Should I Buy A Home That Uses Heating Oil and Why?

If you’re in the market for a new (or new to you) home, you’ll have a lot of choices to make before you take the plunge – the size and location of the home being the two most obvious. But there’s another consideration that should factor into your decision – one that people don’t always work into the equation when comparing homes: how the home is heated.

A home heating system will have a big impact on your quality of life: not only will it affect your family’s comfort for half the year, but it will also affect you’re your energy bills – often significantly.

Here in the Sullivan County, there are many options for heating our homes, including natural gas, propane, and electricity. But one option offers unique advantages that other heating options struggle to match: heating oil.

Why choose a home that uses heating oil, all other things being equal?

Seven important reasons heating oil is a good idea:

1. Efficiency – Many of today’s oil-fired furnaces and boilers boast efficiency percentage ratings well into the 90s; combine that efficiency with the high burning temperature of heating oil (see #2) and you’ll see why heating oil usually delivers more heating bang for your buck.
2. Beaucoup BTUs – Put your hand over the vents in a home heated by an electric heat pump and you’ll feel air that is…well, room temperature – not the cozy warm feeling you get from the vents of an oil-heated home. When it comes to pumping out the BTUs, nothing beats good old-fashioned oil heat. Heating oil burns 300 degrees hotter than natural gas, which means your home will heat faster and you’ll need to burn less fuel to stay comfortable.
3. Safety – Unlike natural gas, heating oil is not volatile at room temperature. In fact, heating oil does not even burn in a liquid state – it must be vaporized and heated to 140 degrees in order for combustion to occur.
4. Abundant supply – During the winter, high demand for fuel can strain supply for natural gas – but that will rarely happen with heating oil.
5. Value – Adjusted for inflation, today’s heating oil prices are about the same as they were in the mid-1970s, making heating oil a bargain.
6. Eco-friendliness – Eco-friendly oil? You bet. Today’s ultra-low sulfur heating oil (ULSHO) burns 95 percent cleaner than heating oil did 50 years ago. Clean burning fuel also means longer lasting equipment (see below).
7. Longer-lasting equipment – With proper maintenance, today’s oil-fired heating furnaces and boilers can last 30 years or more – significantly longer (sometimes twice as long) as systems powered by natural gas or propane. Today’s double-walled heating oil storage tanks last longer than propane tanks, too.

The bottom line: While shopping for a home, consider your home heating system and keep an eye out for oil-heated gems! Once you sign on the dotted line, choose Black Bear for the best value and most reliable heating oil deliveries in Sullivan County, NY.