Photo of the Day: The NYMEX Mini-Museum
An exhibit at the NYMEX uses lifesized figures to explain how floor trading used to work before the advent of electronic trading and clearing. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in downtown Manhattan is a sprawling space right on the banks of the Hudson River. In addition to several trading floors, office space, a barbershop, and a jewelry store, there is a small museum of commodities trading. The life-sized plaster figures in today’s Photo of the Day are part of an exhibit that explains how commodities trading at the NYMEX used to work, before the advent of electronic trading. The shouting fellow on the left is a trader calling for a transaction. The man with glasses on sitting down in front of him collects scraps of paper from traders that are records of specific trades and enters them into the record. Today, LED screens and computer tablets have streamlined the process, but the wild shouting and gesturing yelling that are the hallmarks of open outcry trading still occur ever day.
Photo of the Day: Biodiesel Filling Station
A biodiesel pump at Hart Petroleum on Long Island. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
We love biodiesel at HeatingOil.com because it’s a renewable fuel that heats homes while producing minimal greenhouse gas emissions and offers an exciting long-term path of development for the heating oil industry. This green fuel can be refined from many different sources, including used cooking oil and algae. After that, it’s mixed with traditional petroleum-based fuel and put in home heating systems or diesel engines.
Today’s photo of the day, taken at HeatingOil.com approved dealer Hart Petroleum’s terminal in New Hyde Park, New York, is of one place where customers can fill up on biodiesel. As the sign indicates, the pump in the picture delivers ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel mixed with biodiesel. The “B-20 blend” label indicates that the blend is 20 percent biodiesel mixed with 80 percent petroleum-based diesel.
Photo of the Day: Shiny New Heating Oil Tank
A technician from Medford Heating of New Jersey installs a brand new outdoor heating oil tank. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
Generally, heating oil storage tanks have a lifespan of about 20 years. Of course, tanks can and do last longer than that, but waiting too long to replace an old tank is a risk not worth taking. The older a tank is, whether it’s an indoor, outdoor, underground, or above ground model, is a risk not worth taking. The older a tank is, the higher the risk of corrosion (rusting), which weakens the tank walls and seams and could lead to leaks and spills. Any release of heating oil by the tank cannot only be smelly and harmful the environment, but also hugely expensive to clean up properly. Above, a conscientious homeowner has invested in a new outdoor, above ground tank. The tank was installed by HeatingOil.com approved dealer Medford Fuel of Medford, New Jersey and our photographer Nicholas Whitaker was there to capture the process.
Photo of the Day: NY State Capitol
The facade of the New York State Capitol in Albany. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
On a trip to Albany, HeatingOil.com photographer Nicholas Whitaker took some great photos of the capitol building, home of the New York State legislature. The image above provides a closer look at the intricate stonework in the buildings façade and the splash of color provided by the building’s red roof. Some important heating oil-related decisions have been made in the building, such as the law mandating low-sulfur heating oil that passed the state senate in June of this year.
Photo of the Day: Heating Oil Truck Fill-Up
A General Utilities heating oil truck filling up at Hart Petroleum's terminal in New Hyde Park, NY. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
Where does the heating oil that your dealer’s truck delivers to your home come from? Heating oil delivery trucks fill up at wholesale distribution locations called racks. Above, a truck owned by HeatingOil.com approved dealer General Utilities fills up at a Hart Petroleum rack in New Hyde Park, New York. Hart Petroleum, also a HeatingOil.com approved dealer, is one of a few heating oil dealers around the Northeast that buy and distribute wholesale fuel in addition to supplying residential retail customers with heating oil.
Photo of the Day: Inside an Ancient Oil-Fired Boiler
A technician from Boro Fuel of Brooklyn, NY makes repairs to the interior of a boiler that is about 40 years old. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
At HeatingOil.com, we do our best to inform readers that a modern, high-efficiency boiler or furnace is perhaps the single most important factor in saving money on heating oil bills. Over the last thirty years new heating equipment designs have made boilers and furnaces more than 200 percent more efficient—this means that a new, more efficient heating system can save a family $600 or more each year over a system that is twenty or thirty years old. Today’s Photo of the Day offers a look inside one of those creaky, inefficient boilers as a technician from HeatingOil.com approved dealer Boro Fuel makes repairs to the unit. Notice the bulky design and very old metal components—both are hallmarks of heating inefficiency.
Let today’s Photo of the Day be a reminder—a reminder to keep your own heating system running smoothly and efficiently. And if the furnace or boiler in your basement looks anything like the one pictured above, it’s time to invest in a more efficient piece of equipment. It will be well worth it.
Photo of the Day: Heating Oil Truck Overfill Monitor
An overfill monitor on a heating oil truck. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
Before heating oil trucks make deliveries to individual customers, they pick up heating fuel from wholesale locations called terminals. At the terminals, the trucks are attached by hose to structures called racks (in the heating oil industry, wholesale prices are also called “rack prices”). To monitor the filling of tanker trucks with heating oil, most trucks are equipped with electronic devices that help prevent overfills and spills. As such, these devices are called overfill monitors. Today’s Photo of the Day is a close encounter with an overfill monitor on a heating oil truck, just one of many pieces of equipment that help move heating oil from huge storage tanks at terminals to your home.
HeatingOil.com Photo of the Day: A Cargo Ship on the Hudson
A bulk carrier ship on the Hudson River. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
Much of the petroleum products that Americans consume, including heating oil, are moved by ship. Crude oil crosses oceans to arrive at American refineries and heating oil and gasoline travels up and down rivers to move from refiner to wholesaler to distributor. The above photo was taken last winter from the George Washington Bridge Hudson River at the northern edge of New York City. We’re not sure exactly what products the cargo ship is carrying, but they could certainly be barrels of heating oil!
HeatingOil.com Photo of the Day: Biodiesel Storage
This Hart Petroleum storage tank is specifically designated to store a 20 percent blend of biodiesel used to fuel cars and trucks. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
Biodiesel is the renewable, biodegradable, low-emissions fuel that is the future of the heating oil industry. Today’s photo of the day comes from the biodiesel and heating oil storage, blending, and distribution facility owned and operated by HeatingOil.com approved dealer Hart Petroleum on Long Island.
The storage tank pictured above is for B20 biodiesel, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent traditional petroleum diesel. The fuel can power a variety of cars and trucks with diesel engines. Bio-heating oil is stored in separate tanks at Hart’s facility
HeatingOil.com Photo of the Day: Organized Chaos at the NYMEX
Commodity traders at work at the New York Mercantile Exchange, March 2010. Some of using hand or voice signals to buy or sell contracts during an “open outcry” session. Others are executing trades electronically using electronic tablets. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
This Spring, HeatingOil.com reporters visited the New York Mercantile Exchange, where heating oil commodities products are traded and the market price of heating oil is determined. The visit was stimulating and educational, as it provided an inside look at the frenetic activities that take place at the NYMEX every day and affect the prices that millions of Americans pay for heating oil, gasoline, and other energy products.
Today’s Photo of the Day was taken from a balcony above the trading floor during our visit, and captures a split-second of “open outcry” trading. In the image, you can see all the shouting, gesturing, and jockeying for position that lead to millions if not billions of dollars’ worth of energy commodities changing hands each day.
HeatingOil.com Photo of the Day: Heating Oil Truck Meter
A meter used to measure heating oil deliveries and print delivery receipts on a truck from Boro Fuel Oil in Brooklyn, NY. (image: Nicholas Whitaker for HeatingOil.com)
For our first ever Photo of the Day, we bring you a simple but invaluable piece of heating oil equipment: the delivery truck meter. As those gallons of heating oil flow out of your dealer’s truck and into your home storage tank, the meter keeps track of exactly how much oil is delivered and prints a receipt. The meter shown here, on a truck owned by HeatingOil.com dealer Boro Fuel Oil, is an analog model used by many heating oil dealers, though digital counters are coming into wider use. Meters are checked at random for accuracy by state agencies such as the Department of Weights and Measures.
