Over A Barrel - Oil Prices Continue to Rise 23 Apr 08
Last summer, I mentioned on here how updating our central heating timer was saving us money and oil. We finally had to order home heating oil in September, having been expecting to need more oil any time from March onwards. I’m glad to be able to say that the trend has continued over the winter, when previously 900 litres of oil would have lasted us from November to March, our refill from September is only starting to run low now.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to ordering oil less frequently – when we do finally need more, I’m shocked at just how far the price has risen. From memory, I paid around £350 for 900 litres of oil back in September. This week, I’m being quoted £480 for the same quantity. Its only a few years ago (4, maybe 5) that I remember paying £200 and thinking how expensive that was.
Its not just heating oil either. One of local papers was recently speculating that petrol could reach £1.50 per litre (that’s $11.26 per US Gallon) by the summer, meaning that driving is going to be a lot more expensive too.
So what are we to do? Well, in the short term there’s not a lot we can do but pay up. However, with plans brewing to fit a wood-burning stove in our living room, I’m certainly going to be looking into if/how we could use that stove to heat the rest of the house or provide hot water. Not only would it save us money, but wood has a much shorter CO 2 cycle than fossil fuels so its better for the environment too.
On the transport side of things, I received some good news today but its not quite public yet. If you’ve been following my previous posts you might be able to guess, but if not, I should be posting about it in the very near future.
Posted by Nev in Going Green , Money with tags driving, heating, home, money, oil, transport
