Over the years, the oil heat industry has made major breakthroughs in fuel cleanliness and heating system technology. Homeowners today need an average of 500 fewer gallons of oil to heat their homes each year than they did 25 years ago. That’s because heating oil systems are much more efficient than they were in the past.
The recent advent of ultra-low-sulfur fuel marks another major advance in making oil heat more environmentally friendly.
Looking ahead, it’s expected that heating oil will eventually become a carbon-neutral fuel, which means it will have a minimal carbon footprint and minimum greenhouse gas emissions.
The long-term environmental impact of natural gas is not as bright. Methane — the main component of natural gas — has the capacity to trap so much heat in the atmosphere that one ton of it causes 32 times as much warming as one ton of carbon dioxide over the course of a century.*
There has also been an alarming increase in natural gas explosions, some of which have been the result of overpressurization in aging natural gas pipelines.
The bottom line: If you’re looking for a safe, clean-burning heating fuel, you already have that with heating oil.
*Source: Los Angeles Times, 3/2/19.
