New podcast series looks at how the liquid fuel heating industry lowers carbon emissions from homes along with an emphasis on heating system efficiencies and technical education.
In this episode of In the Loop, we hear from three industry leaders at the 2023 Eastern Energy Expo about the transition to low carbon liquid heating fuels.
Up first, we chat with Rick Bologna, VP of Westmore Fuel, to understand why dealers need to add biofuels to their product lineup now, as fuel and equipment advancements are making the transition to higher blend fuels more attainable.
Next, we talk with Cate Duffey, President of DE Duffey & Sons, and hear her perspective on incorporating higher blend fuels into a 125-year old company.
Finally, we speak to Dave Westerfield with Jennings Oil to learn how his company has progressed by including higher blends in their business operations.
In the Loop takes a deeper look at research initiatives, equipment considerations, renewable fuels, carbon reduction and technical education, propelling us towards a low-carbon future. For more information, vis
NORA is pleased to recognize the trainers to complete the inaugural NORA Accredited Instructor program. Joseph Maroney, RW Beckett Corp; Christopher Bolobanic, Electrical Training Center; Wayne Lawrence, Petro Home Services; Ronald Mannino, Technical Heating and Robert O’Brien, Oil & Energy Service Professionals all completed the course at NORA’s Research & Education center in Plainview, NY on June 8th under the tutelage of professional education trainer Brenda Huber.
Michael Devine, NORA President stated, “I am extremely proud of the commitment of these educators who completed this three-day workshop with the goal of improving their training skills. They prepared lessons, studied best-training techniques and then were evaluated by their instructor and their peers. I have no doubt when they return to the classroom their students will benefit, as will our industry.”
The NORA Accredited Instructor program was developed to ensure technicians trained in NORA schools, unions, and by companies in the heating liquid heating fuels industry have been provided with an education that positions them, their customers, and their companies for success. The service professionals in the liquid heating fuels industry are the first and most important contacts with customers. They are responsible not only for ensuring the heating system is operating at maximum efficiency, safety and reliability, but also with how customers perceive their liquid fuel heating, their adoption of renewable fuels and how comfortable they are with staying with their liquid fuel heating system.
The class began with a prepared presentation by each of the participants. These were critiqued by the instructor as well as others in the class to establish a baseline. From there, the instructor took the participants through the teaching process to elevate their lessons from simply conveying facts to creating a meaningful total-learning experience for the students. The NORA Accredited Instructor program’semphasis is to present the curriculum in such a way that students “own” the information and not just hear it. Ms. Huber, the instructor for the course commented, “I was impressed with the trainers’ willingness to hear critiques from their peers and make improvements to their teaching.”
Devine also noted, “Our industry is concerned with shortages of qualified service technicians. The best way to have qualified personnel is to hire good people and train them. These newly accredited trainers made a commitment to improving their own teaching skills. NORA thanks them for their dedication.”
These first five Accredited instructors will be posted on NORA’s website, as will all additional trainers who complete the course.
If you are a learning institution or trainer and are interested participating in NORA’s Accredited Instructor program, please contact NORA’s Director of Education, Bob O’Brien at robrien@noraweb.org.
Left to Right: Christopher Bolobanic, Wayne Lawrence, Joseph Maroney, Michael Devine, Brenda Huber, Robert O’Brien and Ronald Mannino
NORA will have a strong educational and technical presence at the upcoming Eastern Energy Expo in Atlantic City, NJ.
Three important NORA Business Track sessions begin with In the Loop–New Business & Education Opportunities on Tuesday, May 23 at 8:15am in Room 419 at the Atlantic City Convention Center. This session features NORA’s President, Michael Devine and Director of Education, Bob O’Brien along with the introduction of NORA’s most recent team addition, Dr. Jenny Frank.
On Wednesday, May 24 at 8am (breakfast provided by NORA and Clean Fuels America) in Room 412, NORA is hosting the Featured Session,The Industry’s Response to Carbon Reduction where you will hear a panel offering the most current information on the research, field work, personal experiences and future technologies to show how becoming a low carbon fuel marketer is well within the grasp of a liquid fuel heating retailer. The panel features Michael Devine and Dr. Thomas Butcher, NORA; Kevin Beckett, R.W. Beckett Corp.; Rich Lyons, Carlin Combustion Technologies; Jackie Hart, Hart Home Comfort; Jason Lawrence, Chevron/REG and moderator Don Farrell, Indoor Comfort Marketing.
As one of the 220 exhibitors at the Eastern Energy Expo Trade Show, NORA will be showing live-fire demonstrations of biodiesel and renewable diesel in its outdoor exhibit OD2.
NORA’s recently released podcast series, In the Loop with NORA will be on-hand at the expo to talk with a variety of industry experts about how the liquid fuels heating industry is removing carbon emissions from home heating.
The Eastern Energy Expo is the largest energy and indoor comfort event in the Northeast. You can find more about the NORA sessions, the entire Eastern Energy Expo program, the trade show and registration at the Eastern Energy Expo website.
New podcast series looks at how the liquid fuel heating industry lowers carbon emissions from homes along with an emphasis on heating system efficiencies and technical education.
NORA has released the first episode of its new podcast series In the Loop with NORA.
Episode 1 looks at how quickly and effectively low-carbon liquid fuels can be integral in reducing a homes carbon output to below zero. Hear how Dr. Thomas Butcher, NORA Technical Director, has converted his typical Long Island, NY house into a Net Zero Carbon Home by partnering Bioheat® fuel with solar panels.
According to Dr. Butcher. “It shows that the liquid fuel industry has a pathway to achieve net-zero emissions very quickly. There is a strong value in reducing carbon emissions now…and we can do it.”
NORA’s President, Michael Devine offered his vision for the new series. “Future episodes of In the Loop with NORA will take a deeper look at research initiatives, equipment considerations, renewable fuels, carbon reduction and technical education. NORA and the entire liquid heating fuels industry have been on an accelerated path to eliminating carbon from home heating. In The Loop with NORA gives NORA the opportunity to share all this good technical & training information in an easy to digest and entertaining conversational format. With availability at NORAweb.org, along with major podcast platforms, In the Loop with NORA can be listened to almost anywhere.“
In keeping with the National Oilheat Research Alliance’s (NORA) ongoing commitment to technician education and to enable access to educational materials, it has just released its Technicians Manual for Liquid Heating Fuelsin audio format.
Each chapter of the manual is available in a standard .mp3 audio file that can be played on all mobile devices, as well as desktop computers. The audio follows the text of the manual allowing for multi-sensory learning. Additionally, each chapter is available to download in a .pdf format.
According to NORA’s president Michael Devine, “Making high quality learning resources available to liquid fuel heating technicians is one of NORA’s highest priorities. Whether used as a stand-alone resource or in conjunction with NORA’s technician certification program, the manual and its audio component can bring this material to an even wider range of students and technicians.”
The audio version of the manual, along with the pdfs and a link to purchase a hard copy can be found at NORA’s online education and resource center, Learning.NORAweb.org/manual.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) has announced the appointment of Michael Devine as incoming President following the retirement of current President John Huber effective March 1, 2022. Devine comes to NORA after having served as Vice President of Sales & Business Development for World Energy.
As part of the Senior Management Team, he managed day to day activities for sales and volumes at terminals, prepared monthly and annual budgets and developed key national accounts including FedEx, UPS, Chevron, Ryder, The Union Pacific Railroad and others. Prior to his time at World Energy, he was the CEO and founder of Earth Energy Alliance where he assisted the petroleum distribution industry in reducing the carbon footprint of their fuel by increasing the use of renewable liquid fuels.
Michael Devine
Devine has deep roots in the oilheat industry. He began his career in his family’s business, Devine Brothers of Norwalk, CT. He started as a truck driver and service technician, growing into roles as sales manager, vice president and president of the 50+ employee, third- generation business. He is a member of the NORA board and has been a positive and active voice in supporting the oilheat and liquid heating fuels industry for decades.
NORA Board Chairman, Roger Marran announced, “We are excited about having Michael join the talented NORA team as president. He is an exemplary leader with the ability to further build on NORA’s success with his extensive knowledge and passion for the oilheat, biofuels and liquid fuels industry. He will help us expand on our mission of enabling renewable cleaner fuels, more efficient heating system and a highly educated technical workforce and is committed to NORA’s vision to provide better solutions for American consumers and businesses with cleaner, more efficient and more reliable heat and hot water systems.
Devine succeeds NORA’s founding President John Huber, who is retiring after a 22-year career with NORA. John will continue in his current role as President through early 2022 and will continue to provide support for Michael to ensure a successful transition period. Devine commented, “I’m honored to be selected as the next President of NORA. NORA has been critical to advancing the heating oil industry for over two decades. The challenges to our industry are great, but with the resources of NORA and the committed leadership of NORA’s Board, retailers and wholesalers throughout the country, we will develop the best path forward for this great industry.”
NORA was authorized by Congress in 2000 to generate funding for the Oilheating industry to provide more efficient and more reliable heat and hot water to American consumers. NORA’s efforts focus on Consumer Education, Professional Education, Energy Efficiency & Safety and Research. For more information on NORA’s activities go to NORAweb.org.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) is pleased to announce the release of a new Gold Series online course,Advanced Venting, paving the way for achieving NORA Gold Technician Certification online.
Advanced Venting joins three other Gold Certification Series online courses, Advanced Hydronics, Advanced Efficiency andAdvanced Heating Fuel Storage Tanks, to offer NORA silver certified technicians the opportunity to complete, on-line, four of the advanced gold courses necessary to upgrade to Gold Certification status.
Gold is the top tier of NORA’s Technician Certification program and describes professionals who have advanced training in a variety of programs, but more importantly describes individuals who are continuously working to improve their performance.
NORA president, John Huber, in accordance with NORA’s mandate to provide the industry with technical education, said, “Adding Advanced Venting to NORA’s online course library is an important step as it allows technicians to pursue and complete their Gold certification upgrade without the need for travel to live classes. This lowers the barriers to acquiring the knowledge needed today.”
Each of the Advanced Gold series courses also offer six NORA continuing education units (CEUs) which can be applied to upgrading from Bronze Certification to Silver Certification as well as renewal of existing Silver or Gold certifications.
The Advanced venting course is based on NORA’s Advanced Venting manual, authored by Tim Begoske of Field Controls. It can be found at NORA’s learning website, Learning.NORAweb.org.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) has added three new online courses to its training center at Learning.NORAweb.org. Two of them, Advanced Heating Fuel Storage Tanks and Advanced Efficiency, are components of NORA’s technician Gold Certification program and offer six continuing education credits (CEU) each. The third, Bioheat® Technical Guidance offers one credit.
Advanced Heating Fuel Storage Tanks and Advanced Efficiencyjoin Advanced Hydronincs as online courses providing three of the requisite four advanced Gold Series courses necessary to upgrade to NORA Gold Certified Technician status.
According to NORA’s President, John Huber, “It is important for technicians to have the ability to upgrade their certifications online. With the addition of these Gold courses, we are very near that goal.” NORA anticipates adding two more Gold courses in the coming months.
“Video courses are an efficient and popular way to put important training material in front of as many technicians and students in the field as possible. They are free to the user and now that travel is restricted and many industry conferences have been cancelled, online courses are a great solution to maintaining certifications and gaining knowledge,” said NORA’s Director of Education, John Levey.
These three courses join the library of courses already on the site. These cover topics from equipment service to oil delivery to tank installation. To access the courses, a technician or student must have an active user account at Learning.NORAweb.org.
For the first time ever, the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) and Eurofuel (European Heating Oil Association) will host a virtual conference on liquid heating fuels in a carbon constrained world. Manufacturers of heating equipment, liquid fuels now in the market and potential fuels of the future will share their ideas and what steps they are taking to be ready for this future.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) has conducted periodic surveys to assess the impact and role that biofuels play in the marketplace. Many view low-carbon fuels as the best path for the industry as it reduces its environmental impact. Biodiesel is a low-carbon fuel that is available in most markets, is used widely and offers significant reduction of the amount of carbon dioxide released by heating appliances.
NORA has conducted ongoing research in this area and has found that the transition to higher blends of biodiesel can occur with low costs and little impact on the consumer. A number of retailers have been selling the higher blends of biodiesel.
To verify/validate the lab conclusions on biodiesel, NORA conducted a wide-ranging survey of retailers and service personnel. This latest survey, completed in December 2019 is summarized here.
