NJ Natural Gas offers savings on heating costs

Customers of New Jersey Natural Gas will get some relief with their heating bills over the next two months thanks to the recent drop of wholesale natural gas prices.

According to the New Jersey natural gas utility here, the average New Jersey consumer will save 20 percent on their gas bill from Feb. 1 to March 31 with credits for the typical residence totaling about $89.

Additionally, the company received a greenlight to continue its Conservation Incentive Program (CIP), which enables the utility to promote conservation coupled with energy-efficiency improvements. The CIP has been extended to Sept. 30, 2013.

“The rate credits announced today as well as the extension of our Conservation Incentive Program are two examples of the steps we are taking to help our customers during these challenging economic times,” says Laurence M. Downes, chairman and CEO of NJNG.

Downes continues, “We are able to provide financial relief during the months when customers’ bills can be at their highest and continue to offer energy-saving information and programs that benefit our customers, company and state.”

Click here for the lowdown.

Oil-buying groups save big bucks on heating oil

As homeowners worry over the cost of rising energy bills, several dozen families in Weston, Mass. will save hundreds of dollars on heating oil this winter.

Spearheaded by Weston resident Jan Fine, WBZ reports that he helped families come together to organize a buying group to secure a bulk discount.

The families buy such a large quantity of oil that companies bid on their contract. The wholesale nature of their purchase allows them to save hundreds off of the total price that individual households would pay.

"Last year we averaged about 50 cents per gallon savings over retail cost," Fine tells WBZ's Joe Shortsleeve. "So if you use a thousand gallons that saves you 500 bucks. Two thousand gallons -it saves you a thousand bucks. It's quite a bit of money."

Fine stresses that these groups are fairly easy to organize. To get started, he encouraged people to commit to their interest in the effort by entering their information in an online database, then he got in touch with oil companies.

“We are not an organization. We are simply a group of people who got together on the same database,” he says.

If you’re inspired by Fine’s grassroots effort to negotiate a better deal on heating oil, you can tap into the power of Consumer United's group discount here.

Farmers' Almanic predicts chilly winter

Put on your snow suits, mittens, socks and hats.

The Farmers' Almanac predicts a colder than average winter this year. Predictions in 2008 are prepared for two years prior, using a secret formula based on sunspots, the position of the planets and the tidal action of the moon.

New Englanders are worried about the high cost associated with this year's winter. "This is going to be catastrophic for millions of people," says Peter Geiger, the almanac's editor. The below average temperatures are bound to cause severe problems, due to the high price of heating fuel.

The National Weather Service believes it will be a warmer than normal winter however the Farmer's Almanac was correct in 2008, when it predicted the Northeast to be hit with a long, cold and snowy winter. The 192 year old Farmer's Almanac publication holds a 80% to 85% accuracy rate for forecasts.

Read more here.