There’s a lot of talk about alternative fuels these days. But with our damp, coastal winters, you want to find a fuel you can count on to keep your home and family warm. That’s why smart homeowners in central long island rely on heating oil more than any other fuel source. Heating oil is a safe and efficient way to warm your home because other fuels just don’t provide the same heating energy.
Whether you’re new to the northeast, or you’ve just purchased your first home (congratulations!), you may have a few questions about what exactly heating oil is, why you need it, and how to go about getting it.
Here are answers to some of the questions we get most often from both new and existing customers alike:
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 State is ultra-low sulfur heating oil.
Ultra-low sulfur heating oil is cleaner—and cleaner-burning—than “regular” heating oil.
The oil used in homes today is dramatically different than the oil burned in the past. Ever-more advanced oil refining techniques have produced ultra-low sulfur heating oil, with particulate emissions reduced significantly from the already low levels of the past few decades.
So just 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. And because it’s so clean-burning, ultra-low sulfur heating oil improves the efficiency of your heating system—saving you money by helping your system last longer and reducing breakdowns, too.
Heating oil has a higher BTU output per gallon. That means it will warm up your home faster, to a greater overall degree, than other types of fuels such as electric home heating, for example.
Higher BTUs also mean you’ll use your heating oil supply at a slower pace, on average, than, say, propane. That means you will pay less to heat your house with heating oil, even if the per-gallon cost of propane itself is less per gallon.
Heating systems and equipment that run on oil are generally less expensive to purchase and tend to last longer as well.
For example, a heating oil-fired furnace can last 28 years, while 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. This means heating oil is exceptionally better for the environment than it used to be even as recently as thirty years ago.
Heating oil is an incredibly safe fuel. It doesn’t ignite at room temperature and is nonflammable in liquid form. To burn, it must be heated to 114° and vaporized via the combustion process.
If you heat your home with oil, you need a heating oil company you can count on for reliable delivery service. Southville Petroleum has been providing reliable heating oil delivery to customers in central Suffolk County and eastern Nassau County for more than 30 years.
Customers love our gold plan, which includes automatic delivery service that helps you avoid runouts while eliminating the hassle of having to watch your tank. We also offer a convenient budget plan and price protection options to help you manage fuel costs throughout the year.
Contact us today to learn more or become a customer. We’d love to show you the difference we can make!