Oil vs. Natural Gas?

[Matt M PA]

While not officially about the garage....I hope I can get some thoughts.

Our house has an older Columbia boiler that supplies our baseboard heat and hot water. Our last oil delivery was a few weeks ago at about $3.50 a gallon.

Our local gas/electric (PECO) supplier says it'll cost about $1275 to bring the gas to the wall...then we'd need a HVAC firm to hook up and install the new gear. I assume we'd need a water heater and boiler.

If I understand the on-line calculator at PECO's site, it looks like we could save about $2000 a year by switching over.

I still have to find out about the cost of the equipment, install, etc...but it seems to me that it may be a good idea with the cost of oil.

Anyone have a thought? Thanks.

 

[Shocker]

My home is heated with oil as well. We have a fairly new Crown boiler that is about 88% efficient.

We are converting it to natural gas here in a couple of months (as soon as the tank runs dry). There are kits for modern boilers to convert to gas.

Puget Sound Energy ran the gas line to my home for free as long as I convert 2 things to gas so that was good.

The conversion will be about 800 on the boiler. Plus a drilling for the line. We expect to save 3k per year. Oil here is about 4.50 per gallon.

If you need a boiler, you can find them for anywhere from 1000 to 4000 depending on what you want, size etc.

Still seems like a better deal. How long will you be in the house?

 

[Matt M PA]

Thanks Shocker....we have no plans to move. (Especially after building the garage)

I'm going to re-check with PECO as they ran a line something like 400ft to a friend's house at no cost...but I think in my location they need to go under the street.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Repurpose the boiler by converting it to used motor oil fuel for the garage.

Charles

 

[philjafo]

There are high efficiency boilers out there that can also heat your domestic hot water too, usually more efficient then the std tank type natural draft water heaters and you have a hard time running it out of hot water.

 

[jimjj211]

I recently had my house switched from oil to gas. It did cost at first to have all of the work done, but it already seems to be paying off. I'd personally recommend switching, worked well for me it seems, no problems at all.

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

How do you heat the garage? In floor? Do you have a hot tub?

A few months ago we were watching This Old House and saw a natural gas condensing boiler (think they called it) that provided the heat for the hot water baseboards in the house, domestic hot water, heat for the infloor heating in certain areas of the house, the garage, and the snow melting system in the driveway, and a hot tub outside. One boiler that could vary the size of the fire in it depending on the demand. If you're looking at a new boiler, take a close look at it.

As another option ... my sister has a boiler in their house that uses wood pellets. Computerized; system drops only the pellets it needs (literally one at a time). They are in the country, no NG and their oil and then propane costs kept going up. They buy the pellets by the pallet.

 

[pfarber]

You do not 'need' a HVAC firm to steal your money. You are 100% capable of running gas lines (aka black iron) pipes as a DIY. I did. When they were drilling the line under the sidewalk I simply talked to one of the linemen and said that I was going to do the install. I then asked him what would cause them to fail me. Basically he said proper wall penetration, proper size pipe, drip leg, and pressure test. The unit must also lite while they are there.

I did what he said, the inspector passed me after the 30 min pressure test and boiler lite.

Natural gas will far undercut oil and propane prices for the next dozen or so years.... so spend the $$ now to convert and get in on the savings.

 

[Shocker]

I do agree with a DIY approach, but make sure local code doesn't require a certified guy to do the work.

 

[philjafo]

You do not 'need' a HVAC firm to steal your money.

While some people are capable of DIY, not everyone can or wants to. I make an honest living doing HVAC and have never stole from anyone. I can sew but if I need stitches I go to a doctor, I can read but if I need legal knowledge I go to a lawyer. To do everything involved in the HVAC field takes a lot of education, weather its tech schools or experience education isn't cheap, so no we don't give our services away for cheap. Oh and how many professions do you know that not only still make house calls but will do it no matter the time, call me up at 2 am and yes I will come out and make your furnace run again, won't be cheap but it will work.

My rant done, if you do DIY please be careful, gas leaks can cause massive explosions and carbon monoxide can kill you, very high levels only take a few breaths and your dead before you hit the ground.

 

[pfarber]

"gas leaks can cause massive explosions and carbon monoxide can kill you"

Not to get into a argument but this type of fear mongering is one perfect example of why I disdain 'professionals'.

First, HVAC is notoriously known for $300 repairs when in fact it was a $20 part. So the industry, maybe not you in particular, has really done it to itself... like car and insurance salesmen.

Second, the pressure test and lighting will pretty much eliminate the leak issue. Plus even if a professional did the install, the is no guarantee that it will never leak. To say anything else just reinforces the industry stereotype.

Lastly, fire, water, and whole laundry list of things will kill you. I know of NO gas company requirement for interior air quality tests. Maybe some utilities do require a flue gas test. But if they crack open the test port on MY boiler they just became responsible for it... the gas valve was set within specs before they touched it.

I will completely agree that some times professionals ARE required simply because they have the tools available. If I had a bobcat I would never call in contractor to level land for a slab or pool. And some jobs simply require more bodies than I can muster (roofing).

The erosion of the DIY mentality because of some fictional liability does little to make your home safe.

And as I said before... its really about common sense. Knowing your limit. Unfortunately common sense is not so common any more.

 

[hmbemis]

Reasons I hate oil heat in my house:

- Oil pricing is higher per BTU now, and frankly I don't believe those "Oilheat" propaganda pamphlets about how oil has been less expensive for 17 of the last 20 years or whatever smoke they're blowing... I fill up every 4-6 weeks in the winter, it's a $550 bill each time. Total cost to heat this place is higher per season than it was at last few rental homes--one of which was an un-insulated home from 1885 with original windows, but it had a modern 90% plus efficient gas furnace.

- Oil exhaust is damaging... if you haven't already put a SS liner in your clay chimney, you will need one... and that SS liner can only be used with oil, if you convert you need to replace the SS liner because of the sulphur deposits

- The smell can sometimes be noticeable in the house (or immediately outside)... what's funny is this is the one part of oil heat that I don't mind, I sort of like the smell, it's basically diesel, and the exhaust is similar to what you smell from a train.

- You can't use oil to run your stove, dryer, BBQ grill or generator (legally)... you can use it for hot water, but you're either talking a 2nd burner in a tank (more maintenance, more initial cost), or an initially expensive indirect storage tank setup (vs. a typical gas or electric tank), or an expensive to operate tankless coil.

- You can't install a garage or out-building heater that runs on oil from your main tank.

- You've got to store your fuel on-site which means you need to get it delivered so you need to deal with delivery companies, clearing snow/etc in a path to the fill pipe. You need to handle replacing and maintaining your tank periodically--and a rupture in a basement tank can be catastrophically expensive to clean, which means added cost for insurance against that (HO doesn't cover it apparently). BTW I know propane has some of these issues too, but usually you lease the tank, and the outdoor storage and nature of propane means leaks are not as big of an issue.

- Burner usually requires more service then propane or natural gas... I lived for years in a houses with gas furnaces older than I was that was never serviced, they always worked... seems like oil can stretch 2, maybe 3 seasons, but then it will fail if not serviced.

If it's oil or electric, and heat pumps don't work in your climate, then yeah OK go for oil... but there are so many better choices these days.

 

[hmbemis]

I do agree with a DIY approach, but make sure local code doesn't require a certified guy to do the work.

Here in MA you can't even legally connect or disconnect your own appliances... nearly all plumber/heater guys will charge $90+ for the call, they literally show up and do two things--turn the appliance gas valve on/off, screw/unscrew the fitting to the appliance (applying pipe dope if needed).

 

[pfarber]

That pipe dope can be tricky stuff