Wicked weather can hit western Connecticut any time of year, causing the power to go out.
Other things can cause power outages, including car accidents and electrical grid failures. Whatever the reason, Santa Energy can keep your home safe and comfortable with propane whole-house backup generators. We’re a Generac dealer, and Generac is the gold standard for generators.
We will safely and expertly install your generator, as well as provide reliable propane delivery for it.
Our Generac whole-house generators are also known as standby generators. That’s because it is standing by, ready to go whenever you need it. When the power goes out, the generator activates after 10 seconds to see whether it’s a flicker or not. You don’t have to do anything!
A full propane tank can keep your home in power for at least a week. That’s especially important in more rural areas of towns like Easton, Newtown, and Wilton, where it can take several days for the power to be restored after storms where trees have taken down many stretches of power lines.
You can have lights, safely cold food in the refrigerator and freezer, other kitchen equipment such as microwaves, coffeemakers, and multicookers, medical equipment like electric wheelchairs and electric scooters, a working sump pump, an operating home security system, the comfort of home heating and cooling, and the ability to use and charge electronics like computers, laptops, TVs, and phones.
Portable generators don’t cost a lot. But you also don’t get a lot.
Propane cylinders or gasoline are the most common fuels used in portable generators. Portable generators will not have enough fuel for lengthy outages unless you have extra propane cylinders or several gallons of gasoline at your home.
If your power goes out at night or during a storm, you must go outdoors, fill up your portable generator, then connect it to your house. That can be both challenging and hazardous.
Portable generators pose a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. They should never be used indoors or in enclosed areas such as a garage, carport, or sunporch.
Power is one area where the limitations of portable generators are clear. You may be able to keep the lights and fridge on, but running the sump pump, charging electronics and other uses are likely off the table.
Santa Energy is your one-stop shop for adding a Generac propane whole-house backup generator to your home. Get in touch with us today so you’ll be ready for whatever the weather throws at us!
Santa Energy has been providing reliable heating oil and propane delivery for Bridgeport, Fairfield, Shelton and nearby communities in western Connecticut for more than 80 years.
We have a deep understanding of our customers because you are also our neighbors. It’s why we provide pricing and payment options for your heating oil and propane services.
Two of our more popular options for pricing are Fixed Price and Market Price. Which one you choose depends your risk tolerance for price fluctuations.
Before heating season, you contract with Santa Energy to set your price per gallon for heating oil or propane. Once you sign the contract, your fuel price will not increase or decrease. You’ll know exactly how much you’ll be paying for your fuel. The Fixed Price plan remains in effect through April 30 of the following year when you will stay on auto delivery at the market floating Rate until you sign another fixed contract. This plan is ideal for people who want stability when it comes to their fuel costs.
The market price for heating oil and propane varies from day to day, with no limit how far up or down it can go. If you pay market rate, you can potentially save a lot of money if the market price goes down. But if the price goes up, so will your costs. The market price is unpredictable and based on several factors, including the weather, crude oil prices, supply issues, and more. Over 70% of our customers stay on the market price as they have found it works out over time.
It’s tough to plan your household finances when your fuel costs fluctuate. Our Budget Plan is a solution!
With our convenient Budget Plan, we estimate your annual propane and heating oil costs and divide them into 11 even, monthly installments. You’ll never have to worry about sudden spikes in your bill amount or spending more money than you planned. Because you know exactly what you’ll be paying each month, creating a monthly household budget and sticking to it will be much simpler for you.
You may make things easier for yourself by using AutoPay! Simply register your debit or credit card with AutoPay, and your bills are paid automatically each month without the hassles of phoning in, logging on online, or mailing a check!
If you join the program using a credit card that has a points-based rewards program, you’ll receive points with each AutoPay payment. You’ll be able to redeem your points for rewards more quickly. If you get travel points, you can spend next winter’s vacation sunning in Florida rather than shivering in Stratford!
Discover the peace of mind that comes with a fixed price for your heating oil or propane. Contact Santa Energy to learn more!
Your home’s heating, cooling, and comfort equipment are major investments in your western Connecticut home.
Santa Energy customers in Stamford, Seymour, Greenwich, Beacon Falls, and other communities have discovered that Santa Energy service plans protect those investments and give them peace of mind. Our plans cover a wide range of heating, cooling, and comfort equipment such as water heaters and humidifiers.
Here are three advantages a Santa Energy service plan offers.
Did you know that Santa Energy provides a tune-up as part of the service plan for your home’s heating, cooling, and comfort equipment? We do this to ensure that everything is in peak operating condition. We inspect, clean, and lubricate components in your system and replace any worn or broken ones.
With a service plan, you can save money on repairs by detecting and fixing any concerns before they get worse. A lack of maintenance is the cause of four out of every five HVAC and comfort equipment failures.
The first step in avoiding large repair costs is to keep your equipment in excellent working order. When HVAC and comfort equipment is properly maintained, it operates at peak efficiency. This allows you to use less energy and ensure that your home is safe and pleasant. When your HVAC equipment is working at peak efficiency, you can save 10% on your heating and cooling. Heating and cooling makes up about half of your home’s energy costs, so you can save a lot of money with a service plan!
If your equipment needs to be fixed, our service plans cover a wide range of components and provide discounts on additional items. This, as well as saving on labor costs, will help you save money.
Did you know that virtually all HVAC and comfort equipment manufacturers require you to have your equipment professionally serviced once a year? We include a tune-up as part of our service plans. This ensures that your warranty is preserved. It also may help you avoid having to spend a lot of money on repairs due voiding your warranty.
Whether you’re in Newtown or New Canaan, or anywhere in between, a Santa Energy service plan for your HVAC and comfort equipment gives you protection. Contact us today to learn more and enroll!
According to recent surveys, about half of Americans plan to travel over the holidays this winter.
Whether you’re a snowbird or just visiting family for the holidays, we’ve got some pointers to keep your house safe and your energy costs down while you’re away.
Smart thermostats make it simple to keep monitor and manage your home’s heating while you’re away. They use wireless and cellular technologies to allow you to monitor and control your home’s thermostat and heating system from anywhere there is service.
If you don’t yet own a smart thermostat, now is the time to grab one as smart thermostats will save you money by giving you greater control of your energy expenses from the day they are installed.
Program your thermostat for a constant setting of 55˚ Fahrenheit while you’re away. This keeps your home safely warm and protects your pipes from freezing and bursting while keeping your heating costs low.
If you’re an Automatic Delivery customer for heating oil or propane and will be gone for more than a few weeks this winter, please let us know. We take into account your previous fuel usage as well as the present weather when determining our delivery schedule. Knowing that you’re away helps to prevent us from making unneeded deliveries to your home.
Ask a friend or neighbor to check your house on a regular basis. Have them ensure that the heat is turned on and that the temperature in the home is at least 55°. Give us their contact information if they need to get in touch with us.
Make arrangements to have someone clear your driveway and walkway to your heating oil or propane tank of snow or ice. This enables our delivery people and/or service technicians to get to your home.
From Stamford to Seymour, Woodbridge to Wilton, Santa Energy is your place for high-efficiency home heating, cooling, and comfort equipment. Contact our experts to get started on upgrading your home.
Nothing says winter in New England quite like a fire in the fireplace. However, many folks here in Fairfield and New Haven counties aren’t enjoying that seasonal comfort.
You may have thought that if you didn’t have a masonry fireplace in your home, you were out of luck. Building a masonry fireplace can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and you have to live with a mess in your home during construction.
If you have an older home, whether it’s a farmhouse in Easton or a colonial in Bridgeport, repairing or replacing the fireplace and chimney may be cost-prohibitive.
Santa Energy has solutions that will have you curling up in front of a fire: gas fireplaces and gas logs sets. Our knowledgeable and experienced service technicians will expertly install them in your home.
If you have an existing fireplace in your home, we can add a gas fireplace insert so you can make the fireplace a focal point in the room.
No fireplace? No problem! Gas fireplaces come in an array of sizes and styles so you can choose the one that best fits your space.
There are several factors that go into the selection of gas logs for your fireplace.
One is the size of your fireplace. We’ll make sure the size and scale of the gas logs work for it.
Something else to consider is whether you want your gas logs to be vented or vent-free. Both have advantages, but factors such as aesthetics, efficiency, and local regulations need to be considered. We’ll walk you through that selection.
The amount of heat generated by gas logs is measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs for short). The size of the space, the sort and quantity of insulation you have, the height of your ceilings, how many windows are in the area, and whether the area contains carpeting or hard-surface flooring such as wood or tile all influence how many BTUs will be needed to warm your space. Too few BTUs will be insufficient for warmth. Too many BTUs will use too much gas, unnecessarily increasing your fuel costs. We’ll assist you in this so that your gas logs can give off the correct amount of heating power while still giving off a pleasant heat.
You also get to choose the style of gas logs. Are you looking for a coastal look for your Southport home? Driftwood gas logs are perfect. Do you want something rustic for your cottage in Oxford? Check out pine and birch gas logs. Is your Ridgefield Victorian more suited to a traditional look? Classic oak gas logs may be the way to go.
Contact us today to get started on adding the comfort of a gas fireplace and gas logs to your home!
Knowing exactly how much heating oil you’ll use this winter would be great so you can plan your spending.
But while we can help you get an idea of how much heating oil you will likely use, there is no way to get a precise calculation. There are too many variables, such as the size and age of your home, the weather, the age and condition of your heating system, how well your home is insulated, and what temperature you set on your thermostat.
That’s one reason we recommend our Automatic Delivery. We use your prior heating oil usage and current temperature to accurately gauge when you’ll need more heating oil. We make the delivery, and you have peace of mind!
You can also choose among our heating oil pricing and payment options to take control of your hearting costs.
The information in the table below are averages for a home in towns such as Darien, Bethany, or Trumbull that are between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet.
| Outside temperature | Gallons used per day |
|---|---|
| 15°F | 7.8 |
| 20°F | 7.0 |
| 25°F | 6.2 |
| 30°F | 5.3 |
| 35°F | 4.5 |
| 40°F | 3.7 |
| 45°F | 2.8 |
| 50°F | 2.0 |
Here are some other ways you can get a good estimate of your heating oil usage.
Check the manufacturer’s plate on your burner or burner nozzle. There should be a number on it. That number is the approximate capacity specifications for your burner in gallons per hour.
Keep an eye on your burner. A burner’s average usage is between 0.8 and 1.7 gallons per hour. Keep track of how often your burner is used and how much oil is consumed in a typical day. This information is crucial because some models consume more or less heating oil than the normal range suggests.
Check your prior usage. Look at your past heating oil bills to determine what your usage was in previous years. To ensure that you account for colder or warmer winters, obtain five to six years of heating oil gallons and add them. Then divide them by the number of years you’re using. That will give you an approximation of your average winter heating oil usage.
Factor in the weather. Check out a reputable weather-tracking website to see how long the heating season in Fairfield County is. A heating season is when the temperatures drop below 65 degrees and how long they remain there. Take into account seasonal trends like El Niño or La Niña.
While you may not know exactly how much heating oil you use this winter, you’ll use more than you should if you don’t get an annual tune-up of your furnace or boiler. It’s not too late to get your heating system tuned up. Contact Santa Energy today to schedule a tune-up, and also ask about our affordable service plans.
Propane is an excellent and versatile fuel that offers a lot of benefits in the winter. One such benefit is the energy efficiency in your home’s heating and water heating. Also, you can rest easy knowing that the fuel needed to keep your house warm is already stored in your propane tank. This means that you’re not reliant on a utility.
There are, however, some things you need to know and do to keep your propane-powered home safe this winter.
If a winter storm is on the way and you use Will-Call for your propane delivery, go outside right away to check your propane tank levels. Not only do you need enough propane to get through a storm, but if ice or snowfall causes roads to be dangerous, deliveries may be delayed. If your propane tank is about 30% full (or less) and there’s severe weather on the way, contact us immediately to schedule a propane delivery.
Our Automatic Delivery plan is great in winter. We use weather data and prior propane consumption to accurately predict when you’ll need a propane delivery, and promptly make it.
During the winter, our wireless propane tank monitoring gives you greater peace of mind about your gas supply. We’ll be able to tell, in real time, how much propane is in your tank 24/7/365 so we can arrange your propane delivery at the right time. Also, with our app, you’ll always know how much propane you have, too.
Propane is a very safe fuel due to stringent local, state, and federal rules and rigorous industry standards. However, in the unlikely event of a propane leak, you must be informed about propane safety and how to protect your house and loved ones. Every adult in the house should know how to turn off the propane supply at its source, which is your propane tank.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that, in high enough quantities, can be fatal. The danger of carbon monoxide poisoning increases in the winter months. Here’s what you should do to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Carbon monoxide (CO) detectors should be placed on every floor of your house, as well as outside all sleeping areas, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Check the batteries once a year and replace them when needed. CO detectors must be replaced every five years.
Check vents regularly, especially after it snows, to make sure they are cleared.
We strongly recommend installing propane leak detectors to protect against odor loss in the event of a propane leak.
Know the symptoms of CO poisoning:
Infants, children, the elderly, and people with breathing or heart conditions are especially vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning.
If a carbon monoxide alarm goes off or if you detect a CO leak, evacuate the premises immediately and call 911 and Santa Energy.
A propane whole-house backup generator is great, especially when you live in more rural parts of communities like Easton, Monroe, or Oxford and are vulnerable to power outages. If you have a propane whole-house backup generator, make sure it has enough propane to last for at least a week in the event of a power outage. Run your generator for about 20 minutes every month throughout the winter to ensure that it is operating properly and that vital moving parts are lubricated.
For more information about propane safety, check out our propane safety page complete with videos on a wide range of propane safety topics from the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC).
It seems like the cost of everything is going up these days. From feeding your family to filling up for the fall road trip, everything is taking a bigger bite out of your wallet.
Here are 5 tips to make things a little easier on your household expenses by improving your home’s efficiency. By following these tips you can save money without giving up comfort this winter.
Regular maintenance by Santa Energy’s service technicians will help your home’s furnace or boiler run at its best possible performance. The tune-up also allows your service technician to identify and repair issues before they could lead to a potentially larger repair bill.
Did you know that by installing and using a programmable smart thermostat, you could save 10% or more on your heating bills? Set and monitor your programmable smart thermostat to help control your usage.
During the day, leave your curtains and blinds open to take advantage of the Sun’s natural heat. Pro tip: make sure to close them at night.
In an average American house, there are enough drafts around doors and windows as well as through walls and ceilings to equal a window left open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Seal those gaps with caulk, weatherstripping, or expanding foam and you can cut your heating costs by up to 20%!
Have you had your home’s heating system tuned up yet? Get it done before cold weather hits! Contact us today to schedule an appointment.
Upgrading your home’s HVAC and comfort equipment can feel daunting.
You are making a major investment in your home’s value, comfort, and energy efficiency. That investment part is why some people put this off as long as possible, worried about the financial commitment.
Santa Energy is here to help you every step of the way, starting with our FREE estimate. Our help also includes helping secure financing and rebates for your equipment purchases that helps lower the price of your equipment while giving you peace of mind.
Purchasing this new equipment for your home is a big investment not only in your home, but financially as well. That is why Santa Energy not only offers extended payment plans to qualifying customers, we also partner with Wells Fargo to provide transparent and affordable financing.
Energize CT is another great resource for financing and we will help you work with them for your financing needs. The organization has several options for financing high-efficiency HVAC and home comfort equipment, as well as other energy-saving items for your home. Many of these financing options offer low-interest or even 0% interest, no money down, and flexible terms.
Many manufacturers of HVAC and comfort equipment such as water heaters and indoor air quality equipment offer rebates, and we’ll work to make sure you get any that your equipment qualifies for.
We also look to associations interested in energy efficiency who offer rebates. Energize CT offers several that the equipment you purchase from Santa Energy may qualify for, including:
This and other rebate programs are updated annually, and rebates are only available as long as funds for them last. So, if you’re looking to add rebate savings to your home’s HVAC and home comfort equipment purchase, act fast!
Santa Energy is southwestern Connecticut’s leader for quality heating, cooling, and comfort equipment sales, installation, and service. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you save money and get a FREE estimate.
There are some things big national corporations are good for. Providing you with online shopping services that can have what you need at your front door in a day is one of them.
But some services are better when done with a local company. One example of that is fuel services for your southern Connecticut home. With Santa Energy, you get service you just won’t get from a big fuel company that serves several states or the whole country
Here are some ways Santa Energy stands above them all.
There are several large regional or national companies that deliver heating oil and propane to southern Connecticut. But their size can work against you when it comes to getting your fuel. Logistical issues, supply delays, and more can slow their delivery service to your home. In the winter, that can be a real problem. And with far-off corporate offices, how responsive can they be to your fuel needs?
Our slogan is “Comfort You Can Count On,” and that’s more than words. That is behind everything we do for our customers.
With Santa Energy, you have a reliable local company right here in your back yard. Our ample fuel storage means that we’ll always have the propane and heating oil our customers need.
We treat our customers like the neighbors you are. We won’t leave you in the cold. That’s why we provide 24/7 no-heat emergency heating oil and propane delivery.
Being local, we understand local homes, local residents, and their concerns better than the big corporations. When we plan our fuel supply, we do it with you in mind, making sure that nothing will stop us from getting your heating oil or propane to you.
That personal service extends to our equipment services. When you come looking for a home heating system, for example, we’re going to have a selection of furnaces and boilers that have what it takes to get you through a New England winter in comfort and security. Because this area is vulnerable to hurricanes in the summer and nor’easters in the winter, we offer propane whole-house backup generators to keep your home safe and comfortable if you lose power.
You can count on our trained, knowledgeable service technicians knowing how to keep your home’s heating, cooling, and comfort equipment in good condition. We get the job done right the first time because that’s comfort you can count on.
Get the personal, responsive service you deserve. Become a Santa Energy customer today!