The Oil Heat Advantage

More than 8 million US households, including homeowners throughout Rhode Island, choose to heat their home with heating oil, and for some pretty good reasons – especially when compared with other options like propane and natural gas.

Here are three key heating oil advantages to think about when you’re choosing the best fuel source for your home:

1. Safety – Heating oil is among the safest of major home energy sources because it does not burn in a liquid state and is non-explosive.
2. Efficiency – Advances in technology by the heating oil industry have made fuel oil one of the most efficient sources of heat, with heating oil equipment efficiency ratings sometimes reaching 90 percent or more.
3. Cost savings – When it comes to heating, cost savings is about more than the per-gallon price of fuel. To measure the true heating value of fuels, you need to compare how much heat they actually produced, measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units).

   Here’s an example where we compare oil and propane considering the BTU value of each fuel for an 85 percent efficient oil heating system versus a 95 percent efficient propane heating system:

   Fuel	Heat produced	Per Gallon cost	Heat produce / dollar
   Fuel oil	130,000 BTU 85%	@$3.10*	35,645 BTUs / dollar
   Propane	95,000 BTU* 95%	@$3.29*	28,291 BTUs / dollar

   As you can see, fuel oil comes out on top by a significant margin, even at a higher per gallon cost.

The bottom line: When you combine new technologies with heating oil’s inherent advantages, it’s hard to beat in a cold climate like we have here in New England. To start benefitting from the advantages of heating oil for your new home build, or to switch to heating oil in your Rhode Island home, contact Vaughn Oil for a FREE, no obligation estimate today.

*EIA New England average residential price on September 13, 2018