Category: Fall 2018

Dear Friends,

Three times a year, you receive our newsletter. While we occasionally bring you “breaking news” — like our new online portal — we also believe that some things are worth repeating. With that in mind, here are a few reminders of some of the ways we can help you.

Remember that all customers can earn a 20¢-per-gallon tax credit through New York State’s clean-fuel tax credit. On average, our customers save about $150 each year thanks to this tax credit — and Burt’s Natural Heating Oil.™ We deliver the cleanest fuel on the North Fork and the East End!

We also embrace advances in technology that can take away your worries, make life easier and save you money.

That’s why we continue to sing the praises of our Gremlin™ tank monitor, which records your fuel levels with amazing precision. You’ll get a real-time look at how much fuel you have left (and so will we). This makes it practically impossible for you to run out.

You can also make life easier with the Ecobee smart thermostat. Please visit our Heating Equipment page to read more.

Additionally, more than a thousand customers rely on us to look after their vacation homes. They trust us so much that they have given us the keys to their home, allowing us to gain quick access if an emergency arises. This saves them time and a lot of worry. If you would like us to have house keys that we can use in the event of an emergency, drop by or give us a call.

And lastly, if you’ve been through the “winter wars” with us before, you know you can count on us for dependable deliveries and emergency service no matter how bad the weather gets. Just let us know what we can do to help.

Warmly,

Martin Romanelli

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new customer-account portal. All you have to do to get started is to click either the “Pay Online” or “My Account” links at the top of our home page.

Here are just a few of the things you can do once you’ve registered:

• Make secure online payments
• View deliveries and service calls
• View statements and payments
• Retrieve or change your password
• Update your contact information or credit card details

Questions? Send us an email directly through our site!

This is the time of year when you want to make wise choices to stay comfortable while you keep your energy costs under control. Here are some tips to help you.

Stay with Heating Oil

In just the past few years, we have seen significant improvements in oil heat’s efficiency and cleanliness, thanks in large part to vast reductions in the sulfur content of heating oil.

Moving forward, heating oil will burn even more cleanly, and with lower emissions, than natural gas. You will also experience better heating efficiency and easier maintenance since today’s high quality heating oil creates fewer deposits inside your boiler or furnace.

Heating oil also includes biofuel — a blend of clean-burning heating oil and renewable materials, like vegetable oils. Because it integrates seamlessly with all heating oil systems, no changes to your heating system are necessary!

Research continues on developing oil heat equipment and biofuel blends. The mission: To transition to even higher levels of biofuel that can be matched to highly efficient, groundbreaking equipment. Don’t miss out!

Put Your Comfort on Automatic

Do you get automatic deliveries? When you’re on our automatic delivery schedule, we’ll know when you need fuel and we can adjust your schedule with the weather forecast. If you call in your order, you run the risk of running out, especially during super-cold temperatures, when you burn through much more fuel than usual, and everyone is calling in at once.

Get the Most from Your Heating System

To get the most out of your oil heat system, check out these tips on how to keep it running safely and efficiently.

• Keep the area around your system as clean and clutter free as possible. Never store anything flammable near your system!
• Keep registers, baseboards and radiators clean and unobstructed to ensure maximum airflow.
• If you have a steam boiler, check the water gauge periodically. Low water levels are a leading cause for shutdowns. Steam boilers should also be “flushed” when the water in the gauge looks rusty.
• If you have an oil furnace, change or clean the filter on a regular basis during the heating season. Dust, dirt, pet hair and other debris all get trapped by your filter. A dirty filter compromises efficiency and can even result in a shutdown.
• Never set your thermostat below 60 degrees. When your thermostat setting is too low, you risk frozen pipes. Water pipes near outside walls or in unheated spaces are especially prone to freeze-ups.

Raising Smart to a Higher Degree

A smart thermostat is a great addition for an oil-heated home. A Wi-Fi enabled thermostat allows you to view and change temperature settings, check local weather conditions and more, all from your smartphone, computer or tablet.

Once the smart thermostat gets installed, you register it online. This enables access from any location. If you’re away from home, you can use your phone or tablet to adjust the temperature setting so your home is at the perfect temperature when you return.

Some thermostat models even allow you to adjust temperatures to your comfort and over the next few days your thermostat will “remember” the temperatures you like and build a schedule based on your patterns. This is a smart way to save on energy costs year round.

Safety Corner

You probably already know that oil heat poses a very low risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. If an oil burner malfunctions (most often due to a lack of maintenance), the safety devices in the unit will typically shut the furnace or boiler off.

Plus, you will usually see smoke coming from your boiler or furnace to indicate that something is wrong. A gas heating system, on the other hand, usually does not issue a visual warning sign if there is a carbon monoxide problem.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that oil heat consumers shouldn’t have working carbon monoxide detectors inside their homes, especially near all bedrooms. There are many sources for carbon monoxide leaks, including the following:

• back drafts, caused by pressure imbalances near the heating system
• an idling vehicle that’s been left in an attached garage
• a blocked flue

Meet Carl Greiner, our new sales representative and goodwill ambassador.

Carl joined us last spring, and he simply cannot say enough nice things about the people he has signed up as Burt’s Reliable customers.

“They’re wonderful people,” says Carl, a resident of Hauppauge. “About half of them have a second home here, and I assure them we have a lot of experience in this area.”

Carl has also been spreading the word to current customers about our referral program.

“Right now, we give current customers a $75 reward for referring a new customer to us,” he says.

When he’s not at work, Carl enjoys restoring jukeboxes from the ’40s and ’50s.

“The whole process of restoring a jukebox, top to bottom, and getting it to light up and play music again is just a very satisfying thing,” he says.

Here are some tips for keeping your furnace working safely and efficiently:

• Maintain your furnace properly. A minimal investment in a service plan ensures that we can keep your equipment operating better for longer by preventing many expensive repairs. Regular maintenance can also solve common problems like odors, insufficient heat and short-cycling.
• Change your air filter regularly. Dust and dirt are the natural enemy of your furnace (especially your burner), so it’s best to change or clean your filters regularly during the heating season. If you don’t know how to change or clean the filter, ask our technician to show you the next time he visits your home.
• Store flammable liquids properly. Fumes from volatile liquids like paints can cause a fire hazard if they’re near the open flame of your burner. Store all volatile liquids safely in an area far away from the furnace.

Are you hoping for a winter that’s easier than last year’s? (Who isn’t?) Start with these tips to help take some of the sting out of the season.

1. Sign up for automatic deliveries or install a tank monitor.*
2. Remove snow, ice or any other obstructions near your tank or fill pipe when the weather gets bad. This allows our drivers to deliver your fuel as safely and efficiently as possible.
3. Enroll in E-Z Pay to spread your fuel payments out over the year.

Call us to see if you qualify for a tank monitor, which we can install in just 15 minutes!

* With a tank monitor, we can track your real-time fuel usage via an encrypted connection, and then deliver fuel when you need it — eliminating the hassle of run-outs. You can monitor your tank levels as well, via an easy-to-use mobile app.