Things to Know About Heating Oil
Have you ever wondered how heating oil is made?
Heating oil begins as crude oil extracted from the earth. Because crude oil has impurities that won’t work in an oil-burning furnace or boiler, it goes through a process called refining. During the refining process, the oil is distilled. Distillation is a process where crude oil is heated with high-pressure steam to approximately 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Through this process, hydrocarbons are removed from crude oil and become their own pure substances. Those substances are then purified and blended into heating oil.
Is heating oil safe?
Heating oil doesn’t ignite at room temperature; in fact, if you drop a lit match into a pool of heating oil, it will go out, just as if you had dropped it in water. If a leak should happen, it’s not an explosive hazard. The fumes from home heating oil are not fatal, which means should you have an emergency you will have a much better chance of realizing what’s going on before it’s too late.
Strides have been made to make home heating oil cleaner, safer, and healthier for the environment. Sulfur in heating compounds contributes greatly to greenhouse gas emissions. In the last two decades sulfur in oil has been reduced from well over one percent to about .5 percent, resulting in a nearly 100 percent decrease. Additionally, burner emissions have reached to near-zero levels to further mitigate the impact home heating oil has on our atmosphere.
Enjoy the efficiency of heating oil.
Did you know that a gallon of heating oil produces 35% more heat than a gallon of natural gas? That means you can use less fuel to make the same amount of heat. Additionally, heating oil produces the hottest flame of any home heating fuel, allowing it to warm your house faster.
Oil is becoming more effective a method fr home heating, as technology improves in production, processing, and delivery. Current methods of production and use, heating oil is approximately 16 percent more energy efficient than gas. Heating oil generates 140,000 BTU (British thermal units, a unit of measuring heat) per gallon versus natural gas, which creates 100,000 BTUs per gallon. That means it takes about 40 percent more natural gas to create the same amount of heat as oil.
Furnaces have become better, cleaner and more efficient too.
For the past 50 years, furnaces have evolved and have become 95 percent cleaner and markedly more durable. New oil heating systems produce no soot, dirt, or air contaminants, efficiently improving heating output.
For optimal efficiency furnaces and heating units should be professionally cleaned and filters replaced annually.
Maintaining your furnace will more quickly pay for itself in utility savings, especially over the lifespan ofyour furnace. NALA offers an affordable oil burner service contract to fit your budget.
If you wish to learn more about heating oil and ways to save o your energy bills, be sure to bookmark our NEWS page. If a history of uninterrupted service and responsive and capable customer service staff are a priority with your home heating oil company, we’re confident NALA Heating Oil will be your first and last stop for your home heating services. Call NALA today and discover how you may stay out of the cold.