Oil Heat Vs. Natural Gas Home Heating
Many South Shore homeowners rely on home heating oil to keep them warm and safe throughout the winter –but some of them continue to wonder whether switching to natural gas might be a better move in the long run.
Why Heating Oil?
Here are four reasons why sticking with heating oil is the way to go:
- Total cost of ownership – Looking at the price of the two fuels, you might think that natural gas is cheaper than heating oil – but when you consider the bigger picture, heating oil comes out ahead. Burning heating oil generates about 40 percent more heat than burning the equivalent amount of natural gas, which means you won’t need to burn as much of it to stay warm. You also won’t pay utility fees for heating oil. Heating oil appliances typically cost less and last longer than natural gas appliances, too, which means you’ll spend less on equipment over the years. The biggest cost to consider, however, is how much it will set you back to convert your oil system to gas – more than $10K, in most cases.
- Safety – Heating oil is about the safest fuel around because it doesn’t burn under normal household conditions – it needs to be vaporized first, then burned under precise conditions that really only occur inside your boiler of furnace. Natural gas, on the other hand, is volatile under normal household conditions.
- Efficiency – Advances in technology by the heating oil industry have made fuel oil one of the most efficient sources of heat – with equipment efficiency ratings reaching as high as 95 percent. Add that efficiency number to the 40 percent improvement in heating power and you begin to see why heating oil is the winner here.
- Green power – Burning natural gas produces methane – a much more significant greenhouse gas contributor per equivalent volume than carbon dioxide. Today’s heating oil produces fewer carbon emissions than natural gas, which has become more of a carbon producer as the use of liquefied natural gas continues to rise.
As you can see, heating oil has some significant advantages compared to natural gas, even at a higher superficial fuel cost – especially when you factor in the cost and inconvenience of converting your equipment.
Heating oil – it’s a hard fuel to beat! To take advantage of the benefits of heating oil, contact Scott Williams today and get reliable heating oil deliveries in Suffolk, Norfolk and Plymouth counties, Massachusetts.