Should I buy a home that uses heating oil?

Buying a new home is a big decision made up of smaller ones, including where to buy, what size home to look for, what location to target, and more.

But one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating a handful of comparable homes is also one of the most overlooked: the kind of heating system your future home uses, and the type of fuel that powers it.

A heating system can have a dramatic affect on both your comfort and energy costs, especially here in Vermont, where we use our furnace or boiler for as much as eight months a year.

On the plus side, there are many options for heating our homes here in the northeast, including natural gas, propane, and electricity. But when it comes to providing the best heating solution for the challenge of a New England winter, one fuel just might have an advantage: heating oil.

Why consider a home that uses oil heat? Consider these benefits:

• It brings the heat – Heating oil burns 300 degrees hotter than natural gas, which means your home will heat faster with heating oil than it will with any other fuel (good news here in VT). You will also need to burn less heating oil to stay comfortable, which means you’ll spend less on energy bills.
• It’s convenient – You won’t need a pipeline to access heating oil – just an easy to maintain, on-site oil tank.
• It’s safe – Heating oil is one of the safest sources of home energy around – in fact, it’s harmless at room temperature (it must be heated to 140 degrees and vaporized in order to burn). It won’t explode, either – unlike natural gas.
• It’s available – During the winter, high demand for fuel can strain supply for natural gas (as it did last winter) – a problem that rarely happens with heating oil.
• It’s a good value – Adjusted for inflation, today’s heating oil prices are about the same as they were in the mid-1970s, making heating oil a bargain in the home energy game.
• It’s clean burning – Today’s ultra-low sulfur heating oil (ULSHO) burns 95 percent cleaner than heating oil did 50 years ago – which means your heating equipment will last longer. With proper professional preventative maintenance, today’s oil-fired heating furnaces and boilers can last 30 years or more – as much as twice as long as systems powered by natural gas or propane.

The bottom line: Whether your choosing a home that’s new or new for you, take a good long look at homes powered by heating oil – the tried and true fuel for homes in New England.

Need a new heating oil supplier for a home you’ve recently bought? Call the pros at Jack F. Corse for the most reliable heating oil deliveries in our Lamoille County service area.