We moved recently (within Boston), from a home heated with oil to one heated with natural gas. A recent gas bill shows I paid $1.20/therm for the gas itself, plus $.44/therm for a gas delivery charge.
To get from price per therm to price per mcf, am I remembering correctly that you multiply by 10? If so this means I had to pay a whopping $12/mcf for gas last month not including delivery charges, or $16.40/mcf including delivery charges. When we were shopping for homes, although I left the final decision to my better half, I strongly encouraged her to decide on a house with natural gas vs. oil heat, because I believed that natty prices would be lower than oil on a btu-equivalent basis in the long run. Once my wife saw this bill, she started laughing at me saying, what kind of "energy expert" am I, we are paying more money for heat now than before.
But now let's take it a step further. For our last oil delivery at our old house, we were charged a whopping $2.99/gallon. This works out to a btu-equivalent of $126 per barrel of oil, since there are 42 gallons in a barrel. The btu-equivalent of $16.40/mcf for gas = a "mere" $98/bbl, or about a 25% savings over heating oil.
Would somebody be kind enough to check both the logic and the math in the above, so that in the event it is correct I can print out this post and re-gain the respect of my wife? <g> |
