Fall 2015 Price Point for Fuel Oil

earthscience8 · Post by **earthscience8** » Tue. Sep. 22, 2015 1:40 pm

Hello,
At the current time (Sept. 2015) what does the price point for fuel oil need to be to determine if it is worth burning anthrocite vs. Fuel oil, if a person has the option for either. (This would be a separate boiler used to specifically heat with fuel oil and not an inefficient dual fuel coal to fuel oil boiler)

Post by **Lightning** » Tue. Sep. 22, 2015 2:19 pm

There is a fuel price comparison calculator at the top of the page.

Try it out

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Tue. Sep. 22, 2015 5:39 pm

Lightning wrote:There is a fuel price comparison calculator at the top of the page.

Try it out

For me its about $1.75/gal I figure ($300/ton coal price)

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Tue. Sep. 22, 2015 9:50 pm

For me the bulk rate is $170 per ton. From what the calculator says it has to be under $1.00 a gallon. The calculator won't let you put in less than 1.00. I doubt very seriously if I'll ever see fuel oil for less than a buck ever again in my lifetime.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Wed. Sep. 23, 2015 8:36 pm

blrman07 wrote:For me the bulk rate is $170 per ton. From what the calculator says it has to be under $1.00 a gallon. The calculator won't let you put in less than 1.00. I doubt very seriously if I'll ever see fuel oil for less than a buck ever again in my lifetime.

Tip: just multiply everything by 10 ... so $1=10/gal and 170/ton becomes 1700/ton ... then you can compare

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Wed. Sep. 23, 2015 9:10 pm

Thanks for that information. At my available price of $170 a ton for bulk, fuel oil would have to be at $.86 a gallon to be comparable.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Wed. Sep. 23, 2015 9:26 pm

blrman07 wrote:Thanks for that information. At my available price of $170 a ton for bulk, fuel oil would have to be at $.86 a gallon to be comparable.

Hey its math...the only thing I'm good at. Don't believe me? Ask my wife!

Flyerfan64 · Post by **Flyerfan64** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 10:40 am

I can get propane for $1.19 gal . Coal is 180.00 per ton would I be better of using propane . Tried using fuel calculator but not sure if I did it properly . Thanks

Post by **Lightning** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 2:18 pm

Flyerfan64 wrote:I can get propane for $1.19 gal . Coal is 180.00 per ton would I be better of using propane . Tried using fuel calculator but not sure if I did it properly . Thanks

Coal Ton(2000 Lbs.) $9.38 per million BTU
Propane Gallon $16.29 per million BTU

Coal beats propane by almost a factor of 2.

Post by **Richard S.** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 2:23 pm

Flyerfan64 wrote:I can get propane for $1.19 gal . Coal is 180.00 per ton would I be better of using propane . Tried using fuel calculator but not sure if I did it properly . Thanks

No, if the coal is is $180/ton and the propane is $1.19 per gallon and assuming 80% efficiency for both the cost per million BTU is:

Coal: $09.38
Propane: $16.29

The propane would need to be about 70 cents per gallon.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 4:08 pm

Richard S. wrote:
Flyerfan64 wrote:I can get propane for $1.19 gal . Coal is 180.00 per ton would I be better of using propane . Tried using fuel calculator but not sure if I did it properly . Thanks
No, if the coal is is $180/ton and the propane is $1.19 per gallon and assuming 80% efficiency for both the cost per million BTU is:

Coal: $09.38
Propane: $16.29

The propane would need to be about 70 cents per gallon.

I think that its the efficiency of coal stoves that is the biggest unknown, hence making any comparisons very difficult.

I did not a company claiming 65% efficiency of a coal stove that they were selling. I contacted them and asked "how did you arrive at that value?" The company said that they would check and get back to me. never did.

Contacted my stove (a 503) manufacturer, Hitzer, and made an inquiry. Here, no % efficiency could be provided.

So the calculator is a great calculator - its just that the factors needed are not available regarding many stoves.

So if you contact or notice a % efficiency rating for your appliance , contact the company and ask how they determined this. You may get a response like "err, uuhhhh, duh... we don't know". Food for thought. Not bashing the stove manufacturers - its just that there are no std test procedures for coming to any measurable and reproducible value of efficiency.

Post by **Lightning** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 5:14 pm

Right right... BUT there are some givens (based on usage compared to a previous usage of oil or propane) that point to somewhat of a "close guess" that is reasonable. IN my opinion

It's reasonable that the normal "run of the mill" stove can get 70-80% at moderate burn rate and the base burners probably get 10-15% better than that. ... and I'm sure those figures could be optimistic and are negotiable as well as controversial.

Awwww dam, not the efficiency debate again..

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Thu. Oct. 15, 2015 11:39 pm

Lightning wrote:<snip>

Awwww dam, not the efficiency debate again..

I just hope that the discussion is not a WASTE of time ....

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Fri. Oct. 16, 2015 12:07 pm

All I know is, burning coal in my hand fired cut my heating bill by 1/3rd ... AND we had the house an average of TWELVE degrees WARMER!!

Saving even more now with the stoker boiler.

Last time I did the figuring, oil would have to be $1.20 a gallon or less in order for me to shut down the stoker. It's close, but not quite - .80 cents a gallon to go ... and it's headed the wrong way the past couple weeks!