Heating oil prices on the rise, companies say spike is unprecedented
TJ Heiland sold two G.I. Joes and one WWF wrestler figure to pay for his oil.
“Thank goodness prices for vintage toys is at a high,” said Heiland, of Franklin Township.
As heating oil approached $6 a gallon Friday, he said, “(It’s) just a shame to have to sell off your childhood just to pay to keep warm.”
Heiland said he hated to part with his childhood figurines, but, “I’m a single dad and these prices are outrageous.”
With a late spring cold spell, people were feeling the burn this week as the cost to heat their homes continues to skyrocket.
Lisa Hiles, co-owner of Hiles Bros. Fuel Co. in Summit Hill, said that last year at the end of April, the price was $2.49 a gallon.
“Right now, it is over double that, which is totally ridiculous,” she said. “This is unprecedented, and we really feel that something needs to change.”
Hiles said customers have counted on the business to deliver oil to their homes for the past 39 years.
“It’s really difficult to know what to do,” she said. “We do our automatic deliveries on a rotation, which is pretty much what every other dealer does, and we keep track of the weather, the temperatures, each customer’s individual usage patterns, so we know when to automatically deliver their oil again.”
Hiles she’s never had to debate if the business should deliver oil to its customers because of high prices.
“(It’s a matter of) do you want us to fill your tank, or can you only afford a certain amount? And that judgment call is based on will it be $8 a gallon next week, or $3 a gallon next week.”
Hiles feels bad for the customers.
“How are they going to pay for this on top of all of their groceries going up, gas going up for their car, their electric going up? I’m so glad we are at the end of the heating season, not the beginning of the heating season.” Running on empty
Amanda Kromer of Towamensing Township posted on the Times News Facebook page that her family is out of oil.
“Luckily, several years back, we put in an electric hot water tank,” Kromer said. “So, when we ran out, we put in space heaters to our bedrooms and switched over to our electric hot water tank for hot water.”
Kromer said they used to spend anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 a year in oil to fill two 275-gallon tanks.
“Had we not made this change, we would be paying more than that now for the year,” she said.
“To fill our tanks at today’s cost, we would be paying $2,963 (and change) with discounted oil grade (lower quality), putting us in debt for well into one to two years.
“Our house is definitely colder than we like, but we have a budget and can’t afford to exceed it. We’ve been layering up with clothes and using blankets in the evening, and we’ve been using our space heaters for the individual bedrooms right now.”
Kromer added that they paid $1,100 and change in September for 460 gallons.
“It’s really important to have multiple heating options considering how the economy is going, because it really fluctuates constantly,” she said. “It’s hard. We have three young children. When you’re a parent, your priority is to take care of your kids, and it’s really hard when you’re on a budget.”
Spike weeks
The cost keeps rising. “These prices come to us every day, the increases, just like you see at the grocery store,” Bill George, president of George’s P&H LLC of Palmerton, said. “But the last two weeks have just been unprecedented in the 40-some years I’m doing this.”
George said his business is seeing 20 to 30 cent per day cost increases.
“We’re forced to pass the increases along, or we’d be putting it out there at less than our costs, and no business can do that,” he said. “It’s the same for every oil company; that’s just the way it is right now, and I don’t know why.”
He said the increases are “more in a week than our profit margin.” in last two