subject: Guarding Your Heating Oil Prices [print this page] Defend yourself during the cold winter months with oil furnaces to warm up your house. The chilly blows of snow and the damp weather can be easily overcome by the warm air circulated from furnaces. A hot shower is also another way to beat the cold. However, there is a raging concern about the increasing prices of furnace fuel, most specially fuel oils because their prices are continuously going up.
Heating oil is a by product of petroleum. It is highly volatile and very flammable. Because of these properties, fuel oils became a fuel of choice for furnaces, replacing coal and wood. The oil is best suited for use in boilers and in air conditioners because of their thermodynamic properties and high heat output. Other than oil, other fuels used for heaters are natural gas and electricity. Though fuel oils may be very useful, heating oil prices fluctuate unpredictably. Thus, the economic considerations for its use are very difficult to characterize. Choosing the right fuel for your furnace will therefore be a very difficult decision to make. Electricity and oil have comparable prices and choosing between them will depend on the price of electricity in your locality. Natural gas is also a fuel whose price fluctuates unpredictably. Between gas and oil, the decision is usually dependent on your personal preferences.
Over the last decade, it has been proven that heating oil prices are highly dependent on the supply of and demand for crude oil. The dwindling supply of oil reserves has sent the prices petroleum products, heating oil included, skyrocketing. Controlling oil consumption will be very hard for the usual consume. Many dealers and suppliers are trying their best to fix their prices to help their consumers balance their fuel costs and control the usage of oil.
The widely recognized solution to this problem is to resort to highly efficient furnaces. A high efficiency means that your furnace will consume less fuel for the same heat output compared to one which has a lower efficiency. Also, improving the insulation of your house and sealing vents and turning off exhaust fans will greatly lessen your consumption of fuel.
