| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Jb |
How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
Just phoned to order a top up for the oil tank. September/07 35p / litre, now 52p / litre! (should have got a full tank last sept!) |
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| judith |
Gulp.
I think it was 36 p / litre when we last filled up. |
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| tahir |
wE NEED SOME TOO 
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| Green Man |
Oh.........................oil has gone up. Good. | ||||||
| gil |
OMG I need heating oil too
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| Northern_Lad |
Eat more whales - you'll be fatter and need less heating. |
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| Rob R |
Check on cab's fuel thread, it has been mentioned 
Not eating Whales, silly |
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| RichardW |
Get more cats.
He says smugly as we have enough (cats & oil) to last out till it gets warmer. Justme |
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| Jb |
That doesn't work! First law of cat thermodynamics - "Energy always flows from the hotter body to a cat" |
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| Erikht |
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money..... |
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| gil |
Ah, but apparently cat body temp is higher than human. I find the claws more of an issue. |
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| vegplot |
Erik's dream fantasia sea city is really just a huge oil drilling rig off the coast of Norway just inside international waters. |
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| Green Man |
How many years oil do Norway have left? Loads, or is it like ours, starting to show signs of running out? | ||||||
| Treacodactyl |
Re: How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
Well I'm sure all you people using oil merely for heating are flailing yourselves with birch twigs daily.
Along with the usual winter mark-up the price rises seem to also be a result of the problems in the US, oil being priced in dollars, which is falling, and people investing in oil rather than stocks etc. Is it possible to just have a top-up to last you until the summer and then stock-up when/if it gets cheaper? And when does it become a serious consideration to get a larger tank or move to something else? |
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| vegplot |
Re: How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
Staw bale homes is the ONLY answer. Build it, get inside, light a fire you'll never have heating problems ever again. |
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| Jb |
Re: How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
it's the difference in increase between that and petrol which is a surprise. Petrol in September 07 was about 96p / litre now 107 p / litre about an 11% rise . Fuel oil over the same period has risen about 40-50% !
Well I could buy Mrs JB an exercise bike and wire it into the immersion heater 
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| Treacodactyl |
Re: How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
I wonder if it has anything to do with tax and duty? If you take off the duty then petrol has risen by more than 11%, not sure if it's anywhere near 40% but then that's probably the winter premium. Take care wiring that bike up, one mistake and...
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| Green Man |
Re: How much?! (or when did oil reach that price?)
Bear in mind that the majority of the price of petrol is duty. It hasn't gone up, but frozen. |
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| Erikht |
A few more, but the future is in the gas. |
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| AnneandMike |
Which will also start running out soon. W're dooooooooooooomed! |
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| Rob R |
No worries, we have cows
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| Jonnyboy |
I guess that being smug must have warming properties. |
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| Erikht |
Ehh? Killjoy! Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money |
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| Green Man |
I'm not being smug. Oil going up will effect everybody including myself. Hopefully we will use it more wisely, and waste/burn less which has to be better for everybody in the long run. I fed up with open shop doors, and homes heated so warm in winter that people wear t-shirts and shorts. |
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| Mary-Jane |
Practically speaking, might I venture to suggest that you set up a monthly direct debit flat rate payment with your oil provider? We did that last year when we struggled to pay the huge bill to have the oil tank filled during the winter...and I have to say it works quite well. Doesn't change the oil price of course, but by paying a flat rate every month at least you know where you are financially and don't suddenly have to find several hundred quid at once. | ||||||
| Shane |
I don't know about Norweigan oil, cos I haven't seen the figures, but last estimate I saw for the Troll gas field was that it had another 70 years left in it (can we have some, please?). I'm not sure that in increase in the number of dollars it costs to buy a barrel of oil necessarily means that oil is more expensive (not everytime it goes up, anyway) - I think a lot of it is to do with the dollar plummetting in value. All I need to do now is work out how to convince the world markets of that and it's job done. 
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| Shane |
Buy the way, it's a good time to be an offshore operator in Norway, if anybody fancies a career change (and learning Norweigan, obviously).
Current rates are £100k for two weeks on, four weeks off. A lot of them are taking second jobs so they do two weeks on one installation, have a week off, do two weeks on another installation, have a week off and then go back to the first.
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| cab |
Your best pal is Liza Minelli, and you're a creepy German dude who dates a gorilla but is married to two women. |
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| vegplot |
I'm with you on that! |
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| crofter |
I take your point, but for some (me included  ) oil is what we rely on for heating the house. Yes, you can wear more clothes, be creative about when and how long the burner is running, and turn the thermostat back down as soon as you notice Ms Crofter has notched it up a few degrees, but you still need *some* oil if you don't have alternative sources of heat, especially in Shetland. Filling the tank in the summer always strikes me as prudent, but whatever you do, there is no escaping the fact that oil is always going to get scarcer....
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| Nick |
Would putting Mrs Crofter on the open fire solve two problems at once?
Just a thought... |
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| Rob R |
People have been living in Shetland for thousands of years, they've had oil for what, 100? It's just the cheapest & most convenient at the moment, these things change. |
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| StuP |
Build a fire for a man and you'll keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you'll keep him warm for the rest of his life! 
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| crofter |
Indeed. But 100 years ago it was seal or whale oil! I am seriously considering going back to the peat hill to dig my winter fuel out of the bog. The rayburn was originally solid fuel, but we converted it to oil a few years ago because it was "cheaper" than the hassle of cutting peats and bringing them home from the hill. Cleaner too. But if oil gets much more expensive I will convert it back to solid fuel again. |
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| Erikht |
You can have my pension fund when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. |
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| gil |
Ah, so you have 'turbary' with your crofts. How long does it take to dry the peats once cut ? Do you stack them to dry up on the hill, or at the croft ? Some of the hill farms here have old, largely unused peat cuttings. BTW, I've just bought kerosene at 47.5p/litre, so not as bad as I'd feared. Only problem was having to order 500l at once. |
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| crofter |
Peats are cut from allocated peatbanks in the hill. Traditionally every croft had a "peatright" which provided fuel for the winter, although very few people still bother to cut their peatbanks. It has almost completely died out over the past 15-20 years. How long it takes to dry the peats depends on the weather. Normally banks would be cut during May, and the summer spent raising and turning the peats to dry them in the hill before they were carted home and stacked outside the house for the winter. | ||||||
| cab |
Is it dried and stored in the same style piles that you see in the Hebrides, Crofter? | ||||||
| lottie |
Alistair Darling said he is going to encourage energy suppliers to introduce wider social tarriffs---but that just applies to gas and electric----there are many pensioners in the country who rely solely on oil and they are really badly hit. The discussions always seem to be about the increases in gas and electric---really glad we decided to stick with the multifuel stove for our hot water and heating---now we've doubled glazed and insulated it's toasty and wood is often free---some people here with oil heating are finding life difficult. | ||||||
| crofter |
Pretty much, although I have seen a few "artistic" looking stacks in the Hebrides. Likely the art of building them has been lost, because Shetland peatstacks tend to be a bit more functional, like this: http://www.shetlandwildlifesanctuary.com/images/peats.jpg |
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| cab |
I saw one not at all unlike that on Lewis. Fascinating thing, seeing the peats cut and stacked such that the air can circulate through to dry them, then neatly stacked for winter. I was amazed by just how rich a habitat the bogs remained after cutting, and how quickly the plants and bugs re-colonised the surface afterwards. There are still some people, at least on Lewis, who do it 'right', and its good to know that those skills still exist! |
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| Rob R |
Shut up you two, at this rate you'll have me driving down to the bog & burning more fossil fuels
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