Five products get sold under the general heading of price protection. Two of them change what your fuel costs. Two of them change when you pay. One of them changes who decides the delivery date. Confusing those categories is how households end up paying a fee for a benefit they were never going to receive.
The table below uses illustrative plan terms, not published rates: a 900 gallon season, a cap set 5% above the current print, a cap fee of 25 cents a gallon, and a pre-buy of 800 gallons at 2% below the current print. No dealer publishes these terms and this site does not pretend they do. Put your own dealer's numbers into the fill desk.
| Plan | Cost over the modeled season | What you commit to | The downside case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will-call | $4,981.50 | Nothing. You ring when you want fuel. | You carry the run-out risk and the winter delivery queue. |
| Automatic delivery | $4,981.50 | The dealer schedules on degree days. | You lose control of the order date, which is the timing lever. |
| Capped price | $5,206.50 | A fee of $0.250 a gallon for a ceiling of $5.812. | The fee is paid whether or not the cap is ever reached. Break-even market price is $6.062. |
| Pre-buy | $4,892.70 | 800 gallons paid for up front at $5.424. | If the price falls you have already bought at the higher number, and unused gallons may not be refundable. |
| Budget plan | $4,981.50 | Level monthly payments, reconciled at season end. | It smooths cash flow. It does not change what the fuel costs. |
EIA State Heating Oil and Propane Program / W_EPD2F_PRS_NUS_DPG / published 30 March 2026 / checked 23 September 2026 / lag 177 daysthree to six months oldtier A
Last in-season print. The survey pauses after March and resumes in October, so this figure ages all summer.
The cap price arithmetic, stated once
A cap is an option and the fee is the premium. On the illustration, the ceiling is $5.81 and the fee is 25 cents, so you start benefiting only once the market price exceeds $6.06. Over 900 gallons the fee itself is $225.00, which is what you have spent before the cap does anything at all.
That is not an argument against caps. It is an argument for pricing them as what they are. A household that would be genuinely unable to absorb a spike is buying insurance, and insurance costs money whether or not you claim.
The pre-buy question nobody asks
- What happens to gallons I do not use? Carry forward to next season, refunded at the locked price, refunded at market, or forfeited. All four exist.
- What happens if I move house or sell? Most pre-buy agreements are not transferable and some are not refundable.
- Is my prepayment protected? Some states require bonding or escrow for prepaid fuel. Ask which applies where you live.
- What is the delivery obligation? A locked price with no delivery commitment during a supply squeeze is worth less than it looks.
What the budget plan actually is
A budget plan divides an estimated season cost into level monthly payments and reconciles at the end. If your season is 900 gallons at $5.54, that is $4,981.50 spread across the year rather than arriving in three lumps. The fuel costs exactly the same. What changes is that you are not being asked for several hundred dollars on the coldest week of the year.
Cash flow and cost are different accounts. Only one of them is on your invoice.
Which plan for which household
| Situation | Plan that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Watches the price, keeps the tank above a third | Will-call | Keeps the only lever that is genuinely free |
| Cannot absorb a spike without hardship | Capped price | Buying insurance, and the fee is the premium |
| Lumpy income, predictable usage | Budget plan | Solves a cash flow problem, not a price problem |
| Strong view that prices are rising | Pre-buy | A position, taken deliberately, with a known downside |
| Away often, or would rather not think about it | Automatic | Removes run-out risk at the cost of the timing lever |
Primary sources for this page
- EIA State Heating Oil and Propane ProgramWeekly residential delivered price of No. 2 heating oil, national and by state. Collected October to March. The survey pauses after the last March print and resumes in October, which is why every federal page shows March data all summer.
- Connecticut DEEP heating oil pricesState weekly dealer survey, published through the heating season.
- Maine Governor Energy Office fuel pricesWeekly statewide and regional survey of heating fuel prices.
- EIA Winter Fuels OutlookPublished each October alongside the Short-Term Energy Outlook. Forecast household heating expenditure by fuel and region.