Foley Oil & Propane FAQs

Please refer to our service area map to see if we serve your community.

Yes! If your heating system won’t start or your tank is out of fuel, give us a call at (603) 524-1417, and we’ll send someone out within one day to get the heat back on in your home.

Heating oil, known as oil, fuel oil, home heating oil, and HHO, is a low-viscosity liquid petroleum fuel product that is refined and used as a heat source.

Yes, heating oil is a safe and non-explosive fuel source. It is fire-resistant because of its high flash point of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It also produces visible warning signs like smoke if a heating system malfunction were to occur, meaning oil users can benefit from home security.

Read a tank gauge just like your car’s gas gauge: Full, ¾, ½, ¼, and Empty. You can find the small circular glass or plastic gauge on the top or side of your oil tank. Be sure to check it frequently and place an oil order before the bottom of your gauge reaches the ¼ marker.

If you’re not enrolled in our automatic delivery service and you’re monitoring your own levels of home heating oil, please request a delivery when your tank is no lower than ¼ full. If you’d like us to handle your oil tank monitoring, sign up for our automatic delivery option and ditch the responsibility of keeping track. With this service, we monitor your tank levels and refill your tank automatically when it’s time.

The colder the temperatures are, the more heating oil a furnace or boiler will need to provide warmth. During the dead of winter, you will go through oil more quickly than in the spring or fall. Other factors can affect heating oil usage too, such as personal heating preference, home size, and furnace or boiler efficiency—that’s why it’s so important to frequently check your oil tank gauge.

The most common oil-fired appliances are furnaces, boilers, and water heaters.

Heating oil has long been recognized as a safe heating fuel since it is nonexplosive. It’s also affordable, abundant, burns efficiently, and is eco-friendly.

Propane is sometimes referred to as liquefied petroleum gas, LP gas, or LPG. It is produced from either natural gas processing or crude oil refining. It is nontoxic, colorless and virtually odorless, but for your protection, an odor is added so it can be easily detected when necessary.

Propane is a non-toxic, non-poisonous, safe, reliable, and clean energy source that poses zero threats to soil or groundwater. Understanding how to properly use and store propane, as well as how to detect warning signs of a gas leak can significantly reduce the risk of a propane-related hazard in your home.

One of the safety features of propane is its unique smell—rotten eggs, a skunk’s spray or a dead animal. Ethyl mercaptan, a sulfur-based compound, is added to propane so that it can be detected when propane is in use. If you smell gas, immediately evacuate everyone from your home and call us at (603) 524-1417.

Your tank gauge is located on the top of the tank, usually under a liftable hood. (Note: Please be careful when you lift the hood—insects sometimes nest there.) For your convenience and comfort, please place a propane delivery order when your gauge reaches no less than 30% full.

If you’re not enrolled in our automatic delivery service and you’re monitoring your own levels of propane, please request delivery when your tank is no lower than 30% full. If you’d like us to handle your propane tank monitoring, sign up for our automatic delivery option and ditch the responsibility of keeping track. With this service, we monitor your tank levels and refill your tank automatically when it’s time.

Your propane is delivered and stored in liquid form. Propane liquid, for example, will expand (become a gas) nearly 17 times more than water over the same temperature increase. As a result, tanks and cylinders are never completely filled with propane liquid. Tanks are filled to about 80 to 85 percent of their capacity. This leaves a space above the liquid, which allows the propane liquid to expand freely due to changes in temperature.

Propane is a versatile fuel that has many applications both inside and outside your home. Some common propane powered appliances are furnaces, boilers, water heaters, fireplaces, cooking stoves, gas grills, space heaters, clothes dryers, generators, pool heaters, and more.

As a burned fuel, propane meets all clean air energy standards put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), making it safe and environmentally friendly. Plus, most propane is produced domestically, which means it is reliable and supports the US economy.

It is important to remember that as a full-service fuel company our heating oil and propane prices may not always be the lowest in our market, but we offer you advantages that fuel discounters don’t. For example, we have a dedicated team of highly trained technicians, some of whom are always on call for our customers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We wish we could tell you, but we have no idea. There are so many factors that could send prices up or down at any time. Just look at prices in 2008, when many analysts were saying oil could go up to $200 a barrel, but then it dropped to $50 a barrel instead. In recent years, prices have dropped during the heating season. There’s really no way to predict fuel prices, and there is no guarantee that prices will be lower in the off-seasons.

Before you contact us, we can give you some tips to make sure a service call is really needed. This could save you the cost and inconvenience of an unnecessary service visit. Plus, it will ensure our technicians are working where they are most needed.

• Make sure the thermostat is set above room temperature or in the “heat” position. If it’s a digital thermostat and the display screen is blank, you either need new batteries or the power supply has been interrupted.
• Check for a tripped circuit breaker or a blown fuse.
• Look to see if the power switch for your heating system is turned on. Sometimes it gets turned off accidentally.
• Check your tank to see if you have heating fuel.
• If you have an oil heating system, press the reset button on the burner relay—ONCE ONLY. If your system doesn’t start after you push the reset button the first time, do not push it again. Pushing this button more than once can cause your heating system to “flood.”

If at this point you still don’t get heat, call us immediately.

When a service technician arrives, communicate everything you did to the system before they begin working on it. You should also let them know if anything out of the ordinary happened, like an unusual noise, a strange smell, or smoke.

In many cases, this will help the technician find the problem and get your heat back in working order faster.

Heat is generated by burning oil, natural gas, or propane inside the furnace. This happens in the combustion chamber, which gets very hot. Air absorbs this heat in the furnace’s heat exchanger. Next, the blower sends the heated air through a system of ducts, and warm air circulates through the home.

The heat exchanger is the main component of your furnace. If the heat exchanger has a crack or a rust hole, combustion fumes (including carbon monoxide) can contaminate the air in your home. This is a potentially deadly situation and should be addressed IMMEDIATELY. A cracked heat exchanger usually requires replacing the entire furnace. If you suspect that you might have a cracked heat exchanger or a carbon monoxide problem caused by your furnace, turn the system off immediately. Then call us right away for service.

Installing a new furnace with two levels of heat and a variable speed motor is a good solution. These “smart” motors automatically adjust the volume and speed of air based on your home’s temperature requirements.

One indicator is Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE). All heating equipment manufactured after 1980 is required to have a label indicating its AFUE. The AFUE ratio is a measurement of a heating system’s seasonal efficiency, taking into account how well the system performs over an entire season of starts and stops. Modern heating systems can range in efficiency from 81% to 95%. If your system’s AFUE is lower than this range, we recommend that you contact us to talk about your replacement options.

Different people feel comfortable at different temperatures. Pay less attention to the number on the thermostat display (or the position of the temperature indicator on a non-digital display) and more to how comfortable the room feels to you. When you feel comfortable, check the setting. That’s the right temperature for you. We also suggest that customers use programmable thermostats to stay comfortable and lower year-round energy use.

Although every job is different and some take longer than others, it usually takes one day.

Absolutely. In our area, heating systems work hard. When anything is operating virtually nonstop for months on end, it needs regular maintenance just like your car. Without the regular maintenance a tune-up provides, you lose efficiency and money. In addition, regular maintenance can extend the life of your equipment.

Our expert technicians will be happy to come to your home and calculate your heating needs. They will then be able to recommend a system that is the correct size and model to meet your home’s requirements. For more details, just contact us.