RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In the Boston area, about half the homes are heated with oil. Even before the hurricane, prices were running significantly higher than they were last winter. From member station WBUR in Boston, Fred Thys tells us how three families plan to cope.
FRED THYS reporting:
Window fans are blowing the hot air out of the Levers' home in North Billerica, a Boston suburb. The Levers don't have air conditioning and the heat makes winter seem far off. But it's very much on Kenneth Lever's mind.
Mr. KENNETH LEVER: With the price of fuel and, you know, we want to stay comfortable, but, you know, just listening to what happened in New Orleans and the rigs and everybody's panicking, you get gas one night, the next morning, eight hours later, you know, you see a 20 cent increase.
THYS: The Levers are having an energy audit of their home. Local utilities provide the service free of charge.
Mr. BOB ECKEL(ph): But let's just talk about what's going on up in the attic.
THYS: In this case, Bob Eckel is conducting the audit for the National Grid, the electric company.
(Soundbite of people going up in an attic)
THYS: He sees that the Levers use most of their attic for storage.
Mr. ECKEL: I can tell already you take full advantage of all the space. You've got it stacked up three or four boxes high.
THYS: Eckel estimates that the Levers can save up to 25 percent on their heating costs if they can add insulation to their attic. They just have to make room.
(Soundbite of cars on highway)
THYS: On the other side of Boston in the suburb of Hingham, the remains of Katrina shower the lawns. Cindy Coe(ph) has installed new windows in her house this summer.
Ms. CINDY COE: What's amazing about these is they tilt right in and if you just, just listen to the sound...
(Soundbite of window closing)
Ms. COE: ...you can hear the difference.
THYS: The windows have double panes for insulation.
Ms. COE: I expect to really garner some significant energy gains, you know, this next winter with the heating oil cost, which now thanks to Katrina should be going absolutely through the roof.
THYS: Like thousands of Boston-area heating oil consumers, Coe locked in her oil price this summer by committing to buy her winter supply at a set price.
Ms. COE: At the time, I really choked on $2.35 a gallon. And now, I'm just thanking my lucky stars that I acted on it and did it. It means a considerable amount of money out of pocket, but it's rather like the windows. I mean, it's an investment against future catastrophe.
THYS: Linda Kelly(ph) knows how expensive it can be to heat a home. She live with her husband and three children in a small house in Quincy, just south of Boston.
Ms. LINDA KELLY: My house is just a little cape on the beach, right. It's a three bedroom.
THYS: Kelly shudders when she thinks of last year. Many people used two to three tanks of oil a month. But she managed to get through the whole winter on two tanks. Kelly kept the thermostat at 68 during the day, but only when she was home; around 62 at night. She had federal assistance and help from a non-profit that supplies heating oil at half price to low-income people.
Ms. KELLY: I don't have the heat on during the day, the kids are in school all day and, you know, you keep it down; you put a sweater on. You just learn to live like that, you know, and I do with what I have.
THYS: For this winter, the Department of Energy was forecasting the average retail price of heating oil at $2.15 a gallon, a 16 percent increase over last year. But that was before Katrina.
For NPR News, I'm Fred Thys in Boston.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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