Advantages of using Oil Heat...

Written by John Bogdanski
President, OilHeatMarketing.com

Thinking about getting a new home heating system? Before making a decision, savvy consumers should consider the many advantages of heating oil. A far cry from the smelly oil burners of the past, today’s oil heating systems provide clean, safe, efficient, cost effective and environmentally sound heat that provide security against the cold. New technology has created the most efficient generation of domestic heating oil systems ever.

Home heating oil systems burn cleaner now than ever before. And because heating oil burns 400 degrees hotter than natural gas or electricity, your home heats up faster and requires less fuel than other types of heating systems.
Using heating oil means you can keep your supply of fuel on your own property. Regardless of how cold it gets, you’ve got “heating insurance.” On the other hand, in very cold weather natural gas customers can find themselves out of heat due to severe drop in gas line pressure.
Dropping a lighted match into a vial of heating oil puts out the match flame because heating oil in liquid form is well below its flash point of 140°F, the temperature at which it begins to vaporize in order to fire inside a burner. Striking a match in the presence of natural gas or propane and the fuel bursts into flames.

In the old days, oil burners were known to be inefficient combusters. But thanks to breakthrough technology, modern oil heating systems are high-efficiency, low emission combusters that give you more for your oil heating dollar even as they keep the air you breathe cleaner.

Heating with oil is cost-effective because heating oil prices are 2.5 to 5.5 times lower than electricity. Converting from gas to oil heat can substantially reduce energy costs as older gas heaters frequently operate at less than 70% efficiency. While the installed cost of an electric heat system appears attractive the annual operating costs quickly exceed first time savings. In the majority of cases, converting to efficient oil heat offers a very good payback.

Home heating oil is environmentally sound. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic and contains no proven cancer-causing agents. Correctly installed residential heating oil tanks are not a danger to the environment or to human health. In fact, home oil burners produce less than .003 of all the particulate emissions in the U.S. Electric, coal and wood heat are far more harmful the quality of the air we breathe.
Oil heat is safe. Properly installed and routinely maintained, modern oil heating systems are safer than natural gas systems. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that gas-fueled appliances cause far more deaths from carbon monoxide than do liquid-fueled appliances! Another important safety advantage is that even if a leak should occur, heating oil is non-explosive. When natural gas or propane leaks, an explosive mixture of air and fuel quickly forms.