BioHeat Vs. Electrification & Heat Pumps

Date: September 14, 2020

Utilizing safe, reliable ways to heat your home

Cubby Oil holds steadfast in our belief that we need to eliminate all fossil fuel use in the heating sector in order to reduce the irreparable harm that Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are causing our environment. The question is how to best accomplish that quickly – since time is rapidly running out and with the least cost, discomfort and disruption.

It is popular in some circles right here in Massachusetts to simply say we should “electrify everything.” in the case of homes, that would mean replacing natural gas, oil and propane-fired boilers and furnaces with heat pumps.

Heat Pump Hurdles

There are a few important challenges with this:

• Heat pump conversions cost a lot of money and do not work very efficiently when the weather gets cold. According to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Council, despite big incentives, there were only 622 whole house heat pump conversions from 2014 through 2019. The average cost was a whopping $20,428 per average 1,502 square foot home. Of these, 89% ended up keeping their existing heating systems as a back-up. In other words, they did not even eliminate their fossil fuel consumption. And for good reason: 84% were unhappy with their heat pump’s performance in very cold weather!
• To produce the electricity that heat pumps consume, the utilities need to burn gas, nuclear and even coal. What about renewable energy? In 2019, only 9.4% of New England’s net electric load came from renewables. This number is not realistically going to change much in the next decade. And don’t even get us started about how the utilities would handle such an influx in demand when they can’t even prevent massive power outages under the current electric grid load!

Cleaner, greener fuels are the future

Compare this to what we are able to do immediately with renewable biofuels. Cubby Oil & Energy currently delivers BioHeat Super Plus B40. This is a blend of 40% renewable Biodiesel with 60% traditional heating oil. This blend reduces your heating system’s GHG emissions by almost 30% immediately. You don’t have to change a thing or spend thousands of dollars in equipment upgrades!

Right now, we are currently testing a B50 blend with some customers who volunteered to be early adopters. We will even test a B100 Blend this coming season–no heating oil whatsoever! There is no better, cheaper, more feasible way to meet our environmental goals quickly than Bioheat fuel, and Bioheat is produced here in the US by American workers.

Our industry is committed to delivering this clean fuel to all of our customers. And just as important, we will keep you nice and warm regardless of the weather. Cubby Oil is greater Boston’s leader in safe, dependable heating oil delivery. Become a customer today and experience the Cubby difference.