How much do you spend on oil for heat over the course of one year? (New York: house, calculation)

[lawoman4368]

Im back again, looking for some concrete answers.

My husband and I are house hunting, one house in particular is 5227 square feet with 2 heating zones. The price of oil really scares me, I dont really know if I will be able to afford to own a house right now. Ive heard that many people have a 275 gallon tank, fill it 5-6 times per year. What is the current price per gallon of oil?

I am clueless when it comes to utility bills, so Im trying to figure out how much it would cost on average per month/year:

Oil

LIPA

Keyspan

Water

[OhBeeHave]

5227 with only 2 zones? That's a lot of areas to heat.

Has the house been updated, new windows and insulation? How old is the heating system?

I have about 2K sq ft OHW, 4 zones, 1928ish mostly new windows and insulation and used close to 1100 gals last year.

[lawoman4368]

Yeah-a 2 story addition was added on and everything appears new-or newer than the original part.

[Kbinspections]

Originally Posted by lawoman4368

Yeah-a 2 story addition was added on and everything appears new-or newer than the original part.

I 'm guessing that it was a ranch with a 2nd floor added. When was it built?

Do you central air?

What type of heating? Hot water or hot air?

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by lawoman4368

What is the current price per gallon of oil?

You should be aware that heating costs this coming year will be more expensive than last year because the per gallon and the per mmBtu price of heating oil and natural gas, respectively, are much higher.

While wholesale gasoline prices have increased $1.21 a gallon or 54%, wholesale heating oil price have increased by greater amount: $1.74 a gallon or 85%, and are at a 33¢ a gallon premium to gasoline, whereas last year at this time, gasoline was at a 19¢ premium to heating oil, a swing of 52¢ in their price relationship, reflecting a global shortage of diesel fuel (heating oil and diesel fuel come from the same part of the crude oil distillate).

At the end of Friday's (June 20) trading, wholesale prices (gasoline and heating oil is in $/gallon, combined product value, crack spread and crude oil is in $/42-gallon barrel and natural gas is in $/mmBtu) were:

.....................Wednesday...Friday.........ne t............%.....
........................06/20/07...06/20/08.....change.....change..

Gasoline...........$2.2281....$3.4392... +$1.2111....+ 54.4%
Heating oil.........$2.0339....$3.7717...+$1.7378....+ 85.4%
Combined Product
Value................$90.32.....$150.03...+ $ 59.71.....+ 66.1%
Crack Spread....+$22.13....+ $15.41...- $ 6.72......- 30.4%
Crude oil............$68.19.....$134.62....+ $66.43.....+ 97.4%

Natural Gas.......$7.365.....$12.994....+$5.629..... + 76.4%

[ 1 ] The above calculation of the crack spread (gross refinery operating margin) assumes that each 42-gallon barrel of crude oil yields 25.2 gallons of gasoline and 16.8 gallons of heating oil and other distillates, such as diesel and jet fuel.

[ 2 ] Also, please note that retail gasoline prices tend to be at a $0.75 to $1.25/gallon premium to the wholesale gasoline price as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which would mean that a wholesale price of $3.44/gallon would indicate a retail price of $4.19 to $4.69/gallon, depending on where in the U.S. the retail pump might be located.


Anyone can easily monitor the gasoline, heating oil and crude oil regular session futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (because these prices are available at no charge, they come with a 30-minute delay) by going to:

Gasoline futures prices
futuresource.com | Futures & Commodities Custom Quotes

Heating Oil futures prices
futuresource.com | Futures & Commodities Custom Quotes

Crude Oil futures prices
futuresource.com | Futures & Commodities Custom Quotes

Natural Gas futures prices:
futuresource.com | Futures & Commodities Custom Quotes

[lawoman4368]

I believe it was a ranch as well, the house was originally built in 1933, but I dont know when the addition was completed. The house does not have central air and it has Oil/Hw.

[max7418]

Originally Posted by lawoman4368

Im back again, looking for some concrete answers.

My husband and I are house hunting, one house in particular is 5227 square feet with 2 heating zones. The price of oil really scares me, I dont really know if I will be able to afford to own a house right now. Ive heard that many people have a 275 gallon tank, fill it 5-6 times per year. What is the current price per gallon of oil?

I am clueless when it comes to utility bills, so Im trying to figure out how much it would cost on average per month/year:

Oil

LIPA

Keyspan

Water

Law,

I am guessing you will use at least 2200 gallons of oil. At todays prices you will pay $8800-$9900 for that oil. Price varies because some companies offer better prices than others.
Lipa I would say about $400-$500 a month or $4800-$6000 a year.
You will not use keyspan.
Water I would say figure $50-$100 quarterly.
My only caveat is if you have bad insulation and poor windows you could use alot more oil because damn 5200 sqft is a huge house.

[lawoman4368]

OMG! I just found out today that its Oil for heat, gas for cooking etc..., Before improving our offer, I asked the owners to furnish monthly utilities. I hope to review them this week.

[lawoman4368]

OK I just found out that the lot (.12 acre) is 5200 sq feet, not the huse itself. Whew-what a relief!

Any more suggestions? I love the responses!

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by lawoman4368

OK I just found out that the lot (.12 acre) is 5200 sq feet ...

An acre is 200' X 200', or 40,000 sq. ft., and 5,200 sq. ft is approximately 1/8th of an acre.