What is a Puff Back?
Puff back—hardly a term to inspire fear in the hearts of homeowners, unless they’ve been unfortunate enough to live through one. A puff back is a misfire in the furnace that, at its worst, can send soot throughout your home, requiring expensive cleaning and restoration in addition to repairs on your heating system. While [...]
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Maintaining Your Home Heating Oil System
Like your car or truck, your home heating system requires regular maintenance to function its best. Keeping your furnace (forced air system) or boiler (water or steam systems) in good working order will save you money, reduce pollution, and increase your comfort. Fortunately, home heating systems are more like cars from the 1960s or [...]
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Profile of a Heating Brand: Beckett
by Gregg Gerthard
The United States in 1937 may still have been a country in the middle of the Great Depression, but innovation and entrepreneurship were beginning to stir again. In San Francisco the Golden Gate Bridge opened, and in Ohio the Beckett Corporation was founded. In 1937 Reginald “Reg” Beckett, an engineer, was faced [...]
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Interruptible Natural Gas Service: Why it Matters to Heating Oil Users
by Greg Burt
Many large commercial and residential buildings in urban areas have the capability to heat with either natural gas or heating oil. This allows flexibility in moving to the most advantageously priced fuel, especially at times of peak demand, like a cold snap. These customers frequently opt for so called “interruptible gas service [...]
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If Your Oil Heat System Stops Working, Try This
If your heating system is not running at peak performance, you might not always need a professional repair. Some problems can be remedied by simply changing an air filter or cleaning a thermostat. We’ve compiled a list of common heating system problems and some suggestions on how to solve them. Learning how to troubleshoot [...]
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Your Options for Buying Heating Oil
Whether you’re a new homeowner looking for your first oil company or a dissatisfied customer looking to switch, finding oil companies/vendors can be challenging—as well as understanding delivery choices, pricing, service contracts and other details involved with buying heating oil. In an effort to provide you with as much information as possible—plus save you [...]
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Heating Oil Safety
These days, oil heat is not only cost-effective, clean, and comfortable, it is the safest source of heat. Oil will not burn in a liquid state; if you were to drop a match into oil, it would extinguish as if it were dropped in water. The biggest dangers of oil heat – leaks – [...]
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A Brief History of Heating Oil
The history of oil is a long one, involving many important discoveries and much technological innovation.
3000 BC to 17th century
Before heating oil, petroleum had many uses around the globe. The Bible refers to using pitch for building purposes—cementing walls in Babylon. It can be presumed that Moses’ basket and Noah’s ark were caulked with [...]
Caring For and Replacing Your Heating Oil Tank
On average, a home heating oil tank lasts 15–30 years. However, the consequences of a leak you don’t catch are serious; therefore, once a tank hits 15 years, you should make sure to get it inspected regularly—and consider replacement if any problems crop up, during inspection or otherwise.
Oil Tank Facts
There are two kinds of [...]
The Ins and Outs of Replacing Your Oil Heat System
Whether you’re stepping into your new home for the first time or you want to further invest in your household of many years, the decision to purchase a new heating system could very well be right around the corner. There are many reasons why someone might consider a heating system replacement: breakdowns, repair bills, [...]
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How Oil Heating Systems Work
by Steve Zweig
An Overview: Similarities Between Hot Air and Hot Water Systems Unless you’re living inside a microwave oven, your home is heated by either hot air or hot water. In terms of producing heat, furnaces and boilers function the same way: both a hot air furnace and a hydronic, or hot [...]
Read More » Heating Oil Emissions are Cleaner than You Think
by Greg Burt
Over 8 million American households, mostly in the Northeastern states, rely on heating oil to keep warm in winter. Proponents of alternative fuels, such as natural gas, wood (including pellets) and electricity have often tried to make the case that home heating oil is a “dirty fuel.” Electric power, in particular, has [...]
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Heating Oil Trucks
by Carol Sonenklar
When we think about heating oil, we generally consider what it will cost us and perhaps read about the global/financial/political issues that will affect the price and availability. But here’s another aspect of your heating oil that you probably never think about: the truck that fills your tank.
The tank on a tank [...]
Heating Oil Theft: Where and Why it Happens
by Nick Malinowski
Although gutters, downspouts, copper pipes and lead roofing materials have long been targeted by thieves for their resale value, throughout 2008 homeowners faced a chilling new trend as yet another commonplace residential item began to disappear with alarming frequency leaving residents in the cold. As the price of crude oil soared, incidents [...]
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Buderus: Profile of a Heating Brand
by Greg Burt
If experience counts, Germany’s vernerable Buderus, with nearly 300 years in the heating business, is hard to beat. Though its one of Europe’s oldest companies, Buderus has been operating in the US only since 1990. BBT (Bosch Buderus Thermotechnik) North America imports and distributes hot water boilers, domestic hot water storage tanks, [...]
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