What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

[Diggincoinz]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

I'm already getting ready to sell my truck (15 mpg) & boat. I've been driving a pickup truck since 1993!That'll give me enough to buy a nice used car that'll give me at least 25+mpg. Definately doing it!

Chrs

 

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[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Wow diggin I hope you do well but your gonna have to stand in line and take allot less than you think these items might be worth. The market was flooded for used cars n trucks not to mention boats before this whole mess even started. Nowadays my local Craigs list is loaded with trucks and boats that the owners can't give away. Oh And that sporty little 25+ MPG car you've got your heart set on might cost three times what it did a year ago.

 

[rmptr]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Three local new boat dealers... they just loaded up to the gills with inventory!

One of them is a brand new store, just now opening for this summer.
They must know something I don't, and have a LOT of money behind them!

Friends with a mortgage shop are giving up their storefront... too slow to warrant the overhead.
They want to rent a storage locker for the office stuff.
I said are you crazy?
That stuff only worth so much, and will depreciate more, MINUS monthly storage fees subtracted from value?
Keep minimum for home office, sell off what you can, send the rest to tax deductible charity.

Reality is setting in and many folks fixin' to punch another hole in their belt!

Best,
rmptr

 

[Monk]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Well I might say people won't be traveling as much or as often as the price of gas climes. Or I might say the little people, also known as low income people. As for the folks with a larger cash flow, they will still drive as always. It'll all come down to how much gas will you be able to buy.
More folks will be forced to staying home or Going to motor scooters. They get 75/80 miles a gallon. and keep up with traffic just fine. I guess the word will be learn to adjust.

 

[Diggincoinz]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Hey MD, I don't doubt that at all. I'll just have to settle for whatever cash I have at the time for what's available at the same time. And yeah, probably won't be the vehicle of my 1st choice but the mpg is really talking these days.

And I seen a scooter the other day at the gas pumps, won't see that one there for another two months! But we can't drive them too well in 6 inches of snow in February here though.

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Gotcha Diggin I know whatcha mean about the snow, I'm from western NY, the land of lake effect. Here it would be more like trying to ride a scooter in 6 ft. of snow while in a white out. but yeah I hear ya, gotta do whatever it takes.


BTW those who think people with higher incomes aren't as effected as lower incomes. That's not true, I have to pay those same prices as you all the while keeping in mind that I have some thirty employees as well as more than another hundred family members all of whom count on me and my business for a living. We have just recently decided on a smart plan to protect ourselves in the event the economy continues it's spiraling downfall. We normaly raise and wholesale trees to the landscaping industry. As we see business falling off, we've decided to slowly switch where needed to selling fire wood which will be in higher and higher demand. But no matter what I do to alter the business I still also am burdened by the higher cost for fuel. And contrary to what allot of people think, as a small business owner we can't just pass those higher costs on to the consumers. There's a point beyond which people simply won't pay for your product. So it's a fine balancing act, which usually means some trimming somewhere and that invariably comes outta my bottom line. So you see the higher fuel costs can actually cost me, a higher income person, as much as three times as much as you.

 

[rmptr]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

I would agree with MD.
Increased cost is felt by everyone, especially business people.

A proprietor has an obligation to keep his workers employed. They feed HIM, through their efforts!

The problem lies within the corporations who's only loyalty is to the shareholders.
If outsourcing is beneficial to the bottom line, the domestic workforce is handed their pink slip.

It's just NOT a good way to do business.
Under-employed workers at low paying jobs are not prolific spenders.
Unemployed buy only staples, if possible!

Best,
rmptr

 

[Ryan1979]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

There is a heat source that no one has mentioned yet that I've found to be the cheapest (at least for me in Minnesota).

My wife and I along with our two little ones moved into an old house 1/2 mile from downtown St. Paul in April of 2007. The house hasn't been touched hardly at all in about 75 years. There is only about 5-6" of blown insulation in the attic and no insulation whatsoever in the walls. The place does have a forced air gas furnace, but I knew that would be too expensive to run, especially with almost no insulation. We have about 2400 square feet, 2 1/2 stories, plus a huge uninsulated basement (stone walls).

I researched wood pellet and corn pellet burning stoves and the costs to run them.

I ended up buying a simple wood pellet burner at Fleet Farm on clearance for $900.

I can buy pellets for $150 per ton at Lowes which is only a mile away. Last winter, we went through 6 tons ($930) from Fall 07 to Spring 08. Here are the total costs for that heating year:

1. Pellets (6 tons) - $930 + $50 delivery (I don't own a truck) - $980
2. Pellet Stove (installed myself) - $900
3. Pipe exhaust kit and stove caulk(installed myself) - $160
4. Slate tile flooring (heat shield) (installed myself) - $30
5. Electricity - not sure, hard to tell
6. Shop Van fine particle bags - about $25

Here is what I like about it.

The pellets are delivered on standard 4-foot pallets. There are (50) 40 lb bags on a pallet (1 ton). When delivered, each pallet is completely covered by a black heavy plastic all the way to the bottom of the pallet. I simply put a rock or board on the top of each pallet so that the plastic 'coat' doesn't blow off. This keeps them dry throughout the entire winter while they're sitting there waiting to be used. I don't have to keep them in the garage. They sit on the parking pad off the alley exposed to the elements all Fall, Winter, and Spring.

The wood pellets are simply compressed sawdust. There are no chemicals binding them together. They are a very renewable resource.

The only time the exhaust pipe has any visible smoke exiting is when the stove first starts (smolders until the flames start). The pellets are lit with an electronic heating element in the burn pot.

My insurance did not go up one single dime, even with me installing it myself. These units are extremely safe and have a large number of safety features built into them.

We went away a few weekends this winter and we simply turned the stove down to the 2nd lowest setting. This kept the pipes from freezing. We used about 40 lbs while we were gone for 2.5 days. The house was still in the high 50's when we got home.

The hopper on the stove holds 120 lbs. You don't have to keep filling it every couple of hours. In the Spring and Fall, you can sometimes go almost a week without filling it.

The only time the stove couldn't quite keep up was when it was getting down to around -18 for extended periods, which only happened two weekends.

Before this fall, the attic will have lots more blown insulation and the basement walls are now also insulated. I'm thinking this is going to save us even more money by being able to keep the stove on lower settings.

I'm estimating that the forced air gas furnace would have cost between $300 and $400 per month for our old uninsulated house.

The stove and everything I've bought for it, should be paid for during the coming heating season, just by the amount of money saved.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me. I'm not a dealer for these things, just someone that is happy with the way the wood pellet burners work.

Ryan

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Arthracite coal is also a good way to go now days since the new coal stove which resemble wood stoves have a better than 80% efficiency and arthracite coal is one of our greatest resources. I here that we have enough to provide heat and electricity for every house in America for the next 300 years. And yes because these new coal stoves are so efficient the smoke production from them is no worse than your average wood burning fireplace.

I personaly have a Natural gas well on my property which is my primary residence which gives us by contract 200,000 gallons a year in free gas so I don't have heating costs at my home at least.

 

[rmptr]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

I've known a number of folks who just rave about their pellet stoves!
Scarp would has always been good for me, since I do a lot of carpentry, though.

Writing I've reviewed recently claim coal is on a comeback, since liquid fuel is getting so high.
They claim the anthracite is going fast, though, and lower grades will be more predominant.
Peak production expected around 2035, which gives us a good margin.

MD, you gotta look into a CNG machine and vehicle conversion if you got a gas well on your property!

Best,
rmptr

 

[handy]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

people are stealing gas stealing plates off cars to steale gas soon they will be shooting people for money and gas

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

We got a gas thief in our neck of the woods they got on tape. son of a gun actually took a thirty foot horse trailer and converted it with a trap door tand a large tank inside. On tape he pulls it with a pick up and stops right on top of the ground hatch to a gas stations in ground tank. some one inside the trailer hops down through the hatch opens up the gas tanks ground hatch, inserts a tube and pumps the gas out into their trailer tank. When full they simply close it all up and drive away with $@20,000.00 dollars in gas. So far they've struck twice in two weeks.


What's a CNG machine rmptr ?

 

[rmptr]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

That's the thing going on here... about to befall all of us...
If we are doing well, those who may not be, and get to the point of desperation, will become criminally resourceful to make ends meet. Nothing of value will be safe.

A friend moved to southern Oregon. He says there's NO work around here since they shut down logging.
And logging the great pacific northwest has never really been replaced with anything significant...
He say's we gotta have locking gas caps on all vehicles or they get 'em overnight.

MD... Compressed Natural Gas... much like propane.
Gaseous by nature, liquid under pressure.

I think Honda just came out with a car that runs off it and there is a fueling station that goes in your garage.
It compresses the vaporous gas to a liquid? and fills a portable storage tank for use in the vehicle.

There's got to be other machines that would do it...

Perhaps someone will pop in with more info

Best,
rmptr

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

thanks Bud I'll look into it and let you know if it's a good deal.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

thanks Bud I'll look into it and let you know if it's a good deal.

Well, was it?

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Been having an incredibly busy summer MB, after you left I've hardly been here at all. So far all I've found out is that Iran wants to convert all cars in their country to run on Nat. Gas, T. Boone Pickens wants the U.S. to convert all vehicles to Nat. Gas, and unles someone invents a better device the pressures needed to compress Nat. gas to a liquid along with the cold temps needed, make it unreasonabl and out of reach for just about everyone. But that's just my skiming the info so far. This much is obvious, if it could be done cheaply, then the Nat. gas companies would have been out there competeing with propane companies for years by now.

BTW welcome back, missed you bud !

 

[MD Dog]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Holy crap MB, do you believe in signs from Heaven ? No sooner than I just responded above when I see the tail end of a commercial for the following site. Check this out; http://www.cngnow.com/EN-US/Pages/default.aspx

HA ! just fond the Honda info, figured I'd just add it to this post.

http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/refueling.aspx

 

[ClonedSIM]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon?

I am 61, I will retire in the spring. I don't have a pension, or a big 401 package. How can I do this? 38 years ago I bought a small old 2 bedroom house for 10,500. Lot size was 75x200 and the taxes were 250.00 a year. we had 2 kids in 6 years so we sold this house and bought a bigger one. we've been here ever since so the house is paid for. I never had a 2nd mortgage on the house or home equity. I do without all the crap I don't need. cell phones, Ipod, big screen tv's, I don't bowl, I don't golf, I don't drink or smoke I don't go to the movies. We live a simple life and were happy with it. The trouble with the people in this country is there wants are 10 times bigger than there needs. Why do I know this? I have 4 kids that try to keep up with the Jones. I have been laid off a few times over the years and each time I could make my house payment on unemployment. Gas prices for my car I don't worry about too much, I can do without my car, I worry more about heating gas because heating gas will likely be twice what it was this past winter and it was 230.00 a month.
A question for you math people. in 1976 I bought my house for 24,500 and taxes were 450.00 a year. Today my taxes are 2200.00 a year with a value of 93000.00. If your taxes go up at the same rate as mine, what will your taxes be when your in your house for 38 years. My point is the value of my house means nothing to me because I look at my house as a roof over my head, not an investment. You can have all that stuff I mentioned earlier but you won't need it on the railroad tracks with the other homeless. You still should be able to pay 10.00 for gas, you just have to give up other things and not drive as far.

Here's an interesting thought, just something to mull over.

If you're not planning on leaving your house to anybody after you leave this world, then this may be an idea to help protect you against those rising taxes.

Advertise your house for sale for $1, with provisions.

The provisions are that the new owner will own the house, you and your wife will continue to live in the house for the rest of your lives, paying rent at the rate of $10 per month. When both of you pass on, the owner will take complete ownership of the house.

 

[rmptr]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

There's a whole reverse mortgage business out there...

Never looked into it, myself.

Good luck to you.
rmptr

 

[GunFarce]

Re: What Will You Do When Gas Hits $10 a gallon & Heating Fuel Doubles ?

Someone up the page a bit mentions the number of new boat dealers.. Well, people may hate to pay for 'car gas' but 'boat gas' is something diff. all together.. I took my boat up the north part of the TrentSevern waterway here in Ontario, and gas was $1.60 a liter at the marinas. Thats $6.05 a U.S. gallon by the way.. We spent 5 days on the water, travelled 124 miles, and used just under $600.00 in gas.. That may seem expensive, but consider that a just a weekend away in Niagara falls for example, runs about $1000.00 a 5 day vacation on the water for 500-600$ is cheap.. sort of..
On the other side of the coin, Home heating oil last winter here was $1.04 a liter ($3.94 a U.S. Gallon).. My business (next to my house) is heated with nat. gas, is just under 1200 sq, and costs me a average of $275.00 a winter to heat.. Faced with the possibility of a 3000.00 oil bill for the house this winter (I heat house and hot water with oil) I bit the bullet, and spent 16k on a new heating system.. My gas meter is on the workshop, so it cost me 1k to run a line through the shop, and underground to the house. I installed a 19 sear A/C & heat pump the heat pump is rated at 9.5 out of 10. coupled that with a high eff. gas furnace, the Carrier infintity control system which decides what to do based on the in/out temps..this thing should lower my heating bill considerably. I also installed a tankless water heater, and these things are amazing.. The whole system has only been in for a month (a good hot month) and after removing the oil fired water heater (and motor) and window air condx. My hydro bill has remained just about the same.. In one month, the water heater used 19 meters of Nat. gas @ .38 a meter for a family of three. cost $7.22 for the month.. The 'same' hot water on oil was $90.00 a month My hot water costs have gone from $1080 a year to under $100.00, and I'm expecting the same kind of savings on the heating system (I live about 50 miles north of Toronto Canada..) Sure it cost me the 16g's for the system but government and manuf. rebates knocked that down by $4000.00.. The other 12gs will be paid off in a few years, and the saleability of my house has gone WAY up.. I'm actually looking forward to my heating bill this winter..