Heat on, costs up
Woke up today to the sound of my heat pump churning - the cheapest, most inefficient model our builder could find. It was 38 degrees outside my window. The low at BWI just before dawn was 42 degrees. It was 43 in Bel Air, 41 in Westminster and 34 out in Garrett County.
The U.S. Energy Department says we should expect residential heating costs this winter to jump 28 percent. Depending on what you burn to heat your place, that's somewhere between $133 (gas) and $270 (oil) more, on average, than we spent to heat our digs last winter. And you can bet on paying even more if we get an unusually cold winter this year. Blame the soaring price of oil, which has nearly doubled since last winter. Natural gas is up sharply too - 15 percent. Propane is up 21 percent. There goes my pay raise.
