Home heating oil companies prepare for approaching arctic cold snap
WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — With the arctic cold snap on the way, it's all hands on deck at Southern New England Heating Oil Companies.
But NBC 10 crunched the numbers and report, and unless your tank is almost empty, there's no real need to panic.
It's been nonstop for the workers at Kent County Oil Service Company since the forecast called for an intense arctic-in-origin cold snap on the way.
"Oh, we're running around the clock right now,” said James Miller of the family-owned company based in Warwick. “This is definitely the busiest we've been all year long."
"I think a little of it might be panic,” he added. “I mean people hear the news stories, you know it's going to get below zero this weekend, and start to panic."
NBC 10 spoke with Miller while he was topping off a half tank of home heating oil in the Narragansett Harbor Island neighborhood, a coordinated rendezvous so as not to break his stride.
"It's less than 36 hours of this cold. I think the message should be unless your oil tank's below half, don't even think about calling us,” said Miller. “Even if you're still below half and a quarter, you're fine."
The average home uses about seven gallons of home heating oil per day in the winter months -- double that with extremely cold weather.
"Depends on the size of the house and the insulations, windows, and things like that,” said Miller. “But the industry standard, the average home on a winter day burns seven gallons in a 24 hour period. So even if you were to double that, I mean 14 gallons is nothing compared to -- most houses have 275 gallon tank if not larger, so you're going to be totally fine."
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For the most part, it's already been a milder than average winter. More good news: the high oil price increases of 2022 are decreasing for 2023.
"Most people have been saving money on heating this year which is great,” Miller said. “Obviously everything else has been going up with the economy and the inflation thing. So, not great for the oil guys, but it's definitely great for the consumer.”
Bottom line: this short-term short-lived arctic cold snap will give way to yet another stretch of milder than average temperatures next week.