With the latest industry estimates revealing that heating oil prices will be rising more than the ever increasing gasoline prices, and likely reaching 3.50 a gallon, it got me thinking:
What were the costs per gallon that we have paid to keep our house warm each winter.
So, a spreadsheet seemed in order. Here is what I found.

1988  $0.57
1989  $0.67  $0.75
1990  $0.82  $0.93
1991  $0.86  $1.01
1992  $0.76
1993  $0.78  $0.84
1994  $0.91  $0.78
1995  $0.85  $0.84
1996  $1.06
1997  $1.01  $0.97
1998  $0.81
1999  $0.80  $0.98
2000  $1.13  $1.58
2001  $1.31
2002  $1.24
2003  $1.33
2004  $1.42
2005  $1.71
2006  $2.87
2007  $2.74

What does all this mean? Well lots of things.
We do see that prices do rise and fall.
It isn’t always about costs always going higher.
I won’t attempt to cover the reasons for variations in oil prices.
But I have found that buying oil early in the year will usually result in lower costs per gallon.
And I have seen, in more than one occasion, that buying oil at the onset of any Mid-East conflicts, (Dessert Storm, 911, Iraq, on and on) is never a good thing.
Mostly that the prices have raised significantly in just the last few years.
The 16 years from 1988 to 2004 I have seen my costs rise about a dollar/gallon.
The last three years, it also rose about a dollar/gallon, and even more, since the last price I paid was early in the season.

Perhaps a conversion to natural gas would be a wise economical and ecological choice.