Ever wonder what exactly is going on when you turn up your thermostat or when you hear your furnace kick on?  When heating with oil, your home will be equipped with one of these three systems:  Forced hot water, by means of baseboard, steam which utilizes radiators, or warm air which would be blown through vents. The thermostat works by sensing when the room temperature falls below the set temperature. Once that happens a signal  will be sent to your heating system to turn on.  Once engaged, oil travels from your tank into the burner.  As the fuel and air mixture is injected into your burner it is then ignited in the combustion chamber.  For heating that uses water, there will be either a cast iron or steel boiler where the water is heated.  From there it will be circulated through your baseboards or, in the steam system, heated up and turned into steam to then go through your radiators.  With warm air, instead of heating water, your furnace simply heats air which is then dispersed through your home by means of a blower.  Your chimney is the last step of this process.  Emissions caused from the  combustion process is then emitted through a flue vent right out your chimney.   Keep in mind that with today's ultra low sulfur fuel oil we are leaving a smaller footprint than ever before all while efficiently and cost effectively heating our homes.  

With the heating season well underway we're happy to announce we have included several towns in our service area.  Ashburnham, Ashby, Fitchburg, Gardner, Lancaster, Leominster, Shirley, Sterling and Townsend and Westminster are now towns we will be delivering in.  If your town is listed, give us a call and take advantage of our discounted price and speedy delivery!   We'll see you around town, keep and eye out for the blue truck.   

According to "Fuel Oil News'" the October issue states that fuel inventories are plentiful going into the season.  Experts weigh in on what exactly this means.  As always, this market is unpredictable and their comments shouldn't be used as a guide to making any purchases.  

• Alan H. Levine, CEO and chairman of Powerhouse says the large quantities of crude oil and distillate fuels will put something of a natural limit on the upside.  "I'd be very surprised if we could move much above fifty dollars a barrel", said Levine.  This abundance of inventory is due to the fact that the U.S. has been producing large quantities of crude oil.  Even though we are producing around one million barrels less per day, "we're still producing a huge amount..."  With last winter being as warm as it was and having a very large excess going into this season, the effect of the two will certainly put a damper on where prices might go.  Richard Larkin spoke about production in the U.S. and how the drop in price per barrel resulted in putting a halt on working fracking locations. Those with the lowest production costs- Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq- are "game to fight it out" in this context.  Amid a supply glut there is no doubt that the market is looking for a rebalancing, said Philip Baratz, President of Angus Energy.  Many analysts and authors of research reports are forecasting that it is 6-18 months away.