The two most popular fuels used to heat the home are oil and gas. There are millions of homes across the world using heating oil as the fuel to heat their homes. The main source of heating oil is crude oil but these days biofuels are actually used too. Petroleum heating oil comes in three main types which are diesel, kerosene and a blend of distillate fuel and residual fuel. Kerosene is the most pure form of heating oil but is also the most expensive. Diesel on the other hand is less pure but is cheaper and is the usual heating choice for most homes.

The global cost of crude oil is constantly changing and this directly affects the price of heating oil. However the price of heating oil can be affected by other factors too. The price of oil can rise quite suddenly if there is a sudden demand for oil due to a drop in weather temperatures for example. But those who are clever will normally make sure that they take advantage of lower prices during the summer months and fill their tanks up then ready for the winter. Then the high winter prices can be avoided at least for a while anyway. But installing more than one tank in your home could mean that you could fill up totally in the summer and probably get away with paying these high winter prices altogether.

Another form of heating that is used instead of heating oil is natural gas. The main benefit of natural gas is that is directly pumped into people’s homes. Unlike oil, gas does not need to be ordered in but rather is available all the time when it is required. But because gas prices have been increasing all the time, many people are reluctant to move away from oil as a form of heating. Also natural gas is still not available in some rural areas so oil is still preferable as a heating choice for many.

Some people spend a lot of money heating their homes in the winter. Fuel such as electricity and gas show no signs of coming down in price. Savvy people are changing over to oil as a home fuel though. And when this happens they have to ensure the tanks re always full of cheapest heating oil to make sure they don’t run dry in the cold weather.