Home Heating Tips

Today’s heating systems provide clean, safe, and environmentally friendly ways to reliably and quickly heat your Southeastern Pennsylvania home. The new technology available within home heating systems has made heating oil and propane even more efficient, helping to cut emissions and shrink your carbon footprint. The team at Taylor Oil & Propane invites you to continue reading this page to learn about everything that heating oil and propane have to offer!

Heating Oil Tips & Facts for PA Homeowners

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a report stating that oil burners are now one of the cleanest combustion sources available. There are several benefits associated with using home heating oil, as you can see below:

• It’s a cost-effective option. New breakthroughs in technology have made modern heating oil systems a high-efficiency, low-emission means of giving you more for your heating oil dollar. Heating oil burns 400 degrees hotter than natural gas or electricity, meaning that your home will heat up faster and require less fuel to run than natural gas or electric heating systems.
• Efficiency is our goal. While the initial cost to install an electric heating system may appear attractive, its annual operating costs quickly exceed installation savings. You’ll find that with an oil heating system, your costs can end up 2.5 to 5.5 times lower than that of electricity. Converting to heating oil can also substantially reduce energy costs because older heating systems often operate at less than 70% efficiency. Efficiency ratings on new heating oil systems normally range from 86%–87%.
• It gives you “heating insurance.” With heating oil, you can keep a supply of fuel on your own property. Regardless of how cold it gets, you’ll always have enough supply to keep warm, unlike natural gas customers who can find themselves out of heat due to severe drops in gas line pressure during extended cold spells.
• It’s very safe. Properly installed and routinely maintained, modern heating oil systems are safer than natural gas systems. Even if a leak should occur, heating oil is non-explosive, while natural gas leaks quickly create an explosive mixture of air and fuel. In fact, dropping a lighted match into a vial of heating oil will put the flame out.
• Our systems run very clean. When properly adjusted and maintained, new heating oil systems create no soot, dirt, or odors in the home. In the past 20 years, the sulfur content of heating oil has been reduced from over 1% to an average of .25%.
• It produces air that is cleaner to breathe. The air from the heat produced by an oil furnace is significantly cleaner than other types of heating systems, producing less than .003 of all the particulate emissions in the country.
• It’s environmentally sound. A correctly installed residential heating oil tank is no danger to the environment or to human health. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic, and contains no proven cancer-causing agents. Home oil burners produce less than .003 of all the particulate emissions in the U.S., while electric, coal, and wood heat are far more harmful to air quality.
• It’s a sustainable option. Almost half of U.S. petroleum comes from our own oil-producing states. Studies have shown that there is more oil in the ground than we have ever extracted, and that supplies will last for over three more generations.

For more information on the benefits of home heating oil, or to schedule a consultation to discuss how an oil heating system can benefit your home, contact Taylor Oil & Propane today.

Propane Tips & Facts for Eastern PA Residents

Propane is a hydrocarbon (C3H8) and is sometimes referred to as liquefied petroleum gas, LP-gas, or LPG. Propane is produced from both natural gas processing and crude oil refining, in roughly equal amounts from each source. Most propane used in the United States is produced domestically, with about 15 percent imported from overseas. It is nontoxic, colorless, and virtually odorless. As with natural gas, an identifying odor is added, so the gas can be readily detected. Here are the top reasons why propane is a popular and dependable fuel source:

• Propane is inexpensive. Propane offers an attractive combination: It costs less than electricity and works harder. Because propane burns hotter and more evenly than many other fuels, appliances powered by propane use less energy. The energy savings alone help pay for the new equipment.
• Propane is convenient to use. In the United States, there are approximately 70,000 miles of interstate pipelines and more than 25,000 retail dealers making propane readily available for most homeowners. And because propane is stored in portable tanks, it can be used in areas beyond gas mains. To fuel homes, large tanks can be buried underground because propane is a nontoxic, nonpoisonous fuel that doesn’t contaminate aquifers or soil. Refueling a propane vehicle takes about the same amount of time as refueling a gasoline vehicle. Nationwide, propane refueling infrastructure consists of more than 10,000 public and private sites.
• Propane is one of the cleanest burning of all fossil fuels. Propane is an approved, clean fuel listed in the 1990 Clean Air Act and the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Tests conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that propane-fueled vehicles produce 30 percent to 90 percent less carbon monoxide and about 50 percent fewer toxins and other smog-producing emissions than gasoline engines. Propane also is nontoxic, so it’s not harmful to soil or water.
• Compare the costs. According to 1990 figures (from the U.S. Department of Energy) based on national averages, propane is about one-third the cost of electricity, although this may vary with utility costs in different areas.

For more information on the benefits of propane gas, or to schedule a consultation to discuss how a propane heating system can benefit your home, contact Taylor Oil & Propane now.