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682 posts
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US$2.65/gallon this aftenoon. Seems like a decent deal, right? Wrong. Many states in the northern tier of the country (MN included) require gas suppliers to switch to an oxygenated blend in winter, purportedly for pollution control in cold weather. This blend burns cleaner, but the energy content is lower than the regular "summer" fuel, resulting in poorer fuel efficiency. As a result, mileage suffers, and you need to make more trips to the gas station to fill up.
My winter beater, a '95 Nissan 200SX SE-R, typically gets 31 mpg in summer, with the "regular" blend of fuel. However, the efficiency drops to around 25 mpg with the oxygenated winter crap.
MG
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Originally posted by littlestream:Top up last evening at 96.7 cents. Hmmm.........wondering if it is making a gradual descend.
Yikes, I'm sounding like..........erm, never mind.
Not with winter just round the corner. Expect to see energy prices spike significantly. Right now, I'm having the shivers just thinking of what my heating bills are going to be like this winter, what with natural gas prices expected to rise 70%.
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Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:Not with winter just round the corner. Expect to see energy prices spike significantly. Right now, I'm having the shivers just thinking of what my heating bills are going to be like this winter, what with natural gas prices expected to rise 70%.
Eeeee...........
Let's hope for a mild winter.
Do you get your furnace cleaned? The energy company do a free maintenance service so we have our appointment in November.
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Originally posted by littlestream:Eeeee...........
Let's hope for a mild winter.
Do you get your furnace cleaned? The energy company do a free maintenance service so we have our appointment in November.That's actually a good idea. However, I don't subscribe to any maintenance plan with the gas company--they already rape me enough with the winter heating bills.
I
do the usual cleaning routine myself on the furnace prior to
winter: lubricating the blower motor and bearings, scrubbing the
burner pipes with a wire brush to remove any carbon fouling,
vacuuming the inside of the furnace housing, etc. It's pretty
basic, and takes only a couple of hours.
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Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:That's actually a good idea. However, I don't subscribe to any maintenance plan with the gas company--they already rape me enough with the winter heating bills. I do the usual cleaning routine myself on the
furnace prior to winter: lubricating the blower motor and bearings,
scrubbing the burner pipes with a wire brush to remove any carbon
fouling, vacuuming the inside of the furnace housing, etc. It's
pretty basic, and takes only a couple of hours.
Wow! MG........I'm impressed. Sounds like you are a pretty handy man too eh?
But what's your heating bills like? You have two separate energy bills, right? Like we have one for gas and the other for hydro. Does it work the same way there? So, that gas bills, you can opt for equal billing or actuals. I don't know which way we are. Hubby handles all the bills.
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Originally posted by littlestream:Wow! MG........I'm impressed. Sounds like you are a pretty handy man too eh?
But what's your heating bills like? You have two separate energy bills, right? Like we have one for gas and the other for hydro. Does it work the same way there? So, that gas bills, you can opt for equal billing or actuals. I don't know which way we are. Hubby handles all the bills.Have to be, as labor costs in this country are, simply put, outrageous. If one has a large enough circle of friends here, you'll usually know people who have the necessary expertise to help with most major household maintenance and repair work. To give an example, my decade-old water heater sprang a serious leak earlier this summer. The local home appliance store wanted $600 to come out to my house to install a new water heater and cart away the old one. I ended up buying a new water heater for $150 and having a couple of good friends help deliver and install it for the cost of a couple of pizzas.
Of course, there's an element of quid pro quo involved, and I'm more than happy to help out my friends when need be. I can't recall how many people I've helped move.
My gas and electric bills are separate (water is included in the Association dues), and, as expected, they typically peak during winter, with the furnace operating to warm the house. If memory serves, my highest monthly gas bill last winter was in the region of $120; if the expected 70% hike in natural gas prices holds true, I could potentially be looking at a $200 monthly heating bill this winter. Not fun.
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I can relate and understand what you are saying, well, I guess being neighbours, we will sort of have similar culture.
Yeap, hubby was "trained" here too. He built our backyard deck with his friends too. But he has his limitations. Most Canadians (usually ang moh) will "build" their own basements. We don't have the knowledge nor expertise so we got a contractor to do it.
I don't know, MG. Maybe one day, we may end up in a condominium. It's just too much work in a house and if age catches up, well not fun squatting or bending to do gardening and also shoveling snow. People actually die....from heart attack or something. Hence, we are always reminded to warm up or do some light stretching before shovelling snow.
There are those contractors but trouble is our house may not be the first that they attend to after a snow storm or fall. Hence, may end up having to do it ourselves. Anyways, we are now armed with a snowblower.
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