Dear Friends,

If the long-term weather forecast stays accurate, this coming winter will look and feel a lot like last year. Yuck!

But as bad as it was last year, we have seen worse. After all, P. Gagnon and Son has taken care of folks for 110 years, and we have experienced just about everything New England winters have to offer.

Remember the blizzard of ’78? If you don’t, just ask our operations manager, Mark Leach, about it. He waded through the snow for days delivering oil.

How about 1989, when temperatures plummeted the day before Thanksgiving and it stayed frigid into January? Master Service Technician Brian Cole remembers endless service calls that stretched into many nights and weekends.

Taking care of you during severe winter weather is what we are all about. But that takes lots of planning and training on our part, especially during the summer. Fuel contracts are now in place to ensure a dependable supply of fuel for you. Folks continue to enroll in our price protection plans. And we have already completed hundreds of tune-ups to get heating systems ready for the winter.

This year we also installed an additional 30,000-gallon propane storage tank at our facility on Route 236. This brings our total fuel-storage capacity to 90,000 gallons and helps protect our growing group of propane customers from any supply issues.

So whatever winter brings us, we’re ready to do our job. That means looking after you and your family!

Warmly,

Mark Gagnon
President

During fall, winter and early spring, many vacation homes are either lightly used or closed entirely. But that doesn’t mean the forces of nature take a break too.

That is why you might want to join the many customers who ask us to look in on things during the off-season, even when the home is vacant. We will contact you should we need approvals for any repairs or replacements.

To ensure that we stay in contact, please verify that we have the mailing address of your winter home so we can forward mail directly to you. Having your email address and cell phone number would be helpful too!

• Get your heating system tune-up completed. Tune-ups keep your system running at maximum effi ciency—which saves you money as well as improving your comfort.
• Reverse the direction of your ceiling fans so you can circulate warm air downward (where you can feel it). You’ll be able to keep your thermostat at a lower setting and conserve fuel.
• Check the condition of weatherstripping around windows and doors and recaulk other areas where necessary to keep heated air from leaking outside.
• Open south-facing window blinds and let sunlight heat up your home naturally during the day. At night, close drapes to hold in the heat and keep out the cold.

Total U.S. crude oil production next year is on track to reach 9.3 million barrels per day—the highest level since 1972! The United States is now the biggest oil producer in the world, overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia. Crude oil output will continue to surge and will top 13.1 million barrels a day by 2019.

While this represents a giant leap toward our country’s goal of greater energy independence, it remains to be seen how oil prices will play out in the years ahead due to unpredictable factors including:

• severe weather
• the state of the economy
• world events affecting energy production

One More Uncertainty

Speculation also injects price uncertainty. Speculators from giant banks, hedge funds and elsewhere place bets on which way the energy markets will move, hoping to make money from their investments. With unrest in the Middle East reaching the boiling point recently, speculators are especially jittery, which opens the door to future price volatility.

Unfortunately, everyone gets caught in the whipsaw effect of increased costs and uncertainty. It hits you—and us—in the wallet and has many other consequences.

Like you, we hope to see oil prices stay at lower levels in the future. With domestic oil production levels surging strongly, there is a better chance that this might happen.

Thanks in large part to the big boost in domestic supply, oil prices are expected to remain at levels that are similar to, if not slightly lower than last heating season—barring any unexpected world events.

Sources: Energy Information Administration, Short Term Energy Outlook, July 2014; International Energy Agency.

If you smell gas, don’t take any chances. After only the quickest glance at the on/off knobs on your stove (to see if that’s the source of the problem), open a window or two as you quickly exit the house with your family. Do not smoke or operate lights, appliances, telephones or cell phones. Go to a safe location where you can report the problem to us. You should also call 911 to report the leak.

It’s always tempting to save a few bucks by doing as many home repairs as possible. However, your repair list should never include doing work on any gas appliance. That’s true whether it’s a stove, a dryer, a water heater or a furnace. Those are jobs that should always be left to a professional!

Every year, a few explosions occur because nonprofessionals tried to make repairs on gas appliances in their homes.

Please! Do not under any circumstances try to modify or repair valves, regulators, connectors, controls or other appliance and cylinder/tank parts. An improperly connected tank or appliance can cause a gas leak. If you want to move your tank, leave that to us.

As you can guess, gas appliances are complicated. That’s why we invest a great deal of time and money on training our technicians—to be sure they are prepared to diagnose and fix virtually any type of propane appliance in your home.

So if your gas appliance needs a repair, the only “tool” you should pick up is the phone. One of our certified and highly trained technicians will come to your home, size up the situation and get your appliance safely repaired.

And if you plan to add more propane appliances to your home, please call us so our experts can ensure that your new equipment is installed properly.

1. Always there for you.
   Our staff is ready to respond with fast service whenever you need us. We always have enough drivers and trucks, and our vehicles are maintained properly, so we can get to you no matter what the weather conditions are.
2. Training and more training.
   We invest in ongoing and extensive training for our employees. This ensures that when we do work for you, we get the job done right the first time. Our training program also provides accurate information and a courteous response from our office staff.
3. Honest and fair pricing.
   Some oil dealers will get you to sign a contract with them and then start stepping up your price, hoping you won’t notice. We never play that type of game!
4. Convenient payment options.
   We understand that heating bills can be a big burden, so we offer flexible payment options for qualified customers to lighten the load for you during winter.
5. Secure fuel supply.
   We have never been without fuel, so we are always able to take care of our customers.

Identifying carbon monoxide (CO) leaks can be complex because sometimes there are various causes, including:

• operating unvented appliances for long periods of time
• a heating system that’s out of adjustment or damaged
• backdrafts caused by pressure imbalances near the heating appliance
• leaving a vehicle idling in an attached garage
• running a gasoline-powered generator in a basement or attached garage
• a blocked flue

All of these situations could set off a CO detector, but conditions can change by the time a technician arrives, which makes a diagnosis difficult. Help us by sharing as much information as possible so the source of the problem can be identified correctly.

If this winter proves to be like the one we had last year, you’ll need a heating system that can stand up to extremely cold temperatures without breaking down—or running up the bill on heating costs.

If your furnace or boiler is more than 15 years old, you could see savings of as much as 30% on annual fuel costs just by upgrading your equipment. You’ll also enjoy improved comfort throughout your home, and you can stop worrying about your old system constantly breaking down.

We can help you choose exactly the right size system for your home and install it for maximum effi ciency. You’ll see savings right away, and your system could actually pay for itself within a few years.

Contact us for more information and a free estimate.

When you have a great experience at a restaurant or see a movie you loved, you tell a friend. So if you love the service and value you get from P. Gagnon & Son, why not tell a friend about us?

For every friend that becomes a P. Gagnon & Son automatic delivery customer, we’ll give you $100 and your friend $50 after their second delivery.*

We’ll pay you for as many folks as become our customers after you refer them to us. Refer enough friends and we could end up paying for your fuel bill next winter!

If there is any reason you are not comfortable referring us, please let us know and we’ll try to make things right.

Call us today with your referral!

*Conditions apply. Contact us for details.