Total Energy News and Insights

Price vs Value One of the most tried and true statements ever made is, you get what you paid for. In my past job in the tire industry this was always true for 90k mile tires vs 40k mile tires for high the price. The same can be applied to your fuel provider.  Their are two types of oil providers that you can find out in the market, cash on delivery or COD and full service. COD companies take payment at the time of delivery of your oil and for the most part do not provide credit or payment terms. COD companies traditionally do not have a service department. So in the event that your heating system breaks down in the middle of the winter or your pipes freeze it may be difficult to find a company that will come out in the middle of the night.  COD companies, because they have less staff and therefore less overhead have much lower prices for oil deliveries. Now a full service company, is a company that offers payment/credit terms, 24 emergency service, automatic d...

What do you fact the most price, service, or reputation? After last winter the thing that anyone wants to hear is that it's going to be cold and snowy again this year.  With the current price of oil pretty low as October 7, 2014 do other factors start to effect your decision to stay with your current provider or jump ship and shop around. The first and most prevalent factor that goes into to picking your heating provider is the price per gallon. With COD or cash on delivery companies the price can be fairly low right now if you visit NewEngland Oil  you'll notice several companies with prices in the low $3.00 range.  The down side with those companies is a lack of a service department. If you're heating system fails in the middle of a cold snap they don't have the staff to come out and fix it.  If price is the most important factor to you, make sure that you're heating system is in good condition or you might have more than the price of fuel to worry about. ...

What does 1/8 of a tank mean and how long will it last? For those of you that use a COD company or a full service company and are on Will Call, do you know how much oil is actually in your tank and how long it will last.  A frequent problem that arises with COD and Will Callers is running out of fuel or having to keep track of their fuel use.  While for some this isn't an issue at all, for others running out of fuel and having to frantically call around to get fuel is a big problem. So how can this be avoided? The best way is to familiarize yourself with your tank. First is to understand how much oil is in your tank, luckily there is a gauge on the top of the tank that shows you how oil is in the tank.  There are variants to this but for the most part they all look like the image below. While some look different than this they all show the amount of Oil in the tank in variables of fourths or eighths.   An oil tank if filled from top to bottom will hold 275...

The cost of comfort isn't as easy to find as opening your energy bill. Whether you heat your home from a COD company, a full service company with a cap or without a cap, Mass Save, or any of the other money saving programs, what does it all translate to. When it comes to picking a heating company or a source it isn't just about the cost of fuel, there is an entire system of people that depending on the company can make or break your experience. When you have a winter like we had last year the price of heating your home became a very important aspect.  This was due to many people taking an additional filling for heating oil and the price of propane rising due to supply and demand.  This lead many customers to look away from Oil and Propane and make the move to Natural Gas or leave their full service company for a COD company.  In some cases these choices were helpful, in others they did more harm than help. Let's look at making the switch to Natural Ga...