Oehlert Bros. Inc. has been delivering superior BioHeat to our customers for over 7 years! BioHeat using ultra low sulfur heating oil will burn cleaner than natural gas. Ultra low sulfur heating oil will be mandated in PA in July of 2016. With Low Heating Oil Prices this is a real win for consumers!
“It is a really exciting time for oil heating customers,” said John Huber, president of NORA. “Prices are low and the oilheating industry is transitioning to a superior fuel product. By adding biodiesel, a renewable, carbon-neutral fuel to low-sulfur heating oil, heating oil retailers are actually delivering a better product at a significantly lower price. What could be better?”
Two prime movers forcing the drop in prices, according to NORA, are increased production and full inventory stocks. “With the U.S. now the world’s leading petroleum producer, production in 2014 showed a 34.6 percent increase over 2012 and the first seven month of 2015 show an increase of 11.5 percent over 2014,” the organization stated. “The combination of increased shipments from the Gulf Coast, higher refinery runs and imports have boosted East Coast distillate inventories to 5.4 million barrels above the five-year average for the week ending Sept. 11, the highest since 2011. On Sept. 18, the distillate inventory was at 59 million barrels.”
NORA stated that for the 8 million U.S. households that use heating oil, proper maintenance and tune-ups of their heating system can save from 5 to 10 percent in heating oil costs, while upgrading an older heating system to a new high-efficiency system may save 30 percent or more. Personally, when I reinsulated my house and installed new windows, I saved a ton in heating costs.
Heating an old house is a balancing act often met with trouble. Many early homes were built without any type of central heating system (unless you count the chimney) meanwhile others are faced with aging, and incompetent systems.
Unless you are planning to remodel your house, you probably have no other choice in the matter but to deal with systems such as these: existing steam or hydronic radiators powered by a broiler, or forced air ducts fueled by a furnace. Even if you don’t intend to tear out your floor, there are ways to incorporate new technology that will make your system more competent, and more comfortable to live with.
Landowners have long complemented central heating systems with wood or gas burning fireplaces, stoves and inserts. These often proficient components may boost warmth in a gathering room or even heat a small house at prices that make sense to most homeowners, but there are plenty of other choices that can resolve heating problems or increase comfort in chilly spots like entries, porches, and bathrooms.
Got a steam or hot water system with indisposed radiators?
No need to throw out the boiler with the bath water when you replace the broken one with a new one. Choices can consist of nearly silent baseboard units that melt into the wall, flat-fins units that tuck under windows, or streamlined tubular radiators that look like the originals you may already have.
Want to know more about better heating your home? Get in touch with Oehlert Bros. to find out how!
Oehlert Bros. Inc. won a “Design/Build” award from The BIE of Pottstown and Vicinity for excellence in designing and installing a high efficiency commercial boiler system. The Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge was in need of a new heating system to replace their 47-year-old heating oil boiler. Efficiency was a top priority to reduce energy costs. The replacement system was designed to utilize two smaller boilers to replace the inefficient single boiler. The 2 boiler system allows for greater fuel efficiency due to the ability to only fire one boiler during non-peak demand times (fall and spring). During peak loads, both boilers fire to provide the heating needed for the building. High efficiency modulating circulators were also used to reduce electrical costs and increase efficiency with the heating system. The Buderas Boilers also utilize a computerized heat manager to increase the efficiency of the heating system.
Reporting, Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― Eyewitness News Welcomes Baby Steele!
When temperatures begin to rise outside, the last thing you need is for your central air conditioning to break down. Getting it fixed quickly is often easier said than done. First you have to find a repairman. But how do you know which one to choose?
The publishers of Delaware Valley Consumers’ Checkbook surveyed its readers recently on their experiences with air conditioning and heating service companies. 148 businesses were rated on everything from price to performance. Robert Krughoff, President of Consumers’ Checkbook says, “There are different ways to do the same job and some will end up being much more effective, much more efficient, much less noisy, much easier to repair.”
Before hiring any company Consumers’ Checkbook recommends that you do your homework in advance. Krughoff says, “You really need to get competitive prices for whatever air conditioner or heating work you want done.” In fact when Consumers’ Checkbook shopped around they found wide price differences for products and services. For example installing a programmable thermostat for a furnace and air conditioner ranged in price from $170 to $662 for the exact same job. Krughoff says, “There is really no relationship between quality and price. So you can get a very good price from a very high quality firm.”
Several companies received Checkbook’s highest ratings for quality and price. They are:
Northeastern Pennsylvania got its only taste of 90-degree weather back in April, when temperatures soared for four days breaking 90 twice, said National Weather Service meteorologist Erik Heden.
The temperature hasn’t hit 90 since, making for a cold summer – record-setting cold, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center.
Pennsylvania and six other states had their coldest July in more than 100 years of recording keeping, according to the center’s preliminary analysis. The other states are Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia, the center said.
The reason for the colder-than-normal temperatures stems from a dip in the jet stream for most of this summer, keeping the warm, moist air to the south and cooler temperatures to the north, Heden said.
The reason for the colder-than-normal temperatures stems from a dip in the jet stream for most of this summer, keeping the warm, moist air to the south and cooler temperatures to the north, Heden said.
Heden can’t speak officially on the region’s temperatures, because the temperature for two days this July weren’t recorded due to a mechanical error. But based on the recorded data, he felt comfortable saying July 2009 was among the top five.
On Monday, the temperatures got close to 90 degrees, but not quite, he said. The high temperature hit 88 degrees, making it the warmest day of the summer so far, Heden said.
Above normal temperatures should start to move in this weekend and into next week, as the jet stream lifts to the north, Heden said. The change should bring the summer-like temperatures that people have been missing, he said.
The eight- to 14-day outlook, however, has the pattern reversing back to the cooler pattern dominant most of the summer, Heden said.
With the Keystone HELP® Energy Efficiency Loan & Rebate Program, most Pennsylvania homeowners who meet the program’s eligibility guidelines can get a low cost loan for ENERGY STAR® rated and high efficiency heating, air conditioning, air sealing, insulation, windows, doors, geothermal and “whole house” improvements using Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®. These lower rates can save consumer thousands of dollars over the life of the loan, further enhancing the energy saving from the improvements being made and minimizing out of pocket costs. For consumers who choose to pay cash for qualifying improvements or not utilize Keystone HELP financing, rebates are available.
For loans from $1,000 to $15,000 Keystone HELP loans have lower fixed rates and long amortization terms (meaning lower monthly payments) than typical unsecured financing options such as credit cards or shorter term bank loans.
For larger improvements, up to $35,000, Keystone HELP loans provides an affordable home equity option for homeowners with limited home equity and below market rates for consumers with equity who choose to do “whole house” improvements.
Eligible improvements must be installed by a Keystone HELP® Approved Contractor. There are currently over 1,600 Approved Keystone HELP Contractors in Pennsylvania.
Qualifying homeowners can get the lowest cost financing and a $325 cash energy audit credit for energy-saving “whole house” improvements performed by a Keystone HELP® Trained or Certified Contractor implementing the recommendations of a Certified Auditor who has conducted a comprehensive energy audit of your home.
Save Energy, Save Money with Keystone HELP®, Pennsylvania’s special program to make energy efficiency opportunities available to the Commonwealth’s homeowners.
For more information, contact us at (888) 232-3477.
OEHLERT BROS., INC is an approved Keystone HELP contractor!
Outlet Full Name: Wall Street Journal – Online
News OCR Text: U.S. Weighs More Trading Regulations as U.K., France Seek International Action
Policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic launched an effort to crack down on what they called speculation in oil markets, underscoring concerns that a sharp rise in oil prices could worsen the global economic downturn.
In Washington, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main U.S. futures-market regulator, said it is considering tougher regulation of oil-futures markets. The proposed rules, which drew immediate criticism from traders, would seek to curb the influence of speculative investors such as hedge funds and investment banks by limiting how much money any single trader can bet on any one commodity at a time.
In an opinion piece submitted to The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote that governments need to act to curb a “dangerously volatile” oil price that defies “the accepted rules of economics” and “could undermine confidence just as we are pushing for recovery.”
The moves come at a time when the hotly debated idea that speculative investors are driving up prices is gaining credence, and political momentum is building to stop them. In recent months, oil producers and Asia’s biggest oil-consuming nations have called for regulators to address the issue of price volatility, and the U.S. Senate has blamed speculators for high commodity prices.
On Tuesday, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.), a backer of an antispeculation bill last year, called the CFTC’s action “a positive first step” to curbing “oil speculators looking for a quick buck at the expense of American consumers.”
The price of oil recently bounced back to some $73 a barrel from a 2009 low of nearly $34, despite a slump in demand, bulging supplies and a world economy in the doldrums. Crude, which closed at $62.93 Tuesday, reached $145 a barrel last summer. Higher prices could affect the prospects for economic recovery: A sustained 10% rise in the price of oil can knock as much as 0.4 percentage point off global economic growth over the subsequent 12 months, estimates Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.
Much trade in oil futures is carried out by commercial traders such as oil companies, utilities and airlines, seeking to protect their profits against swings in energy prices. In recent years, big noncommercial traders such as hedge funds and investment banks have poured money into oil and other commodities. Such investors typically put their money in indexes that track the value of futures contracts, in which investors promise to pay a certain amount in the future for oil and other commodities.
As of last July, financial investors had about $300 billion riding on such indexes, roughly four times the level in January 2006, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based watchdog. Money drained from oil and other commodity markets during the second half of 2008, but investments have since surged, partly as a hedge against inflation and a weaker dollar: J.P. Morgan Chase analysts estimate that a net $25 billion has poured into commodities in the first half of 2009.
Oil-market analysts question the idea that speculative investments have pushed up prices. They attribute the current volatility to uncertain prospects for economic recovery — and the long-term rise to a surge in demand from China, India and other developing economies.
“No one has a clear expectation of what the future price is going to be,” said David Kirsch, an oil-market analyst at PFC Energy. “Putting limits on financial investment is only going to have a limited effect on overall volatility.”
In Congress, though, there is growing consensus that investors may be distorting prices. A recent report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations blamed speculators for driving up wheat prices, and recommended the CFTC enforce position limits on index traders in the wheat market.
In a statement, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said the agency will hold public hearings to gather views from consumers, businesses and market participants on whether it should propose limits on trading in energy-future contracts. The CFTC also plans to require swap dealers and hedge funds to report holdings, including those traded at overseas exchanges, in a separate and routine way. Except in certain agricultural markets, many of these players now aren’t subject to position limits or required to report off-exchange holdings.
Energy traders say they are concerned that the regulations could stunt trade, increase costs in the marketplace and potentially scare away some players from the oil-drilling business as well as trading markets.
“Speculators play a crucial role in the futures market by providing liquidity to hedgers,” such as oil producers and airlines, said Addison Armstrong, director of exchange-traded markets at TFS Energy Futures, a broker in Stamford, Conn. “Traders don’t want rules that are going to change the game.”
The interventionist line represents a significant shift for both the CFTC and the U.K. government, both of which previously took a more free-market approach and stopped short of calling for action on speculators.
The U.K.’s Mr. Brown and France’s Mr. Sarkozy called on the International Organization of Securities Commissions to look at improving transparency and supervision in oil-futures markets. An umbrella organization for global securities regulators, IOSCO helps to set global standards and advises national bodies on regulation. In March, it set out guidelines on how regulators can beef up supervision and enforcement of behavior in commodities markets.
The French and British leaders hope to get backing for their drive at the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial countries that begins in Italy Wednesday. Politicians in energy-importing nations around the world worry about the effect of rising oil prices on the recovery potential of their economies. In recent weeks, many companies have complained that the rise in oil prices has, or will, hurt profits.