Oil Heat: Still a Great Way to Heat Your Wisconsin Home
Heating Oil Is Clean, Safe and Efficient
Folks in the Badger State can feel good knowing they can always rely on heating oil to keep them safe and comfortable. How comfortable will you be? Well, heating oil generates nearly 140,000 Btu of heat for every gallon burned and warms a home evenly and efficiently.
This is because the flame in a heating oil system burns extremely hot. This produces more heat and hotter air or water. So, when the outdoor temperatures are below freezing, that powerful heat output can help keep your home as cozy as ever.
Technology has also brought great improvements in heating oil equipment efficiency that has reduced annual fuel consumption by 20% or more. This has saved heating oil consumers a lot of money on fuel.
Today’s heating equipment regularly achieves efficiency levels of 85% or better. And thanks to ultra-low sulfur Bioheat® fuel, we are seeing more super high-efficiency systems available in the U.S. These systems achieve efficiency levels of 90% or more!
How Safe Is Home Heating Oil?
Heating oil is a remarkably safe home heating fuel. First, heating oil cannot explode. The fuel that sits in your tank is as likely to explode as the water in your backyard swimming pool. It’s that safe.
Plus, with a heating oil tank on your property, you can always count on having a secure, on-site supply. Heating oil is carefully transported and expertly managed by highly trained professionals, who use equipment and techniques that keep safety at the forefront.
Bioheat® Fuel Helps the Environment
In Wisconsin, you’ll find heating oil companies that deliver Bioheat fuel to their customers. This fuel is an absolute game-changer when it comes to heating your home, saving you money, and helping the environment.
Bioheat fuel is a blend of ultra-low sulfur heating oil combined with premium biodiesel made from renewable resources such as animal fats, recycled restaurant cooking oils, algae, and plant oils such as soybeans and sunflower.
Bioheat fuel also leaves fewer deposits on your system’s internal parts. That helps to reduce wear and tear, meaning you will likely have fewer breakdowns and a longer life expectancy for your heating oil boiler or heating oil furnace compared to running it with the heating oil from a generation ago. You don’t have to add anything to or modify your boiler or furnace in any way to use Bioheat fuel.
The Road to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions
Bioheat fuel is not only helping to reduce carbon emissions right now, but it will keep reducing emissions even more in the years ahead as it eventually evolves into B100, an all-biodiesel home heating fuel. A gallon-for-gallon substitute for traditional petroleum, biodiesel is a “decarbonizing-now” solution.
Recent data have shown that the oilheat industry far surpassed its first greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal.* Here is the background on how this came about.
In 2019, heating oil industry leaders set forth a resolution that called for a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2023, a 40% reduction by 2030, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
To figure out if the industry had hit its first goal, Dr. Tom Butcher of the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) conducted a study, and his findings were nothing short of phenomenal.
The latest data showed that the industry had far surpassed its first GHG goal. Instead of achieving just 15% by 2023, the industry achieved a nearly 26% reduction in GHG emissions!*
This progress toward the end goal of net-zero emissions will continue due to a number of reasons, including:
- More energy efficient heating equipment
- The commitment by heating fuel companies, including those in Wisconsin, to transition their product to renewable Bioheat fuel
- Oil burners and heating systems that are certified for blends of up to 100% biodiesel (B100)
Please reach out to your Wisconsin heating oil company to learn more about the benefits of Bioheat fuel.