End of another winter

Yes, even us heating guys are ready to head into spring! With the snow this weekend, you get really antsy for the grass to start growing and the trees to bud out. In the oil and propane business, a system called degree days is used to help figure out how much fuel oil or propane you consume. If this year seems as though you may have used more than last year, you probably did because that is what the degree days are telling us. From September 1 until March 31, there has been roughly 4.25% more degree days than last year. For the average home in the northshore area, that amounts to about 35 gallons more heating oil consumed. Unfortunately, the price of heating oil is just about one dollar per gallon higher than last year and propane is about thirtyfive cents higher so that increase in consumption feels even worse.