Is Heating Oil a Clean Burning Fuel for My Home?

Heating Oil Burns More Cleanly Now, with Fewer Emissions

Heating oil is playing a big role in the drive towards clean energy, thanks in part to vast reductions of sulfur levels.

As a result, heating oil burns more cleanly, with fewer emissions. You also benefit from better heating efficiency and easier maintenance, since ultra-low-sulfur oil leaves fewer deposits on heat exchangers.

Besides being clean-burning, heating oil also generates a very high number of Btus of heat energy per gallon, so it will warm your home reliably—and more evenly. Modern, efficient heating-oil systems in well-insulated homes can help homeowners achieve the same amount of warmth while using much less fuel!

And with the growth of ultra-low sulfur Bioheat® fuel, heating oil is on a path to becoming a carbon-neutral fuel.

Advanced liquid heating fuels like Bioheat fuel combine ultra-low-sulfur heating oil and biodiesel, which is made from renewable products like used cooking oil, plant oils and animal fats, among other products. Made in the U.S.A., Bioheat fuel is one of the cleanest-burning energy sources.

Not only do heating systems burn fuel more efficiently with Bioheat fuel, but equipment also lasts longer and requires fewer repairs. No heating system modifications are necessary to start using renewable Bioheat fuel.

The end game is to eventually transition to B100 Bioheat fuel (0% petroleum, 100% biofuel). All of this is exciting news for anyone who appreciates the benefits of using modern heating oil to stay safe and warm at an affordable cost.

Heating Oil Is a Remarkably Safe Fuel

People still have big misconceptions about not only the cleanliness of heating oil, but the safety of heating oil too. The truth is heating oil has always been a remarkably safe fuel. People who understand this say that this is a big reason why they choose to stay with oilheat.

Heating oil:

• cannot burn in its liquid state. It takes an advanced high-tech burner to ignite the oil. Before combustion can occur, heating oil must first be vaporized by an oil burner at temperatures above 140°.
• cannot explode. If you drop a lit match into a bucket of heating oil, the flame will go out just as if you dropped the match into water.
• poses a very low risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. If an oil burner malfunctions (most often due to a lack of maintenance), the safety devices in the unit will typically shut the furnace or boiler off.
• storage tanks are now designed with corrosion-resistant materials. New technology allows for remote monitoring to protect against the rare event of a leak and guarantees that you will always have a sufficient supply of heating oil on hand.

You will be able to enhance heating oil safety even further by getting system maintenance done regularly. This will ensure that your heating oil furnace or heating oil boiler runs with the greatest safety and efficiency.

But if your heating oil system is more than 25 years old, or if you’ve had more than a few repairs in the last couple of years, you should replace your outdated heating equipment. As noted above, today’s high-efficiency furnaces provide heat more efficiently than equipment made a generation ago.

Higher efficiency means more energy savings, which of course translates into lower energy costs. This is why it pays to learn as much as you can about today’s high-tech heating solutions—and your heating oil equipment service contractor can help you, with all the latest information on new, high-efficiency heating oil furnaces and boilers. They can also tell you about an equipment rebate program sponsored by the Michigan Petroleum Association/Michigan Association of Convenience Stores (MPAMACS), with the support of the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA).

Reach out to your Michigan heating oil service company to learn more about new, high-efficiency heating oil systems.