Your energy choices matter. If you’re planning an equipment upgrade, or shopping for or building a new home, you are likely considering all your options. And you should! Depending on where you live, you could consider propane or natural gas, and you may be getting encouraged to go electric. But heating oil offers several advantages for home heating in terms of efficiency, ecological impact, and cost-effectiveness—particularly with the winter temperatures we see in our part of Vermont.
While there are three key benefits, the most surprising to most people is that oil heat has evolved to become as clean as option as most other choices. Here’s what you should know.
Heating oil has always had a bad reputation, especially compared to natural gas. But a big percentage of natural gas is methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Meanwhile, science has been working to make heating oil a cleaner option, and today’s heating oil is very different from the stuff used even twenty years ago. Most states in the Northeast, including vermont, have committed to only using ultra-low sulfur heating oil, which reduces sulfur content in the fuel by 99 percent. That means it burns extremely cleanly, reducing emissions by more than 70% compared to the old type of heating oil.
Heating oil, including ultra-low sulfur heating oil, has a higher Btu output per gallon. In plain English, that means it can warm up your home faster than other types of fuels. What’s more, the newest oil-fired heating systems are highly efficient, often achieving efficiency ratings over 90%, which means they waste very little energy during the heating process. Used together with clean-burning, ultra-low sulfur heating oil improves the efficiency of the heating system even more—saving you money. It also helps your equipment last longer and reduces breakdowns.
The price of any fuel will fluctuate based on a range of factors, from geopolitics to the weather. Gallon for gallon, gas may cost less than heating oil, but heating oil’s efficiency means you can use less fuel to get, and stay, comfortable. The same is true for electric heat, which just doesn’t make sense in frigid conditions. Even under extremely cold temperatures, when you’ll need to use more of any fuel to get more warmth, heating oil will get you there faster.
Heating oil also offers ways to save that you don’t get from a natural gas or electric utility. Corse offers pricing and payment options that let you capture a lower price per gallon, including a pre-buy plan. You can also fill up your tank in the “off” season, when oil prices are typically lowest. You can’t do that with electricity or natural gas.
When you make an investment in heating equipment, you want it to perform well, and last a long time. Consider that a heating oil-fired furnace can last 28 years, while a heating oil-fired boiler can last 25 years. The life expectancy of a gas furnace or boiler can be as little as 10 years.
Jack Corse has been helping families keep comfortable with reliable heating oil deliveries across northern Vermont since 1947. We offer a wide range of services to help make winter easier, from automatic delivery service to budget-friendly payment options to keep your heating bills manageable. We also offer tank inspections—Vermont law requires all heating oil tanks be certified every three years.
Contact us today and let us know how we can help you!