Heating oil is an excellent way to keep your Cape Cod home comfortable and safe through the most frigid weeks of winter. Heating oil generates a lot of heat (138,500 Btu per gallon), and oil-fired furnaces and boilers are more fuel-efficient than ever before.
Still, knowing how much fuel is in your heating oil tank is crucial. The team at Tasha Fuels & Propane can help!
Fuel companies don’t fill heating oil tanks to 100 percent. We need to leave room for the fuel inside to expand safely. Your tank has something called a vent alarm. This device extends about 6 inches down into the tank. It’s right under your vent pipe. When we pump heating oil into the tank, air is forced out, causing the vent alarm to whistle. The whistling stops once the oil level tank rises to the point where it’s touching the vent alarm. Then, our delivery driver stops pumping.
So, a 275-gallon heating oil tank will hold about 240 to 250 gallons of fuel.
Having a properly sized heating oil tank in your home ensures that you don’t need to arrange heating oil deliveries too often. It also reduces the likelihood of a no-heat emergency in the winter due to a surprise runout.
Here are some factors we use to determine the ideal size of heating oil tank for your home:
The most common size of heating oil tank for single-family homes is 275 gallons. At Tasha, we carry sizes ranging from 130-gallon to 400-gallon models. Our tanks come with single- or double-walled construction. If your tank is reaching the end of its service life (around 15 to 20 years), talk to us about arranging a top-of-the-line replacement.
When was the last time you checked your heating oil levels? With winter breathing down our necks, now is a good time to check your gauge.
Your gauge is a glass or plastic vial situated on top of the tank. It has markings similar to your car’s gas meter — F, ¾, ½ and ¼. You should see a marker floating in the vial. Its position tells you how full your oil tank is. If the float is at or near the bottom of the vial (or you can’t see it at all), your tank is empty or close to it. You need to arrange a heating oil delivery right away.
Of course, you can avoid checking a tank gauge altogether with Tasha’s automatic delivery service.
When you enroll in our no-fee automatic heating oil delivery schedule, our team handles your planning. We use your customer profile and current weather patterns to know right when you’ll need a fill-up. Then, we reserve your delivery appointment well in advance. There’s no stress and no risk of running out in the winter.
Households in Falmouth, Bourne, Mashpee, Osterville, Marion and other Southeastern Massachusetts and Upper Cape communities trust our team with their home heating. Reach out today to become a Tasha customer.