Home Heating Oil FAQ
Everything You Should Know About This Popular Home Heating Fuel
If you’re new to northern New Jersey, or you’re purchasing your first home, you may be looking for information about the best way to heat it. The good part is, you have a few options—propane, natural gas, electricity, but the best option for the damp cold winters here in northern New Jersey and lower New York State is oil heat. Those other fuels just don’t provide the same heating energy!
What Is Heating Oil?
Heating oil is a refined form of crude oil that comes from deep wells both on land and offshore. Most heating oil today is called #2 heating oil, and all the heating oil in New York and New Jersey is ultra-low sulfur heating oil. Ultra-low sulfur heating oil is cleaner—and cleaner-burning—than “regular” heating oil of as recent as a decade ago.
What are the Benefits of Oil Heat?
What makes heating oil a better way to heat your home? Heating oil has a higher BTU output per gallon. That means it will warm up your home faster, to a greater degree, than other types of fuels.
Higher BTUs also means you’ll use your heating oil supply more slowly than, say, propane. That means that even if the per-gallon cost of propane is less than heating oil, you will pay less to heat your house with heating oil.
Heating systems and equipment that run on oil are generally less expensive to purchase and tend to last longer, too. A heating oil-fired furnace can last nearly 30 years, and a heating oil-fired boiler can last 25 years. New heating oil systems also now burn fuel 99.9% cleanly, according to studies conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven Laboratory. That means heating oil is many times better for the environment than it used to be.
Is Heating Oil a Safe Home Heating Fuel?
Most people are surprised to learn that heating oil doesn’t ignite at room temperature and is nonflammable in liquid form. Heating oil must be heated to 114° and vaporized via the combustion process to burn.
If it’s stored properly, in a well-maintained storage tank, heating oil is safe for the environment, too.
Heating Oil is a Cleaner, Green Choice for Home Heating
The oil used in homes today is dramatically different than the oil burned in the past. Thanks in part to the transition to ultra-low sulfur heating oil, particulate emissions have been reduced significantly from the already low levels of the past few decades.
So how much cleaner is it?
Traditional heating oil has a sulfur content of up to 4,000 parts per million. In contrast, ultra-low sulfur heating oil has a sulfur content of just 15 parts per million.
Because it’s so clean-burning, ultra-low sulfur heating oil improves the efficiency of your heating system—saving you money. It also helps your system last longer and reduces breakdowns.
Need a Delivery of Heating Oil? Call Bolkema Today!
If you heat your home with oil, you need a heating oil company you can count on for reliable heating oil delivery service. Bolkema has been providing reliable heating oil delivery to customers in northern New Jersey and lower New York State for nearly a century. We provide convenient delivery service as well as price protection plans, equipment installation and service and so much more.
Contact us today to learn more and become a customer.