Total Energy News and Insights

Noticing a little relief at the pumps, that relief could be coming to your heating bill too. those of us that are hoping that this winter will be warmer than last year, are in for another freezing, snowy winter. This would lead most of us to believe that we're going to have huge heating bills to following, for you oil heat customers that might not be the case. Here in New England we have the highest population of home owners that heat using oil, while 50% of the nation uses Natural Gas, 5% use Oil. The rest of the country is mixed between solar, propane, electric, and other. Over the past couple of months the price of gasoline at the pumps has been going down, along with any deliveries you may have gotten heading into the season. This is partially due to the demand for oil heated home declining over the years as more homes go to Natural Gas. As this shift continues the price of oil will decline while the problems with natural gas will continue (more on that l...

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...

Propane can be used for more than grilling When it comes to grilling there are two popular ways to do it, propane or charcoal. If you've ever watched King of the Hill, Hank swears by propane as the way to go for grilling.  Propane isn't just for grilling, it can be used for whole home comfort. Most of the top heating equipment companies offer boilers or furnaces heated by propane in a similar way to Oil.  Propane at the home requires a tank, just like a gas grill, but tanks for home heat are much larger.  The tanks can be vertical or horizontal and come in sizes that vary from  100 gallons to over 250.  Propane set ups can feature multiple tanks and tank above or below ground.  Below ground set ups are more common in new home constructions but can be added to older homes, keep in mind that your yard will be dug up as a result. Once the tanks are set, what can be fueled with propane other than a grill? Your boiler/furnace, dryer, pool heater, g...

Methane Gas is 20x more powerful of a greenhouse than Carbon Dioxide. When you think of Oil heat what comes to mind? Dirty, expensive, foreign and inefficient fuel source what about Natural Gas? The Natural Gas utilities want you to believe that their product is cleaner, more efficient, domestic, and better for the environment.  This is what they are telling you, but it's not the whole story about Oil heat or Natural Gas. First we would like to paint the modern picture that is Oil and heating with Oil.  The United States is projected to became the worlds' largest producer of Oil by 2015. That means that the Oil that is used to heat your home will come from and stay in the US. Natural Gas comes from the US too, right? Yes it does however the Oil that is delivered to your home helps to keep people in your local community employed. While Natural Gas utility companies are monopolies and like National Grid can be owned...