Complete guide to residential oil heat
An Important Message from the Oil Heat Council of New Hampshire
Our professional Home Heating Oil Technicians are trained and work everyday to help consumers not just keep home heating oil and air conditioning systems running-but to keep them running at peak efficiency in order to help you control your energy costs. When was the last time you took advantage of our Energy Conservation Technicians’ ability to reduce you energy consumption?
Energy Costs
All energy costs have been rising. From time to time one energy source may have an advantage over another however; over the past 5 years heating oil has averaged 37% less expensive than natural gas. Over the past 10 years heating oil has averaged 44% less expensive than natural gas. Over the past 15 years heating oil has averaged 36% less expensive than natural gas. In dollar terms- a natural gas user spent $3900.00 more than a comparable oil heat user to heat a home over the past 10 years.
Future costs of energy are difficult to predict, though the U.S. department of Energy estimates that oil and natural gas will generally behave about the same in terms of their price increases and decreases out into the next 20 years.
Energy Supplies
All of the new natural gas coming into the Northeast comes from Canada. All of the LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] being proposed for the Northeast in projects like Broadwater in Long Island Sound come from Africa or the Caribbean. Suffice it to say natural gas comes from foreign sources, just as some of our oil comes from foreign sources.
Switching Fuels Makes No Sense
Your heating system is a 20 year investment. Given that you have saved money being an oil heat consumer over the last 20 years and that future energy costs are impossible to predict with certainty, the wisest choice to make is to conserve energy and reduce consumption. Conservation is less expensive and has the fastest pay-back or return on investment than any choice you face to control your energy costs. Paying $6000.00 for a conversion to another fuel makes no economic or energy sense at all unless you are an electric heat consumer to convert to oilheat.
What Conservation Measures Could You Take
There are a number of good investments consumers can make to reduce their energy consumption and their energy costs.
- Install a Programmable Thermostat
Consumers who use programmable thermostats can see a return on investment of 124% or more. For as little as $50.00, the programmable thermostat produces one of the biggest savings for the lowest cost.
- Maintaining Efficiency
Consumers who use their Energy Efficiency Technicians to maintain their heating systems at maximum efficiency can save between 5% and 10% per year on energy costs. This means even older systems can be kept at relatively good efficiencies for remarkably low cost using professional Energy Efficiency Technicians.
- The Whole Dwelling
There are dozens of ways for you to control energy costs ranging from things you can do for free or relatively low cost to installing programmable thermostats to using an Energy Efficiency Technician to maintain your system-to upgrading your old system to a new, super-high efficiency system of the type we have available today.
Replacing Equipment
Today’s oil heat technology is actually a combination of several 21st century innovations from a number of equipment manufacturers-things like side-wall venting, indirect water heating, and higher efficiency standards. Newer furnaces and boilers are smaller, quieter and they work wonderfully with other new home heating technology like programmable thermostats and radiant flooring.
Today’s high technology energy solutions reach efficiencies of 90% or higher and dramatically reduce consumption, emissions and save energy dollars.
It’s a well known fact that replacing an older heating system with ultramodern oil heat can be one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of fuel you use.
We Can Make It Easy
Upgrading an older, inefficient system to a new high efficiency system is something that generally pays for itself in less than 5 years and means you save hard earned cash by installing the latest in high-efficiency equipment. Your local OHCNH full service heating oil retailer or HVAC contractor can assist you with financing you energy conservation up-grade.
Government Helps
New Hampshire has instituted a number of tax rebates and tax credits for improving energy efficiency. Please visit www.nh.gov/oep for the latest information about what you can take advantage of to become more energy efficient!
Bioheat
America’s newest alternative fuel is here today- Bioheat. Clean, renewable energy with Domestic content that dramatically reduces reliance on foreign energy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and reduces your home or business’s carbon footprint.
Stop The Meter Crunch
If you are an electric heat user you are paying the highest electric rates in the lower 48 states. On a BTU basis, you pay the equivalent of $7.44 a gallon to heat with electricity. Your full service heating oil retailer and licensed, professional Energy Efficiency Technician can get you off the electric meter and show you pay-back of less than 4 years to convert to modern, clean, super efficient oil heating systems. Replacing electric heat in homes with oil equipment lowers greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50%- or 16 tons of greenhouse gases per year for each house that is converted to oil. Other benefits of conversion from electric to oil heat include: a 60% reduction in heating costs and lower air pollutant emissions.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Brookhaven National Laboratory’s oil heat research program has also helped to substantially reduce emissions of carbon dioxide gas, by more than 470 million tons over the past 15 years. Brookhaven’s oilheat research program is credited with efficiency improvements that have reduced fuel oil use in homes by more than 40 percent. This is a remarkable record of accomplishment unmatched by other energy use sectors in the US. If all energy use sectors reduced fuel consumption by 40%, as accomplished to date by residential oilheat, the global warming reduction targets for greenhouse gases that have recently been proposed worldwide could be reached easily. Homeowners with older oil heating systems can also improve their equipment’s efficiency, lower heating costs and reduce greenhouse emissions by implementing a range of proven energy conservation measures.