This winter people are paying record prices for fuel oil, as well as other petroleum products. State and federal authorities repeatedly tell us to lower our thermostats and improve the insulation in our homes. Those are steps that most people have taken long ago.

Many, if not most, of those who heat with oil operate boilers to provide hot water for circulating hot water heat. Boilers are typically set to heat water to 180 degrees in isothermal mode throughout the year. That wastes oil and money.

Following the energy crisis of the 1970s, I had something called an Enertrol installed on my boiler. The purpose is to modulate boiler water temperature so that it is no hotter than is needed to heat the building, based on outside temperature and thermostat setting. It operates on the temperature-sum principle, whereby boiler temperature is the sum of a preset number and the outside temperature. When the outside temperature changes, boiler temperature is automatically adjusted, up or down.

The system was installed in 1979. During the five years previous, I burned an average of 1,002 gallons of oil per year. For the five years after, consumption was reduced to an average of 612 gallons per year. Thermostat settings were unchanged. That translates to a 39 percent reduction in fuel usage.

For all the benefits that the boiler temperature modulation offers, I have not heard a word about it from federal or state officials. Why this is so, confounds me.

Dennis Breton, Rumford