Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked
Questions

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New to Oil Heat? General Questions

Home Heating Oil Delivery and Payment:

No. We make it a point to continuously revise our pricing to ensure we offer our customers the best home heating oil prices. In order to do this, we don’t offer ‘locked in’ heating oil delivery contracts. Pricing is based on the current market price and is sold at a variable rate.

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Yes. We provide home heating oil deliveries on Saturdays and Sundays. Our weekend home heating oil delivery hours depend mainly on weather and demand.

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Yes. If you use a credit card, we include a flat $3.65 convenience fee.

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Yes. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept Starter Checks.

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Dispatch can do their best to give you an ETA for your delivery, but keep in mind that we service hundreds of same-day customers. That means our home heating oil delivery routes are constantly changing, which makes it difficult to give an accurate delivery time. Normally, all deliveries are completed by 5:00 – 6:00 pm; during heavy volume periods, drivers will deliver into the evening. If you haven’t received your home heating oil delivery by 5:00 pm, give the office a call to check on the status.

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Trucks stay out until all home heating oil deliveries for that day are complete. It’s possible that you could receive your delivery after 5:00 pm. If you are still concerned, feel free to call us and check on the status of your home heating oil delivery.

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No. Unfortunately, to provide the same-day delivery our customers deserve, we have to optimize our routes by town for maximum efficiency. But we always accept home heating oil delivery requests morning or afternoon and do our best to work around your schedule.

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Yes. As long as you let the customer service rep or the driver know that you need a start, it’s free. If you are not present or forget to ask at the time you receive your home heating oil delivery, unfortunately, we will have to charge you to come back out.

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Yes. We offer 10- or 11-month budgets depending on whether you use fuel oil to heat your hot water. Budgets start in the spring and are a great option for anyone trying to make their home heating oil bill a little more manageable. For more information, get in touch with us.

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Yes. As long as the check is addressed to the home we are delivering to, or a proper ID is presented, we will accept it.

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We will always do our best to deliver to all of our customers the same day. But if we cannot get to you, we recommend taking a fuel can to a gas station and purchasing 5 gallons of diesel fuel or kerosene, enough to see you through until we can make your next home heating oil delivery. In most cases, if you’re entirely out of oil, your furnace will need to be primed and restarted.

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No. In an emergency, we recommend either that you call and leave a message requesting early morning delivery or calling first thing in the morning. We will always do our best to satisfy our customers’ needs. Keep in mind that in times of high demand, we might not be able to meet specific delivery time requests.

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No, you can pay before the delivery is made with a credit card, or you can leave a properly filled out check or cash in a designated area that is noted for the driver.

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Yes, with appropriate paperwork and credit applications filled out which a customer service rep can send to you.

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No, you can pay before the delivery is made with a credit card, or you can leave a properly filled out check or cash in a designated area that is noted for the driver.

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Yes, with appropriate paperwork and credit applications filled out which a customer service rep can send to you.

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We only deliver on the weekend during the winter months. During the spring and summer we do not deliver on the weekends.

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Home Heating Oil and Energy Pricing

Home heating oil prices generally reflect daily trading trends on the stock market. 7 Oil has no control over the wholesale price and works off a margin. However, we can offer lower prices than our competitors by working hard to find the lowest wholesale price in our market and constantly looking to add value by offering the best customer service around.

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There are many ways, but here’s a few we recommend:

Budget Plans spread your total home heating oil bill out across the entire calendar year, making payments much more manageable and allowing you to avoid any significant out-of-pocket expenses during the winter.
Replacing an older oil-fired boiler or furnace with a new energy-efficient one can cut your energy costs by up to 20 to 25 percent. The replacement of an older boiler that burns 1,200 gallons of oil per year could lower the amount of oil consumed by nearly 33 percent and bring your home heating oil consumption down to the national average of 800 gallons per year. If you were paying $3.50 per gallon, installing a new energy-efficient boiler could save you up to $1,400 per year.
There are a number of other less expensive efficiency measures you could take. Insulating your pipes and ducts, for example, can save you 5 percent on your home energy costs per year, while something as simple as tuning up your furnace could save you up to 3 percent. For a household that burns 1,000 gallons of home heating oil per winter, these small steps will pay for themselves in a short time.

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Home heating oil prices fluctuate for a variety of reasons, including:

Home heating oil prices tend to go up in the winter when demand is highest – just like gasoline prices go up in the summer when people drive more.
Changes in the price of a barrel of oil will generally affect the price of home heating oil.
Your geographic location could impact the cost of your home heating oil, as well.

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The summer months are generally the best time to order oil since demand is low, which drives the price down.

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The pricing of diesel fuels and gasoline are unrelated. They are two totally different products with different refining processes. Also, they are traded as separate commodities on the stock market, which can cause differences in their pricing. They are also taxed differently on both the federal and state levels. In most cases, diesel fuel taxes are more per gallon, although it varies by state.

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General Questions – New to Oil Heat?

We recommend first looking over our home heating oil delivery page. There you’ll find info on all of the options we offer, and it’s full of helpful info if you’re new to oil heat. Some things to point out:

While we recommend that you sign up for our worry-free package, keep in mind that we don’t require that our customers sign contracts in order to receive oil deliveries.
You can order home heating oil whenever you need to, and you’ll always receive a competitive price.
We offer a variety of gallon amounts to fit all income levels and home heating needs.
We offer same-day delivery in most cases.

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Based on the dimensions of your tank, you can get a general idea of its capacity. Once you have a general tank size, you can then measure the amount of oil inside and use the chart to convert inches to gallons.

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The amount you spend on heating oil per year will be directly affected by the amount of oil you burn, which depends on dozens of factors. The best way to find out how much heating oil you’ll need to burn to warm your home is to contact the home heating oil company the previous homeowner purchased from and ask them for the delivery history of the home. You can take the total for a few years to come up with an average annual rate of consumption for your home. Then find out the current price for a gallon of oil, multiply it by the average yearly consumption, and you’ll have you a good idea of your annual cost.

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The average home burns around 800 gallons per year. This number will vary drastically depending on many factors, including:

the weather
the size of your house
how well your house is insulated
how well your furnace has been maintained
how old your furnace is

Of course, these are just a few of the factors to consider in estimating how many gallons of home heating oil you can expect to use in a year. As you can see, it’s hard to come up with a figure. If you’re concerned about the costs associated with oil heat, it’s always good to have a technician come out and evaluate your system to see how it could be made more efficient.

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The summer months are usually the best time to fill your tank. The demand is low, so the price usually follows.

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Your first step should be to call 7 Oil and place an order. While on the phone with one of our customer service reps, be sure to mention you ran out of oil and request that the driver come in and “prime and start” your furnace. It’s a free service at the time of delivery and will need to be done since the furnace was run dry. When that happens, air gets trapped in the lines and needs to be “bled” or “primed” out. If the furnace doesn’t start, you’ll need a technician to come out and evaluate your system. Running out of oil is not recommended, could be detrimental to the longevity of your heater, and is more costly in the long run.

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The home heating oil delivery driver will connect the hose from the delivery truck to the fill pipe when making a fuel delivery. The oil is pumped at about 60 gallons per minute through the fill pipe into the tank. The vent pipe allows air to escape from the tank as its filled, releasing the pressure. The fill and vent pipes should be outside and visible to the driver. It is important that your basement or above ground tank have a properly working vent alarm.

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A vent alarm makes a whistling sound as air is forced out through the vent pipe. This allows the driver to know when the tank reaches its fill point. It is very important that your tank has a working vent alarm, as it will decrease the chance of a spill due to overfilling.

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Yes. Running out of oil can cause the system to pull silt or sludge from the bottom of your oil tank, clogging the nozzle, oil filter, and pump’s strainer and preventing a steady flow of oil, causing the entire system to fail. It’s best to fill your tank when it falls to ¼ or 1/8 full to ensure you don’t run out of oil. That way, you can avoid costly repairs.

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Oil heat is as clean as any other energy source used for home heating. A properly maintained oil furnace will not put out any visible smoke from the chimney, and there will be no dust, soot, or smell inside, either.

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If you start to experience an odor or see soot accumulating, we recommend you have one of our technicians take a look at your furnace. It’s possible that you need an annual cleaning, but it’s still a good idea to have it looked at just in case there’s a bigger issue, like a cracked heat exchanger. Fill out our form to schedule your maintenance service.

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Yes. Home heating oil is as safe as any other heating source, if not more so. Heating oil must be vaporized before it will ignite or burn. That means that, if you were to drop a match in your tank, it would go out just as if it had been dropped in water. Oil heat warms your home quickly, safely and cost-effective.

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Home Heating Service and Technical Questions:

“Automatic” delivery means that an oil heat dealer will use degree-day monitoring to determine when a customer needs fuel automatically. The customer doesn’t need to place a call to the dealer for a delivery, and the dealer will automatically deliver fuel on a regular basis. Customers that opt for automatic delivery are assured of never running out of fuel. “Will-call” delivery means that a customer will monitor their home heating oil consumption and “will call” the dealer when they need a delivery.

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First, one of our experienced technicians will open up your oil burner, change the nozzle (tip), adjust the electrodes, test the ignition transformer, and adjust the airflow. We will also install a new fuel filter and clean the heater’s housing. Next, we’ll remove and clean the smoke pipe and brush down and vacuum the heating system. Then we’ll check the chimney for drafts and clean the chimney base. Finally, we’ll reassemble the system and conduct a final tuning, leaving your home heating system running at peak efficiency.

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An oil heater tune-up generally takes about an hour, but the exact amount of time will depend on how recently your heater was tuned up. If it’s been a long time since your heater was last tuned, it may take longer to clean. If you get your heater serviced once a year, it will generally take less time.

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The typical total cost for a standard cleaning is $165. On some occasions, technicians find that a heating system is excessively dirty and it takes more time to correctly clean and tune, or additional parts might be needed. The price increases based on those two factors.

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Look on the side of the furnace for an instruction sticker and follow it step by step. If there is no sticker, follow the steps below:

Be sure that the oil burner switch is on.
The thermostat should be set above room temperature.
Make sure that there is oil in the tank.
Press the reset button on the relay only once.
Check to see if a flame comes on.
If the burner still does not run at all, check for a blown or loose fuse.

If the burner still fails to operate, fill the form to request service.

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The reset button is located on the primary control and will attempt to restart the burner should it shut down. If it still isn’t working, you should call for service. Never push the reset button more than once. It could cause the chamber to become overloaded with oil. When the unit finally lights, it will ignite the excess fuel and could cause a large backfire that could be very dangerous and could result in a lengthy and costly repair.

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By not charging our home heating oil customers for service, 7 Oil is able to lower our internal costs for things like billing, postage, and personnel. The policy was put in place over 10 years ago and has allowed us to keep our service call rate and cost of parts lower for all of our customers.

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If your heater won’t come on after pressing the reset button only once, then it’s time to call 7 Oil for service. Let them know all the steps you’ve gone through, and our customer service representatives will do their best to get someone out as quickly as possible. We pride ourselves on our excellent customer service. We don’t recommend working on your own heater. Just give us a call and we’ll answer your questions!

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You can schedule a cleaning anytime but we recommend the spring or summer months. It’s better to have your furnace tuned up before the heating season; once the weather changes you will most likely have a hard time scheduling because emergency service calls will have to take priority.

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Setting your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter will always help you save on your energy bill. The unit will not have to work as hard to meet the target temperature, which will allow you to limit your heating oil consumption.

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The thermostat should be located on an interior wall, about five feet from the floor. Make sure it’s not near a heat source or in a drafty area. If it is, it could cause false readings, meaning you’ll never reach your desired temperature.

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If you have a hot air furnace, yes, but if you have a boiler, make sure it is not providing your domestic hot water (the hot water for your shower, faucet, etc.), and that you have a separate hot water heater for that. If your boiler does provide your domestic hot water, then you have to leave it on.

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At 96% Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE), the Adams Efficiency Expert Condensing Furnace is the most efficient oil furnace out there. It operates at an efficiency level comparable to a natural gas-fired furnace.

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In a steam system, water heated in the boiler turns to steam, and the steam rises to radiators to heat the home. For the most part, steam boilers have not been installed in new homes since the 1950s, when forced hot water heating systems proved to be cheaper to install and more efficient. However, steam is still an efficient and comfortable way to heat a home.

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A furnace uses the flame from the oil burner to heat air, which is then distributed throughout the house. A boiler uses the flame to heat water that is either sent around the house in pipes to radiators or sent to a fan coil unit that heats air.

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Heating oil is lifted from the storage tank by the oil pump and sprayed into the chamber through the nozzle. The atomized fuel mixes with air and is ignited by a spark in the burner’s ignition system, producing a flame. The flame heats the system’s heat exchanger, allowing it to transfer heat to the surrounding air or water that is then circulated through the house. All of the emissions from the oil flame are sent out through the chimney.

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The degree-day system allows heating oil companies to determine when your heating system will need fuel by calculating the “heating degree days” for a particular day. The process uses the day’s average temperature, determined by averaging the day’s high and low temperatures and dividing by two. If the number is above 65, there are no heating degree-days that day. If the number is less than 65, it is subtracted from 65 to find the number of heating degree-days. For example, if the day’s high temperature is 60, and the low is 40, the average temperature is 50 degrees. 65 – 50 = 15 heating degree-days. This number is then used, along with a k factor and your tank size, to determine when your next delivery should be made.

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Advances in technology have made and continue to make new oil heat equipment considerably cleaner burning, more efficient, and much more reliable compared to the state of things thirty years ago.

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There are two different ways oil can be used to heat water:

Direct-Fired Water Heaters heat water in a storage tank directly, using the heat of the oil flame on the outside of the tank. You’ll usually find direct-fired water heaters in homes with warm-air furnaces.
Indirect Water Heaters use the heating system water from the boiler to heat the domestic water. The boiler water heats the domestic water. The domestic water and boiler water are separated by a heat exchanger. The most common type of indirect system is the tankless coil heater, which is a coil of copper pipe inside the boiler. The domestic water flows inside the coil, where it is heated by the boiler water surrounding it. It is then delivered to the faucets and appliances around the house. An even more efficient option uses a combination of a coil and a storage tank – the boiler water flows through the coil, and the domestic water is heated by the coil and stored in the tank until a faucet is opened or an appliance is turned on.

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If properly maintained, oil-fired furnaces and boilers should provide at least 20 years of service.

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Oil-fired hot water heaters allow for almost unlimited hot water at a very low cost. They are very efficient and have high recovery rates, meaning they can heat large amounts of water very quickly. Customers with gas-fired hot water heaters usually see their consumption rise, along with their monthly bills.

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Home Heating Oil General Info and Benefits:

New oil heat system components are amazingly reliable. They are so reliable that most manufacturers offer 3- to 5-year warranties, and if something ever fails, it’s easy to get replacement parts thanks to oil heat systems’ use of standardized, interchangeable parts.

Oil Delivery

There are too many to list them all, but here are a few of the most notable:

Home heating oil burns hotter and generates a much warmer, cozier feeling throughout your home compared to other fuels.
The sulfur content in home heating oil has undergone an 80% reduction since the 1970s, which has made it more efficient and cleaner-burning lessened its environmental impact and increased the longevity of heating equipment. The oil industry doesn’t seem to have any plans to stop improving the efficiency of their product.
New oil-fired boilers or furnaces can cut energy costs by up to 20 to 25 percent. The replacement of your older boiler that burns 1,200 gallons of oil per year with a newer, more efficient model can cut your annual home heating oil consumption by nearly 33 percent and bring your household in line with the national average of 800 gallons per year. That means that if you were paying $3.50 per gallon, you’d save as much as $1,400 per year.
You can also make any of a number of other less expensive modifications. Insulating your home’s pipes and ductwork, for example, can save you 5 percent per year on your home heating bill, while something as simple as tuning-up your furnace could save you up to 3 percent. If heating your house has you burning 1,000 gallons of home heating oil per winter, these small changes will pay for themselves in a short time.

Oil Delivery

The average American home burns about 800 gallons of home heating oil per year. This could vary depending on whether you also use home heating oil to power your water heater.

Oil Delivery

An oil furnace can easily be installed in any home. Installation will require the installation of an above-ground or basement tank, which can easily be concealed. The furnace or boiler can be installed inside or outside, depending on the space available in your home and what works best for you. Normal permitting and procedures would apply, and would vary depending on your township.

Oil Delivery

The average boiler or furnace is about as big as a three-drawer filing cabinet. These newer, more efficient models are significantly smaller than older versions.

Oil Delivery

Oil furnaces and boilers are 95% cleaner than they were in the 1970s. If properly tuned and maintained, they create absolutely no soot, dirt, or odors in the home.

Oil Delivery

Oil-fired systems are sized to provide very fast recovery times for both space and water heating and draw relatively little air out of the building that would then be replaced by cold air from outside. This limits the amount of loss caused by infiltration.

Oil Delivery

Commercial Fueling:

Fuel Delivery

No, you can pay before the delivery is made with a credit card, or you can leave a properly filled out check or cash in a designated area that is noted for the driver.

Fuel Delivery

Yes, with appropriate paperwork and credit applications filled out which a customer service rep can send to you.

Fuel Delivery

Fuel Delivery and Payment:

We only deliver on the weekend during the winter months. During the spring and summer we do not deliver on the weekends.

Fuel Delivery

Tank Service and Payment:

Yes, with appropriate paperwork and credit applications filled out which a customer service rep can send to you.

Tank Service

Oil Tank Questions

It is very important that you have a working gauge on your oil fuel tank. A new gauge can usually be installed for around $135 depending on what type of tank you have and the access. If you have a ground tank, the easiest way to tell how much oil you have is to purchase a measuring stick from 7 Oil and use it to measure the depth, in inches, of the oil in your tank. Once you have the measurement, you can use our tank chart to get a general idea of the amount of fuel in your tank. If you don’t have a working gauge on your basement or above-ground tank, we do not recommend using a measuring stick; instead, you should replace the gauge. Call 7 Oil first to find out how we can help.

Tank Service

Corrosion is the main cause of tank failure. Corrosion is a natural process – its essentially rust. Corrosion can only occur in the presence of water. That is why it is very important to protect the tank from exposure to water on the inside. A tank that’s located outside doesn’t have to be protected from rain, although it should be painted and inspected regularly to ensure that any rust is limited to the surface. You can also ask a 7 Oil customer representative about fuel additives for tanks that have water in them.

Tank Service

Contact our tank experts. They’ll come out and give you an estimate for a replacement and answer any questions or concerns you might have. Remember, the more information you can give the estimator, the more accurate his estimate will be, and the fewer surprises you’ll have later on. Depending on where your tank is located, it could also be a good time to relocate it to a safer, more convenient area.

Tank Service

Heating oil tanks, depending on their location, can last for up to 40 years without leaking. If you’re concerned that your tank is old and could potentially leak, it might be time to replace it. We recommend having our tank experts evaluate your tank and offer replacement options.

Tank Service

No. An odor could be a sign that your tank is leaking or your heating system isn’t operating properly. If you have an odor coming from your tank it’s best to call a technician. You can contact us to schedule an appointment for a technician to come out and evaluate your system.

Tank Service

Home Energy Assistance:

Families in need of assistance and the elderly can apply for fuel assistance. Get in touch with us to learn more.

Energy

Yes, with appropriate paperwork and credit applications filled out which a customer service rep can send to you.

Helpful FAQsAbout Our Oil Delivery, HVAC Services and More