Americans have been using oil to warm their homes since the first forced air furnaces fired up in the 1930s – yet it remains one of the most misunderstood sources of home energy to this day.

Here are a few of the more common heating oil myths – and the truth behind them.

• Myth 1: Oil heating harms the environment.
  Fact: Burning heating oil may have not have been great for our planet 40 years ago, but today’s fuel oil burns more than 95 percent cleaner than it did back then. In fact, oil heat emissions are so clean they aren’t even regulated by the federal Clean Air Act.
• Myth 2: Oil heat is an inefficient.
  Fact: Heating oil provides more heat per gallon than any other fuel (about 137,000 BTUs vs. 95,000 BTU for propane, for example).
• Myth 3: Oil heat is dangerous.
  Fact: Dropping a lit match into a pool of heating oil would do exactly the same thing as if you had dropped it in water. That’s because heating oil must first be heated to 140 degrees and then vaporized in order to burn it – unlike natural gas or gasoline, which can be volatile even at room temperature.
• Myth 4: Heating with oil is expensive.
  Fact: Adjusting for inflation, home heating oil is cheaper now than it was in 1980. Although the oil market does rise and fall, heating oil remains an affordable source of home energy.
• Myth 5: Most home heating oil comes from the Middle East.
  Fact: More than one-third of the heating oil we use in the US is produced domestically; of the remaining supply, Canada produces more of our oil than all Middle Eastern countries combined.

To get the facts about heating oil and what it can do for your home or business, Contact Q-Dog today!