If there’s one thing we can agree on right now it’s that heating oil prices are crazy high. I get a lot of texts from friends and family asking for my take on prices, so I thought I’d share my thoughts here.
In the beginning of February, oil prices on FuelSnap averaged $3.30 a gallon. When Putin invaded Ukraine later in the month, prices shot way up. By mid-March they averaged $4.79 a gallon, before temporarily dropping off. In April, once the European Union started to commit to reducing their dependence on Russia oil, prices shot up again, to a high average of $5.66 a gallon by the end of the month.
May, fortunately, saw a bit of a drop off, albeit a short-lived one.
Current Prices For Heating Oil
Prices are currently hovering from a low of $4.99 per gallon to a high of around $6.00 per gallon depending on where you live.
As we head into the summer months, many are asking how much heating oil to order.
First, if you heat your hot water with propane or electricity, you may want to just keep watching prices and wait. If you are below 1/4 tank and rely on heating oil for your hot water, you’ll want to order heating oil soon. I would recommend ordering a small quantity for now. 100 gallons should suffice to get through the summer months. Keep in mind, a hot water heater typically uses between 0.5 and 1 gallon per day throughout the summer.
If it were mid-winter, I would recommend ordering as much oil as your tank can hold – especially if your house uses a lot of heating oil.
The benefit of ordering a large quantity of oil is you can often take advantage of 150 or 200 gallon price breaks.
Given it’s just about summer and we have no idea where prices are going to go, I would recommend just getting enough heating oil to get you to fall for now.
Happy Summer,
Steve
