Heating Oil with Biofuel Is Efficient, Safe and Clean
It’s no surprise that New Jerseyans who heat their home with oil may be thinking of converting to natural gas, or even electric heat, to escape the stress of paying giant heating oil delivery bills next winter. That’s a valid worry, especially if we don’t see relief soon from our current shockingly high fuel prices.
But it’s important to keep things in perspective. For the most part, the price of oil has been fairly stable since 2014. But there have been a lot of changes over the past year or two that have upended the markets, including the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
This problem is not limited to heating oil. Natural gas rates have doubled. Electricity costs are surging. And gasoline and propane have spiked skyward, as well.
If history is a guide, we can expect to see heating oil prices drop pretty significantly in the not-too-distant future.
The Cost of Conversion
Did you know that the upfront cost to convert from heating oil to natural gas can often cost you thousands of dollars? It would take years, if ever, to recoup that cost in energy savings, especially now, with natural gas rates rocketing upward.
Safe at Home with Heating Oil
Being safe at home is just one of the many reasons 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 until repairs get done. Unlike heating oil, you cannot stock up on natural gas when the weather gets cold! Occasionally, you will also read the sad news about a natural gas explosion that took lives.
Additionally, unlike natural gas, an oil heating 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.
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 with a new heating oil system.
Read more about Bioheat fuel.