Heating costs this winter not expected to rise drastically

Local News

October 9, 2009

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Fri Oct 09, 2009, 08:55 PM EDT

Home-heating costs this coming winter should be about the same as last year and most suppliers say the amount you pay will be in direct relation to how severe the cold.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service are wishy-washy. They say there is a 50 percent chance it will be colder than normal this winter and a 50 percent chance it will be warmer than normal. Go figure.

However, those who dread cold weather had best cling to the educated forecast that spreads its prognostication down the middle of the road. Weather signs in folklore paint a bleak picture and The Old Farmers Almanac puts snow on the ground most of the winter.

Woolly worms are solid black; hornets’ nest are high off the ground and corn shucks are thick, all signs of a cold winter. The time-tested almanac says we can expect snowfall in time for Thanksgiving, frequent snow in December, and additional snowfalls from January to mid-February.

But your monthly heating bill should bring a warm glow; at least not a shock. Suppliers of home heating energy generally say costs will be basically the same as last year and in some cases lower.

Dan Henderson, manager of Somerset Gas Service, said natural gas prices for home heating are locked in and will stay the same during the winter. The current cost is $7.87 per decatherm, he noted. A decatherm is roughly 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Somerset Gas Service gets natural gas through its 170-mile network of mains extending into Eastern Kentucky. However, the city gas system is also connected to a Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation terminal at Button Knob on the Marion-Casey county line.

The gas main to Eastern Kentucky was built during a nationwide shortage of natural gas in the 1970s. The network of natural gas mains has since been extended and transports gas from previously landlocked wells in mountainous Eastern Kentucky. That, and installing a companion line extending to the Texas Eastern terminal, effectively ended natural gas shortages during periods of extremely cold weather.

Cliff Feltham, media relations manager for Kentucky Utilities Company, said cost to heat homes with electricity will “ ... probably be about the same as last year ... there hasn’t been much change in the base rate.” KU does not have a pending rate increase request, he said.

However, Feltham pointed out that the monthly electric bill will directly relate to “ ... the kind of winter we have.” Feltham said he has heard reports of an ominous forecast by the Old Farmers Almanac.

Members served by South Kentucky RECC will see higher environmental surcharges and possibly lower fuel adjustment charges, according to Nick Comer, spokesman for East Kentucky Power Cooper-ative, electric supplier to South Kentucky RECC and 15 other cooperatives.

“Coal prices are down significantly from last year,” noted Comer. However governmental mandated emission control equipment will affect the environmental surcharge customers see on their bills, he noted. The new scrubber equipment being installed at John Sherman Cooper Power Station in Burnside is not yet to the point of affecting the environmental surcharge, but the cost of scrubbers on two units at the Maysville plant will be reflected, he said.

A few homes in the area still heat with coal, and coal prices are about the same as last year.

Bill Crum, scale manager at The Ikerd Companies, said block coal for home heating is $100 a ton and house stoker coal is $120 a ton. He said the local company is not making deliveries at the present time “ ... but later we may be able to.”

Prices for propane gas are generally lower than this time last year. A spokeswoman at Ameri-gas said current prices are bouncing between $1.99 and $2.39 a gallon. This time last year, the price ranged from $2.299 to $3.049 a gallon.

During a relatively cold winter, an average home will use between 800 and 1,000 gallons of propane, she said.

If your home has a fireplace or wood-burning stove, firewood is available at a relatively small cost in the Daniel Boone National Forest. A $20 permit, good for 30 days, may be obtained at the London or Stearns ranger district offices.

The part of Pulaski County north of the Cumberland River is in the London Ranger District and the area south and west of the Cumberland River is in the Stearns Ranger District headquartered in Whitley City.

The permit allows the holder to cut four cords of firewood. The trees must be dead or down and must be 100 feet off an open Forest Service road, according to a spokeswoman at the London district.

Four cords of wood make a big pile. A cord is a stack 4 feet high by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. That much wood will keep the home fires burning while the cold winds howl.

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