Heating Your Home Will Cost More This Winter
The three main drivers of the cost to heat your home is the outside temperature, the cost of the fuel that heats your home, how well your home is insulated, and where you set your thermostat. Natural gas, propane, fuel oil prices have increased dramatically. The price of natural gas in the winter of 2019 was about $2.70 per mmbtu. The price of natural gas at the time of this writing is $5.11 per mmbtu. That is an 89% increase. Natural gas hit a yearly high of $6.37 on October 5th. Check out the price of natuaral gas now. I am certain the price of all heating fuels will increase as soon as the cold weather rolls in. Natural gas and all other heating sources increase in price every winter.
What Can You Do To Prepare For The High Cost Of Heating Your Home This Winter?
The main drivers to the cost of heating your home are four things, the temperature outside, the cost of heating fuel, the energy efficiency of your home, and the temperature you set your thermostat. You can’t control the first two items, however you can set your thermostat at a lower setting. This is the easiest way to lower your heating bills. Yes it may be uncomfortable to set your thermostat at a lower temperature. Throw an extra blanket on your bed. Wear warmer clothes around the house. You don’t have to woryy about any of this if you have the money to pay for the higher prices
Install a progammable thermostat if you don’t have one. Program it to lower the settings when you are not home. Make sure to set the thermostat so your water pipes don’t freeze. Some heating systems operate best if you set the thermostat and leave it at the same temperature. Make sure you understand your system before you implement this recommendation,
Is your water heated by natural gas or other heating fuels? Lower the temerature setting on your water heater and take shorter showers and baths.
Do you have any windows or doors that leak cold air into your house? Take the time to reduce the flow of cold air into your house. Change out the filter in your furnace if it has a filter. Changing the filter will help your furnace operate more efficiently.
You may want to improve the insulation of your home.
You may want to purchase an electric space heater in case of shortages of heating fuel.
Financial Help For High Heating Bills
There are organizations such as Low Income Energy Assistance Program that will help people to pay their energy bills. People should look into any programs in their communites to see if the qualify for assistance. Most of these programs have limited funds, so you may want to look into these soon.
Ask your heating fuel supplier if they know of any other organization to get help paying your heating bills.
Most of these organizations only provide support to low income households.
Some gas companies have a program that allow you to pay the same amount each month. They will add up your past 12 months bill and they set up your account so you pay the same amount each month. This means you pay less in the winter months than you normally would. It also means that you pay more in the spring and summer months than you normally would. The benefit is that it decreases that huge hump in payments during the winter. Call your heating fuel supplier and see if they have such a program.
How Will Businesses Cope With Rising Natural Gas Prices?
All businesses will see their costs increase as a result of the increase in natural gas prices. Each business has a different amount of their costs that are affected by natural gas. Most of these businesses will try to pass on the increase in natural gas to their consumers. This will just make inflation worse.
Will There Be Natural Gas Shortages This Winter?
We are seeing shortages of everything in the supply change, why not natural gas. For many reasons natural gas supplies are low this year. It is a possiblilty there will be heating fuel shortages in some parts of the United States. The possiblity of heating fuel shortages increases if we have a really cold winter. Heating fuel shortages will be a disaster if they occur. You may want to take precautions now to be prepared if there are shortages. You have heard the saying “hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
Will There Be Electricity Shortages This Winter?
Approximatley 40% of electricity is produced by generators powered by natural gas. In fact natural gas is the number one fuel source to generate electricity in the United States. If we see natual gas shortages it is possible there will be isolated power shortages due to a shortage of natural gas.
What should we expect this winter?
Please share this article with everyone you know and on social media. I wrote this article because most people are not aware of what is going on with the price of heating fuels. Some people may not be able to afford the high home heating costs, the increased cost of food, the increased cost of gasoline, and the high cost of everything else. In addition we are going to continue to see shortages of many products.
The price of evertyhing is increasing rapidly. This trend will not end in the near term.
This article was written on October 20th, 2021.
I was an executive with a large electric company that owned a natural gas company. I was the executive of the power production side of the business. Many of the generators were powered by natural gas. I do have extensive knowledge of the electric and gas business. I wrote this article to help you prepare for this coming winter.
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