparent near perpetual up-tick, at least around central VA, for
several
years now. I expect my heating bill this year to be about three and one
half
times what it was four years ago.

Ouch. I feel your pain. I switched from Oil to NG a few years ago. For me, I
think It was a wash, but it's so hard to tell. I suspect my home heating
costs are close to doubling over the course of a decade with minimal
inflation.


About 8 years ago, I remember buying fuel oil at 70 cents a gallon. I hear
it's close to $2 now. The oil and NG costomer are taking it in the shorts
too.

If it helps, you have company.

It doesn't really help. This upward sprint for prices of everything related to
oil production is sooner or later going to have to affect the entire economy.
It's not just transport and heat. Most of today's plastics--vinyl, Styrofoam,
etc.--are based on oil, so construction costs have to rise to absorb that cost
rise, as eventually do the prices of toys with cases and other parts formed of
plastic, whether those toys be a cordless drill or an X box.

Currently, we've got our heat pump set high enough that the gas furnace only
kicks on when it gets below 30 degs. F., here.

One distinct saving with gas: the furnace does not need cleaning and new needle
valves every year, a service that had risen from about $50 17 years ago to over
$100 a few years ago.

Charlie Self
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston
Churchill