I have two appliances that continue to use propane. Water heater and cooking range. Around here the price of gasoline is equal to that of propane. Typically I order 100 gallons of propane twice yearly - so far it costs $600 per year just for those two appliances and that is at $3/gallon.
I can see me getting a wood-burning cook stove and switching to electricity for the water heater as there is no possible way to afford a solar system.
However, gasoline for my vehicle is another matter. What happens when the saints can no longer afford to go to church or to buy expensive groceries brought in on expensive gasoline/deisel trucks?
There seems to be a sinister conspiracy and the wrong side is in charge of the economy.
You can create a solar hot water system will little money. It will not heat all of your water year round, but it can reduce your need for fuel quite a bit. You just need a southern exposure so the the sun will preheat your water for you. It can be really simple to more complex depending your abilities and your resources. Think about this. Put two 50 gallon barrels on the south side of house where sun will hit the barrels all day long. Build a box on sides, bottom, and back. Line with insulation.Place dual pane glass on front and top. Run cold water supply line into barrels and out to water heater. Water into barrels at bottom and out to heater from top of barrels.
Insulation can be composed of many things. Glass is usually available from remodels for nothing. Plastic could work, but not as well. Want more heat? Place mirrors or foil around barrels to direct more sun onto them. Or you could just place the barrels in the sun and in the summer you will reduce your need for fuel a lot with just this simple addition. Why not use the sun to preheat your water?
Of course you can build a more sophisticated system with a little help and a little more money. Take care to not use hot water for drinking and cooking. The easiest way in the summer to save money is to just run your water through plastic hose and into your water heater. But, this is not as safe since the heat will cause some chemical to bleed into the hot water.
It all takes a little time and some resources, but the wise will understand where we are headed and make provision for the days ahead.
Running water pipes through a wood stove is another way to pre-heat water going into the hot water heater. The warmer the water is going in the less fuel needed to heat the water. Also, a well insulated tank will help a lot also.
Now....to take take some of my own advice!!! :) Lord give the time to do so!!
I truly appreciate what you have described. Interestingly enough, a friend described something like this only a month ago. Now I hear it twice, so it is on the agenda. If I can carve out time from studying and this online forum, it will get done! Thank you, Richard!
Just in the news - not yet on the web - crude oil prices jumped over $2 today. This places a barrel of oil at $86.13. Forecasters expect it to go to $100/barrel before the end of the year and over $112 by this time next year.<P>Just found this: <A HREF="http://www.oil-price.net/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.oil-price.net/</A>
As a matter of fact, a new electric water heater just replaced the gas one. Total conversion only cost $265. Now I am waiting to find an electric cook stove to replace the gas one. My range is virtually new, so by selling it, it will cover about 2/3rds the cost of a new one. And by the way, my house smells nicer now that the propane is no long an element. That is some nasty-smelling stuff!
Wally - heating a little church with wood might be a good alternative. A cord of wood lasts me one month and the cost of a cord here is $185. That is inexpensive heat even if there are several meetings throughout the week. Maybe turning down the thermostat to 40 to keep the water pipes from freezing and supplementing it with wood fires would work. Just a suggestion.
Expect higher costs of everything.You are a prophet.
I filled up today. $4.21/gallon. The pump stopped at $75 and would not give me more. This has happened the last two fillups.
I filled up today. $4.21/gallon. The pump stopped at $75 and would not give me more. This has happened the last two fillups.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147&hl=en
This amazing video will explain why oil prices are so high. It's worth the watch.
NEW YORK - Oil prices tumbled today, extending a massive sell-off the previous day, after the government reported that U.S. crude and gasoline supplies unexpectedly jumped last week. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $5.10 at $133.64 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The two-day slide marks a dramatic turnaround in crude prices, which as recently as Friday traded at record levels above $147 a barrel. But even with this week's sell-off, prices remain about 80 percent above where they were a year ago and up about 40 percent from the start of the year.
I filled up today. $4.21/gallon. The pump stopped at $75 and would not give me more. This has happened the last two fillups.
Solution: small car that only holds 50-60 dollars worth (which would have been 25-30 dollars a few years ago :(). That will work until the gas goes to $8.00 a gallon; then you just fill up when you get to a half a tank. I know, there's always a wise guy in the crowd. ::)
Oil fell to under $100 a barrel today! Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $5.47 to settle at $95.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — oil's first settlement under $100 since March 4.
Some speculators have lost a lot of money. It will happen again.
Oil prices briefly spiked more than $25 a barrel Monday, shattering the record for the biggest one-day gain. Light, sweet crude for October delivery jumped as much as $25.45 to $130 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before falling back to settle at $120.92, up $16.37.
Just in the news - not yet on the web - crude oil prices jumped over $2 today. This places a barrel of oil at $86.13. Forecasters expect it to go to $100/barrel before the end of the year and over $112 by this time next year.<P>Just found this: <A HREF="http://www.oil-price.net/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.oil-price.net/</A>
It would be nice to have a barrel of oil at $86.13 again. Today = $116.69
Many people are being hurt by the high cost of oil. Investors have made fortunes in the last few years at the expense of others. I am waiting for the oil speculators to lose. Don't know when it will happen, but it will.
Exxon stock is down 30% over the last year. :) Record profits have not stopped their losses. They will reap what they have sown.
Ever pray for someone to lose money in their investments? I have thought about it! Many people are being hurt by the high cost of oil. Investors have made fortunes in the last few years at the expense of others. I am waiting for the oil speculators to lose. Don't know when it will happen, but it will.
Amen! My lifestyle calls for one tank of gas per month no matter what it cost. (Well, anything under $5) I can get back and forth to church 4 times a month and to the grocery twice. Other than those scheduled trips, I don't go. When it was almost $5 per gallon the pumps stopped at $75. I could get no more and the tank was only 3/4 full. It was a burden. With my daughter and grandson so sick this past month I had to make a choice to either go to church or to take care of them at their home, still allotting the trips.
Today I filled up ($30) and was exceedingly glad.
A tank a month is not so nice. It is very restrictive, yet it is the way I choose to live. I retired early due to the inconvenience of my husband's untimely death and was left with a home in a wilderness valley far from civilization. It is too expensive still to drive back and forth to town to a job of some kind, and throw on top of that the expense of vehicle maintenance, of impossible winters, of clothing for work, lunches, etc., so it is cheaper for me to stay put! Quite frankly, it appears to be providential, don't you think? In times like these? When the time comes for multiple families to live together, which will be sooner rather than later, I am ready and can accommodate. ;)
A tank a month is not so nice. It is very restrictive, yet it is the way I choose to live. I retired early due to the inconvenience of my husband's untimely death and was left with a home in a wilderness valley far from civilization. It is too expensive still to drive back and forth to town to a job of some kind, and throw on top of that the expense of vehicle maintenance, of impossible winters, of clothing for work, lunches, etc., so it is cheaper for me to stay put! Quite frankly, it appears to be providential, don't you think? In times like these? When the time comes for multiple families to live together, which will be sooner rather than later, I am ready and can accommodate. ;)Sybil, I know you can survive anywhere as long as you have food, shelter, and a piano, right? ;D
When I went out yesterday I was shocked to see it at $1.48! :o I wonder just how much lower it will go? Surely not back to $1.00 per gallon.
Not understanding economics awfully well, perhaps someone came explain this to me. Why is it when gasoline prices increase that food prices also increase, but now that the gas prices have come down, the food prices still increase? ???
I wonder just how much lower it will go? Surely not back to $1.00 per gallon.
Gulf Oil CEO says gas could hit $1 next year
Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski said on Wednesday that the price of oil could sink to $20 per barrel, and there is a chance gasoline prices could drop as low as $1 per gallon by early next year.
Source (http://www.patriotledger.com/business/x1881115149/Gulf-Oil-CEO-says-lower-gas-prices-ahead)
Could someone please explain to me how it can be that the prognosticators of oil prices have any credibility anymore? 6 months ago we were told that oil would possible reach $200 per barrel. Now we are told that it could drop to near $20 per barrel. ??? ??? ??? Does anyone believe these guys anymore? As one congressman was so fond of saying, "Beam me up Scotty." ::)
I am old enough to remember the gas wars in the "good ole days". We got gold bond stamps, green stamps, or glasses with each fillup. I remember the price of gas in South Carolina a "few years" ago. The gas war forced prices down to 17 cents a gallon!! :)
Not only that but your windshield got cleaned and your oil level checked, and you never had to get out of your car!I am old enough to remember the gas wars in the "good ole days". We got gold bond stamps, green stamps, or glasses with each fillup. I remember the price of gas in South Carolina a "few years" ago. The gas war forced prices down to 17 cents a gallon!! :)
Well....if you consider that we are paying a dollar a gallon more than they are in South Carolina today, you don't have to be that old to go back and find when gas was 1.17 in the rest of the US.
I think the price of gas was probably around 30 cents a gallon in the West when the gas wars were on. Maybe a little less. When I was in college I was paying around 35 cents a gallon.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s second-largest oil company, abandoned its Blackbeard well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 after the company’s engineers became alarmed over the pressure levels and temperatures almost seven miles beneath the seafloor.
It doesn't help oil prices that the offshore drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico this week.
At the pump, a gallon of regular slid less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $3.678, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Prices remain well above the year-ago average of about $2.792 a gallon but have fallen more than 10 percent from the July 17 record average of $4.114 a gallon.[/color] source (http://finance.comcast.net/www/news.html?x=http://www.origin.comcast.akadns.net/data/news/2008/09/04/1050580.xml)
I remember some prices around 15 cents a gallon.
Just in the news - not yet on the web - crude oil prices jumped over $2 today. This places a barrel of oil at $86.13. Forecasters expect it to go to $100/barrel before the end of the year and over $112 by this time next year.<P>Just found this: <A HREF="http://www.oil-price.net/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.oil-price.net</A>