FAQs

A great source for information is one of the web links from our Helpful Links section on our web site or you can visit “feel the difference”.

Before you call us, it may save you the cost and inconvenience of a service visit, while ensuring our technicians are working where they are needed most if you take a moment to check for the following, (listening after you have completed each step to hear if your system is running):

1. Check your thermostat – is the setting above the temperature in the room?
2. Check the electrical switch – is it on?
3. Check the electrical fuses / circuit breaker.
4. Check your oil tank to make sure it contains oil. Is your storage tank at least ¼ full?
5. Try resetting the starting control. Press the RESET button on the burner relay – but ONLY ONCE.

Are you still without heat? Call us for prompt repair service at 330-833-8555 or 800-589-8555.

You don’t have to be an economist to figure out that energy prices across the board are not what they once were. You can find some interesting articles on this subject in the Consumer Tips section of our web site. You can help protect yourself from high prices by signing up for automatic delivery, budget plan and CapAdvantage price cap plan.

Customers who receive automatic delivery and joined the budget plan have made a commitment to purchase all their heating oil from us. We, in turn, make a firm commitment to our suppliers for a specified number of gallons to be purchased in the coming heating season.

If all you needed was fuel for your home, you could get that from any company. But it’s our “full-service advantage” that gives you real dependability, service, comfort and peace of mind. We are able to offer you an uninterrupted fuel supply given our supply network and bulk storage facilities, offer convenient payment options such as the budget plan, offer a degree day based discounted automatic delivery service, offer a price cap program, have fully trained and insured drivers, have our own staff of expert service technicians and offer emergency service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For those customers who supplement with another heating source, please check the tank gauge more often. Supplemental fuel will interfere with the ability to gauge your oil consumption. Likewise, please inform us if an older person has moved in with you, if construction is being performed, the addition of a baby to the household, as these may require a warmer setting on the thermostat – thus higher fuel consumption and a shorter time between deliveries. Extreme weather conditions coupled with an unsafe driveway may delay our ability to deliver as well.

If you are on our will call delivery plan, please make every effort to consider this when placing your order understanding it may be up to 3-4 days to deliver your fuel. You may wish to consider another tank in addition to your existing tank if the conditions are an issue annually. Please be sure to keep your driveway clear of tree branches, bushes and ice. Similarly, please have the area around the fill pipe clear of obstructions.

A degree day is a unit we use for measuring how cold (or hot) it has been over a 24-hour period. This degree day affects your fuel tank and helps us determine how much fuel you have burnt for that time period. Whenever the average temperature on a day is below 65° (the base temperature for measuring a degree day), you have a degree day.

For example, if on a given day the outdoor high temperature was 70° and the low was 50°, then the average temperature for that day was 60°. That is 5° less than the base temperature of 65°. Therefore, we count 5 degree days for that one-day period.

Now you might be thinking that each house doesn’t burn the same amount of fuel everyday and you would be correct. To effectively calculate your tank’s burn rate, we also need two more numbers.

The first is the tank’s ideal delivery gallons. Considering your tank size, usable gallons and reserve gallons is how we derive your ideal delivery amount. For a typical 275 gallon basement heating oil tank, the ideal delivery amount is generally 200 gallons.

The last number is called the K-factor. This is simply a number showing how fast a tank uses fuel. Like miles-per-gallon on your car, think of a K-factor as gallons per degree day. If your car gets 20 mpg, and you have a 10 gallon gas tank, you know you can go 200 miles. Likewise, if we know you burner runs at a 5 K-factor and your ideal fill is 200 gallons, we know you can go 1000 degree days between fills.

There are actually FREE things you can do to save energy and cash – like dusting off old radiators, closing off rooms you don’t use and opening curtains, blinds and shades to let the warm sun shine in. But the most inexpensive heating system upgrade you can make is to install a programmable thermostat – a “smart” thermostat that automatically adjusts room temperature settings to energy-saving levels when you’re sleeping or away from home. Simply turning your thermostat back 10% - 15% for eight hours a day can save you as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills. A programmable thermostat is one of the least expensive home improvements you can make.

If your heating equipment is 20 or more years old, you have the opportunity to upgrade to a state of the art, clean burning and energy efficient heating system. New equipment can reduce your oil consumption by as much as 30%, a savings payback on your investment that will be the return of any bank or stock. You’ll also enjoy the extra dividends of plentiful hot water, reliable warmth and increased home value. Now is a great time to get a great price on a new Carrier or Thermopride oil furnace or a Buderus boiler. Call today to set up an appointment with our home comfort salesperson.

It is safe to say that most heating systems are not operating at peak efficiency. Long before your heating system breaks down, it silently and unavoidably loses efficiency requiring more energy and more money to keep you comfortable. Some of the possible reasons contributing to inefficiency are: Inadequate air flow through the duct system, dirty air filter, improper burner adjustment, restricted vent or improper combustion.

In addition to inefficiency, 15 year old furnace is like a set of tires with 45,000 miles of wear. Tires become worn from constant grinding and flexing over all kinds of pavement and it’s relatively easy to know when tires become dangerous and need replacing because they wear from the outside in.

Furnaces too, wear from expansion and contraction as the burners continually go off and on to provide the heat required. The resulting damage to a furnace’s heat exchanger can be compared to bending a piece of metal back and forth until it breaks. But unlike your car tires you have no way to know how dangerous your furnace is becoming because it wears from the inside out.

A crack or hole in the heat exchanger of your furnace could allow deadly carbon monoxide gas to enter your living environment. Furnaces should be tested every year for signs of wear or damage and carbon monoxide leaks. Operating an older, untested furnace is as dangerous and life-threatening as taking your family out for a drive on a set of bald tires.

New United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards require a major reduction in the sulfur content of diesel fuels and emission levels from diesel engines and vehicles. To meet the EPA standards, the petroleum industry is producing ULSD fuel, a cleaner-burning diesel fuel containing a maximum of 15 parts-per-million (ppm) sulfur. An excellent source for information related to ULSD is the Clean Diesel Fuel Alliance Information Center. Call and speak with our commercial sales representative as well for further information.

You can call our office and speak with our commercial sales representative or contact the State of Ohio Fire Marshal.