Keep your Normandy Park home warm and cozy with Bioheat
A greener, cleaner fuel source
At Genesee Energy, we know many of our customers are just as concerned with protecting the environment as they are with heating their homes. They often ask us questions about Bioheat and biodiesel. Below are some answers to their most frequently asked questions.
What is Bioheat?
Bioheat is an alternative home heating fuel that burns greener and cleaner than standard petroleum or natural gas. Safe to use, non-toxic, and biodegradable, Bioheat keeps your Normandy Park home as warm and comfortable as regular heating oil, while also helping you to reduce your carbon emissions.
How is Bioheat made?
Bioheat is made from a blend of petroleum heating oil and biodiesel, a clean-burning alternative fuel made from domestic, renewable resources. The biodiesel used in Genesee Bioheat is made from leftover cooking grease, provided by Seattle-area restaurants. This grease, which might otherwise be thrown away, is recycled into biodiesel and used to heat your home. (Other natural biodiesel sources include animal fat, algae, and palm and soybean oil.)
Will using Bioheat really help me reduce my carbon footprint?
Yes. Genesee Bioheat offers several clean-burning blends of Bioheat, including B25 (25% biodiesel and 75% standard oil), B50 (50% biodiesel), and B99 (99% biodiesel). The higher the biodiesel blend (B99 is our cleanest-burning blend), the lower your greenhouse gas emissions. But even our lowest Bioheat blend (B25) has a lower carbon output than regular heating oil or natural gas.
Do I need to buy a new furnace to switch to Bioheat?
No. Bioheat works with your existing furnace – no need to make modifications or buy a new furnace. And Bioheat blends well with the standard heating fuel you have in your storage tank. In fact, using Bioheat can help to extend the life of your oil-burning furnace, since biodiesel acts as a cleansing agent for your filters. We recommend you start with our B25 blend, and work your way up to B99, so we don’t put too much stress on your furnace all at once.
Is Bioheat cost-effective to use?
Bioheat saves you money in the long run because it helps to reduce potential furnace problems. This saves you from having to make costly furnace repairs, and prevents you from having to buy a new furnace. Currently, Bioheat costs about 10 cents more per gallon than regular fuel oil, but the price is expected to go down in the next 10 years as more refineries begin producing biodiesel. Also, Bioheat is made in the USA, so it’s less likely to have sudden price spikes than heating fuel made with imported oil.
For more information on Bioheat supply and delivery in Normandy Park, visit our Bioheat services page.
For more information on the origin of sustainable fuel sources, visit Sequential Pacific Biodiesel. For more information on the support and expansion of Green Heating, visit National Biodiesel Board. For the latest national news on Bioheat, visit National Oilheat Research Alliance.