Heating Oil Is Safe, Clean, and Efficient
Being safe at home is just one of the reasons many people prefer to heat their home with oil instead of natural gas. With everything that’s happening in the world today, the last thing you want is to feel unsafe at home.
For starters, heating oil cannot explode. The oil in your tank is as likely to explode as the water in your backyard swimming pool. It’s that safe.
Plus, with an oil tank on your property, you can always count on having a secure, on-site supply at your home. Heating oil is easily transported and handled by highly trained professionals, who use equipment and techniques that keep safety at the forefront.
Contrast all that to natural gas delivery. If an underground natural gas pipeline gets damaged, customers may lose their supply (and heat) until repairs get done. Unlike heating oil, you cannot stock up on natural gas when the weather gets cold! Occasionally, you will also read sad news about a natural gas explosion that took lives.
Additionally, unlike natural gas, a heating oil system poses a very low risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. If an oil burner malfunctions (most often due to a lack of maintenance), the safety devices in the unit will typically shut the oil furnace or oil boiler off. You cannot get that peace of mind with a natural gas boiler or furnace. Read more about safety.
Bioheat® Fuel Burns Cleaner than Natural Gas
In New Jersey, many gallons of heating oil are classified as Bioheat fuel. While most of the Bioheat fuel is still in the B5 range (95% heating oil and 5% biofuel blend), it’s expected that B20 will soon be the norm with even higher blends to follow. The higher blends will lead to an even cleaner, greener, more renewable liquid fuel.
Right now, Bioheat fuel is making an immediate impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions for our climate. The heating oil industry’s embrace of renewable Bioheat fuel is transforming home heating and helping to create a better future.
Read more about Bioheat fuel so you can feel good about your next heating oil delivery.
Is Heating Oil More Efficient than Natural Gas?
Yes. Oil generates a whopping 138,000 Btu of heat for every gallon burned and warms a home evenly and efficiently. An equivalent amount of natural gas only produces about 100,000 BTU of heat.
This is because the flame in a heating oil system burns much hotter than other energy systems. This produces more heat and warmer air or water, which leads to evenly distributed heat throughout the house. So, when the outdoor temperatures are in the single digits, that powerful heat output can help keep your home as cozy as ever.
Technology has also brought great improvements in heating oil equipment efficiency that has reduced annual fuel consumption by as much as 40%. This has saved oil heat consumers a lot of money on fuel.
Today’s heating equipment regularly achieves efficiency levels of 85% or better. With the introduction of higher blends of Bioheat fuel, we will start to see super high-efficiency systems available in the U.S. These systems will achieve efficiency levels of 90% or more!
See how much you can save right now with a new heating oil system.