Title: Office Manager Been at company since: 1989 Role (or Roles since start): started as a CSR Interests/about me: I have 5 grandchildren & 2 great-grandchildren who keep me busy following their activities. Hobbies: love to travel, and read.
Mark Gagnon
Title: President Been at company since: 1989 Role (or Roles since start): Started out making deliveries, working with Techs etc in 1989. Became President upon my fathers passing unexpectedly in 1991. Interests/about me: Married with three children. Enjoy the outdoors. (fishing, hunting, skiing etc) Active in several community organizations. Two time Rotary Club President, founding member of Marshwood Education Foundation, Maine Energy Marketers Executive Board, South Berwick Building Committee, Coached youth soccer when kids were little.
Scott Hemingway
Title: Sales Manager Been at company since: July 2004 Role (or Roles since start): Develop builder and contractor networking programs, commercial projects, customer retention and LP Gas sales. Interests/about me: Married w/ 2 adult children and 5 grandchildren. Enjoy family time, golf, hunting and watching the New England Patriots and the Red Sox.
Mark Leach
Title: Director of Operations Been at company since: 1977 Role (or Roles since start): Driver, Service Tech, Sales & Operations / Safety - Training Interests/about me: my family, member of the South Berwick Fire Dept. since 1975, Safety trainer for Propane Gas Assoc. of New England, providing training for first responders throughout New England.
Mike Place
Title: Equipment Sales Been at company since: 2007 Role (or Roles since start): Started here as an Oil and Propane Service Tech/Installer. Learned Air Conditioning service and installations. Then moved into sales. Interests/about me: Spending time with the family, being outdoors, and camping.
Kent Davis
Started in the business by wearing the uniforms, painting oil and propane tanks, and threading pipe for his Dad and Grandmother in the late 70’s. He has learned the difference between working for a family owned business and a family operated business. Just because a family owns a business doesn’t mean they take care of their customers like they are family. That is one of main reasons Kent has worked for the Gagnon Family since 2006. The Gagnon’s both treat their employees and customers like extended family and operate their business with the same vision. Kent’s number one role is customer retention as he considers it an honor to visit with our current customers and sign up new folks and serve them with the best products in the industry matched with excellent support and service. Kent’s longevity in the industry equips him with a vantage point of seeing what works and what doesn’t from a management perspective, a technician’s view, and from our customer’s standpoint. Kent is our heating oil salesman and focuses too, on liquid oil sales and protecting our customers with oil pricing. Kent’s family has been born and bred in Eliot and they all have a special affection for the Seacoast area. Kent considers it a privilege to be able to work in his “homeland” every day of the week. Kent and his wife live in Eliot, serve their local church in Eliot, and find joy in helping local residents by serving Kittery’s Fuel and More Board, Incorporator of Kennebunk Savings, and State of Maine and Eastern Region Advent Christian Association of Churches.
Dan Richardson
Title: Service Manager Lifelong Eliot resident and graduate of Marshwood High School. Two adult sons, Shawn and Patrick. Has been in the industry, primarily on the service and installation side, since starting at Davis Oil while still in high school. Enjoys a round of golf and spending time at his families camp. Coached youth basketball for many years. Member of the South Berwick Rod and Gun Club and former member of the Eliot Fire Dept.
If you’re not convinced that converting most New England homes to electric heat pumps is a good idea, you need to know about other clean fuel options.
For example, were you aware that the heating oil industry is well on its way to transitioning to a green, renewable liquid fuel called Bioheat fuel? This is a blend of biodiesel and traditional petroleum-based heating oil with ultra-low sulfur content.
Bioheat fuel, the most refined grade of heating oil available, is one of the cleanest-burning heating sources around today. It reduces greenhouse-gas emissions significantly, and no changes to your existing heating oil equipment are necessary for your system to use it.
Not only will heating systems burn fuel more efficiently with Bioheat fuel; they will also last longer and require fewer repairs.
On our end, the heating oil we deliver often includes Bioheat fuel, but it depends on whether our suppliers have it available. My feeling is that we’re not far from the day when it will be routine for all suppliers to be blending biofuel with traditional petroleum.
Please pay a visit to MyBioheat.com if you want know more about this clean-burning fuel.
Warmly, Mark Gagnon, President
70+ service calls
Saturday, February 4, brought us one of the coldest days in years. We kept our office open and sent our drivers and techs out on more than 70 service calls that day. A big thanks to our team!
With trips to the supermarket still causing sticker shock, here’s a chance to weather the storm until inflated food prices get back to normal.
Read this newsletter and answer the questions on our contest page to enter. All entries received by 6/29/23 with the correct answers will be entered into a drawing for a $500 gift card for your favorite supermarket. Three winners will be selected!
No purchase necessary. A purchase will not increase chance of winning. See contest website for details.
There’s no crystal ball for predicting heating fuel prices. But our SimplePay and PrePay programs — and their price protection options — are designed to shield you from extreme volatility.
Remember that price contracts are meant to provide cost certainty. You may see savings, but it’s not guaranteed.
Last fall, when prices soared, customers who had chosen either our Fixed Price or Price Cap plans saved a lot of money. But you can’t count on that happening every year — especially when there’s so much uncertainty in the energy markets.
Please visit the price protection page or give us a call to request enrollment. We’re always here to answer your questions.
Avoid expensive conversions to electric heat and continue to take advantage of heating oil and propane, two of the most efficient, clean-burning fuels available today.
Avoid Expensive Conversion Costs
There are amazing advances taking place right now in the heating oil and propane industry that have many people excited — except for those who are pushing so hard for the total electrification of homes, including the way you’re allowed to heat them.
Unfortunately, the fact that we are already moving toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions with both heating oil and propane has been virtually ignored.
That’s why it’s frustrating that efforts by government officials to mitigate the impact of climate change have focused solely on supporting conversions to electric heat pumps. But that’s an extremely expensive path to take, even with rebates being heavily promoted as an incentive to convert.
How expensive is it? Data from three heat pump conversion programs in the Northeast showed that homeowners would pay anywhere from $17,260 to $25,829 for a whole-house conversion to heat pumps.* We’re sure that you will not be surprised when we tell you that a high-efficiency heating oil or propane furnace would cost substantially less than this.
A recent study concluded that policy-driven electrification would increase the average residential household energy-related costs by approximately 38% to 46%, resulting in an increase to the average affected residential household of between $750 and $910 per year.*
Many U.S. states propose an energy transition similar to Germany, whose citizens now pay about 300% more for electricity on average than U.S. customers.**
Only 12% of U.S. power comes from solar and wind, which cannot be dispatched when needed or expanded without further degrading grid reliability.**
Electrification advocates argue grid-scale storage is the solution, powered by 100% wind and solar. This will require at least double the amount of today’s installed generating capacity.**
A large percentage of U.S. electricity is still sourced from natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.***
* Implications of Policy-Driven Residential Electrification. ** Testimony of energy expert Mark P. Mills at the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, 2/15/22. *** U.S. Energy Information Administration **** MyBioheat.com
Many Different Ways to Use Propane
When you use multiple propane appliances in your home, you will see the savings, especially if you replace old electric appliances. Because propane is such an efficient fuel, your energy expenses will go down, and you’ll experience even better value and comfort than you get from other heating sources. Here are just a few examples.
Propane gas fireplaces
If you convert your old wood fireplace to an efficient, clean-burning propane fireplace insert, you’ll enjoy a host of benefits. Besides offering great ambiance and less maintenance, a gas fireplace costs anywhere from 30% to 60% less to operate per hour than a wood-burning fireplace, which loses much of its heat through the chimney.
Propane gas clothes dryers
Whether your laundry pile regularly looks like a mountain or a molehill, it’s easy to find a propane dryer with a capacity that works for you.
Quickly reaching the required temperature to dry clothes evenly, propane dryers generally operate for less than electric dryers. Plus, clothes get subjected to less wear and tear because of the moist heat of propane dryers. Your propane dryer’s moisture-sensing controls will automatically shut it off at just the right time.
Water heaters
About 20% of the energy used in your home is spent on heating your water. On average, a propane-powered water heater can deliver your hot water at about half the cost of an electric water heater. That’s why relying on propane for all your hot water needs remains a wise choice.
Propane Grills
Propane grills light instantly, heat faster than charcoal and emit less carbon monoxide and soot. Higher-end grills offer drawers, side burners, surface lighting and LED temperature displays. Many people are taking cooking to new levels by adding cooktops, ovens and rotisseries to their deck or patio.
Too Much, Too Soon
It should be obvious that mass-scale conversions to heat pumps will put a tremendous new strain on our fragile electric grid, which is already prone to numerous power outages.
Trying to phase out traditional fuels like heating oil, propane and natural gas puts all our carbon reduction eggs into one expensive, untested basket. It’s too much and too soon. This speeding heat pump train we may be forced to ride will undoubtedly raise the risk of rolling blackouts during periods of extreme cold or oppressive heat.
The best way to save money on fuel costs is to replace your old heating system. If your equipment is more than 15 or 20 years old, you’re missing out on efficient technologies that can conserve fuel and reduce your annual heating costs by 20% or more.
You may also qualify for immediate savings. Right now, you can save a lot of money with upgrade incentives when you install a qualifying heating system.
This includes federal tax credits. In 2023, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, you can receive a federal tax credit of up to $600 for installing qualifying energy-efficient oil or propane gas heating systems. Visit EnergyStar.gov to learn more.
Please call or contact us through our website for more information or to request a FREE estimate on a new heating system.
When Darlene Fenstermaker joined our customer service team in 1997, we were in the process of updating our computer system.
“We did a lot of tasks manually back then,” Darlene says. “I can remember all of us printing out the delivery tickets and handing them to Mark [Gagnon], who would sort them by hand and give them to the drivers.”
Darlene says her favorite part of the job is chatting with customers, many of whom regard her as a trusted friend.
Off the job, Darlene loves using her Cricut craft cutting machine to create a variety of custom-made gifts for family and friends. You may also find her kayaking on Chocorua Lake with her husband, Don. The couple has one adult son, Robbie.
If you ended the season with plenty of heating oil in your tank, you may be wondering if your fuel will still be good when you turn your boiler or furnace on again in the fall.
No worries. Your heating oil will be fine. The average life span of home heating oil ranges between 18 and 24 months. In comparison, regular gasoline only has a shelf life of three to six months.
To ensure that long life span, we treat our heating oil with an additive called UltraGuard, which acts as a fuel preservative.
However, if you ended winter with a near-empty tank (a quarter full or less), you should get a fill-up to prevent warm-weather condensation from building up on your tank walls. This could damage your tank.
Please contact us if you have questions or need a tank fill-up.
