Dear Friends,
I’ve worked here for 30 years, and I don’t recall a period as brutal as the cold snap we endured from mid-December to mid-January. Even if you managed to be out of town, the severe weather made national news. A “bomb cyclone” ushered in the New Year, and a lot of the heating companies around here were crushed by the heavy demand for service.
Not Westmore! Our team pulled together and, while the conditions were extreme, we kept going.
With such intense cold, people burned through fuel much faster than normal. A few ran low, but all of them got deliveries. Everyone here worked long shifts and went weeks without a day off. After we took care of our customers, we delivered to the hundreds of people whose discount fuel dealers had stopped answering the phone.
Having our own fuel terminal remains one of our strengths. We never ran out of fuel — and we arranged for icebreakers to clear the way for barges to bring in more. Of course, that’s why our customers know they can count on us: We invest in critical resources and make careful plans to ensure that we are there for you when you need us the most.
We couldn’t have done it without our great team, heroes all. And, of course, we thank all of you for your patience. Here’s to spring!
Warmly,
Richard C. Bologna
This January was the coldest in five years. On one of those bitter days, we delivered three weeks’ worth of fuel in a single day. Here are a few more cold, hard facts.
8˚ Mean temperature on January 8, which translated into 57 heating degree days.
30 Average number of deliveries each of our drivers made per day.
216 Total number of deliveries completed in a single day—one-third more than on a typical January day last year.
146% Increase in the amount of overtime put in compared with January 2017.
Paying for all your fuel in a few short months makes winter stressful. When extreme cold spells cause your payments to spike, it’s even worse. However, with our Even Pay plan your fuel payments are manageable and predictable all season long.
We find an average of your past fuel usage and spread that amount evenly over 11 months, cutting your winter payments virtually in half. If the season is exceptionally cold, we’ll adjust the amount slightly — rather than hit you with a final balance at the end of the season.
Despite January’s frigid temperatures, fewer than half of our customers saw a bill adjustment this year. And some years, like the last two, we actually lowered monthly payments because the winter was so mild.
Please call or contact us through our website to get set up with Even Pay.
Surveys have shown that while heating oil customers have exceptionally high levels of satisfaction with the service they receive, most don’t realize all the ways today’s oil heat can enhance their comfort and save them money.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) continues to research and develop oil heating equipment and biofuel that’s cleaner and more efficient than before. The overall goal is to transition to even higher levels of biodiesel fuel that can be matched to highly efficient, groundbreaking equipment.
One ongoing research project involves transforming wood waste into a liquid for use in heating oil. A field test of this renewable fuel was just conducted last winter in Maine.
In terms of equipment, one initiative the industry is working on is the development of an oil-fired heat pump that uses cutting-edge technology. Research is currently being conducted on this project by a team led by Dr. Thomas Butcher, director of the NORA Research & Education Center in Plainview, N.Y.
“We have a pathway into the future. We’re not an old fuel that has had its time in the sun… we can be more of a solution than you ever thought we could be.”
— John Huber, President, National Oilheat Research Alliance
Source: http://fueloilnews.com/2018/01/03/nora-in-2018/
Technology has brought great improvements in efficiency that have reduced annual fuel consumption by as much as 40%, saving oil heat consumers a lot of money on fuel. And because new systems burn cleanly and don’t need as much fuel, they do not pose a hazard to the environment.
Additionally, sulfur levels have been reduced dramatically, improving heating system efficiency and cleanliness and reducing emissions. This reformulated fuel also eliminates the source of most equipment breakdowns. The advent of heating oil with low sulfur content has paved the way for the next generation of compact, super-efficient boilers and furnaces.
Many gallons of heating oil now include Bioheat®, a blend of heating oil and renewable materials like vegetable oils. Because Bioheat integrates seamlessly with all heating oil systems, no changes to your heating system are necessary!
According to a comprehensive report conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory and presented to Congress by the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA), biofuel blends containing 20% or more Bioheat produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than natural gas!
Shortly after the official start to winter, hundreds of records were broken along the Eastern Seaboard when a historic cold spell numbed millions of people from the Florida Panhandle all the way up into Maine.
The silver lining is that such frigid temperatures reinforced the value of owning an oil-heated home. That’s because oil generates nearly 140,000 Btu’s of heat for every gallon burned and warms a home evenly and efficiently. To put that in perspective, you would have to burn about 40% more natural gas to receive the heating equivalent of heating oil. That’s just one reason fewer people are switching to natural gas!
Because of oil heat’s impressive efficiency, homeowners enjoy high comfort levels and great value — no matter how cold it gets. If someone is looking to find the warmest homes in your neighborhood next winter, chances are good it will be the ones heated with oil.
Of course, homeowners who take advantage of the latest oil heat technology increase their odds of having the warmest, most comfortable home on the block.
Oil heat is efficient and more economical than ever! The latest oil heating systems are small, smart and super-efficient and can save you, on average, about 30% on your annual heating costs. Here are six more quick points about oil heat efficiency.
When Terry Nethercott decided to step back from M. Frango & TJ Nethercott Fuel Oil Services after running it for 25 years, he hoped to find someone who would take over and continue to deliver the level of service his customers expected. We are pleased to take on that responsibility, bringing together two family-run heating service companies under the Westmore name.
Terry actually got his start in the fuel business with Westmore 40 years ago, and we are thrilled that he will be working with us again. He will be in our office twice a week and, of course, always just a phone call away. Two of his longtime employees — service technician, Frank Rende, and fuel driver, Ronny Lew — have also joined our team.
For 80 years, Westmore Fuel has adapted its business to meet the changing needs of our customers, and we are now leading oil heat into the next generation. We are happy to have more folks who can enjoy this ride with us.
A few simple steps taken now can make dealing with next winter a little easier.
Darcy D., a homeowner in Harrison, New York, faced a common problem when the weather turned brutally cold: She couldn’t get her discount fuel dealer to fill up her tank. Desperate, she called her real-estate agent for a recommendation, and soon got this answer: “Call Westmore.”
We made sure we got Darcy’s tank filled up shortly after she reached out to us. A few days later, she called us again because she had lost her heat. We dispatched our technician Fernando to evaluate the situation. He diagnosed the problem quickly and had the heat up and running once again.
The next morning, we received this thankful message from our new customer: “You have a truly great company, a great product, and your service is out of this world.”
We’re thankful that Darcy has joined our family of customers and we look forward to showing her the Westmore difference for many years.