Oil vs Gas Heating

[scrobo]

Hey all.

I've been absent again. This time spending all my time looking for property.

The prices are low here right now due to a slowdown in property sales and high availability. great time to buy! So we bought a bungalow with a full basement and an attic large enough to make into a 1/2 storey.

The building inspector said it's in great shape. Just needs updated hydro (60 to 100amp) and she's ready. It has oil heat which brought me to do some researching. This research brought me many different opinions from different sources so I thought I would get the ifo from the best source of people who have their H.O.s. And that place is iBoats of course.

So does anyone else have oil heating? Do you find it less expensive than gas or electric? The forced air furnace and water heater are from 1998. Both are oil fueled. Curious to see people opinions whether unanimous or differing. Most of the info from the net shows oil CAn be cheaper but not always depending on factors such as time of year, area, age of appliances etc.

Whats YOUR opinion? Should I call in the gas folks or give the oil truck a call and get her refilled? The previous owner is pointless to ask as she is bad with Alzheimer's and probably could not tell me.

 

[tommays]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I have had all three


And IMHP the gas just has much less problems because it is a much cleaner burning fuel and much less likely to have quality problems in the fuel


My oil burner allways ran but it was likeing owning a boat allways being carefull to change filters to keep out water or clog a nozzle

 

[MikDee]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

IMO, Oil heat is always cheaper in the long run, then any of the rest. Natural gas might be a bit cheaper, but you will burn more of it in relation to oil, negating the advantages, and forget about propane, that's usually even more expensive then natural gas. If your electric rates are way cheap in your area, (maybe a Nuke plant) nearby, then electric heat maybe the cheapest.

 

[qaztwo]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I replaced the old furance and hot water heater in my house with a tankless gas water heater and a 95% gas furance. I've been very pleased with the drop in my gas bill. During the summer pay $15-$20 a month. During the winter maybe $90 during the coldest month. I also got a $300 credit on the water heater and I don't remember about the furnace. By the way have a gas dryer and stove.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

If you're doing electrical work anyway, you may want to put in some baseboard heaters even if you keep the furnace. This way you can use the baseboards to keep the house from freezing up if you go away for extended periods. They won't "kick out" like oil furnace can if something goes wrong.

 

[JB]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

The US has abundant natural gas and is finding more all the time. Local exploration and drilling has recently added a lot to the supply. We are not dependent on imported natural gas. Natural gas needs no refineries, either.

That alone is enough for me, but gas burns cleaner and makes Texans rich rather than terrorists.

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

Only had one oil burner in my time and it was high maintenance, but if you're good with mechanical things it's not that big a deal. I sure wouldn't want to pay someone to keep the thing running though. Since you already have it installed, I'd give it a try at least for a while and see how it does. You can always change later if you don't like it. One thing I didn't like about it was the smell that seemed to permeate the basement, but I was working on it all the time too and you can't help but spill a little diesel everytime you open it up.

 

[scrobo]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

From what I can tell it seems that it's roughly the same as diesel so could you use diesel engine cleaner to clean the tips in your oil furnace? Always looking for a way out of things

I'd like to think it will be ok since it is only 10 years old. Maybe in 10 years I'll HAVE to switch.. who knows. I do think some baseboard heaters may help in some areas of te house and run them on occasion. I'll look into installing some.
It's an indoor tank. Tank is 10 years old as well. Lines are new and run under the basement floor. It's going to be full when I move in so I might as well see how well it runs I guess. I would like a tankless system though. How much did it cost?

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I've had oil, gas, propane, electric and wood for my main heat source. Oil and wood are the highest maintenance. You don't ever want to ignore the service interval on an oil burner. Aside from inefficiency, it can destroy the fire box, rendering the furnace junk. Nozzle replacement can be an expensive lesson when a $2.50 part is ignored for too long. I almost lost my first three year old furnace that way. And I had to spend an entire weekend disassembling and cleaning out the exchanger and my chimney. Found the concentrated flame also started to crack the firebox. I found out the hard way that yearly maintenance is mandatory. The good news is it isn't rocket science and fairly easy to do if you know what needs to be done. Had a number of them since including one I installed in my garage and an oil fired water heater that gave little grief if properly maintained. Calculate that cost/time into the decision.

Given it's already installed and relatively new, I'd use it until it was ready for replacement and then decide if you wanted to stay with oil.

Oh yeah, I meant to ask, the tank isn't buried in the ground, is it?

 

[MikDee]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

If you're doing electrical work anyway, you may want to put in some baseboard heaters even if you keep the furnace. This way you can use the baseboards to keep the house from freezing up if you go away for extended periods. They won't "kick out" like oil furnace can if something goes wrong.

Oil burners don't kick out very often, unless they're old, & not maintained properly, Or the tank or fuel lines are exposed to below freezing weather, but even electric heaters can kick out in a power outage, I have electric heat, with a propane fireplace for back up in a blackout, it starts, & works fine then, but just the electric blower doesn't work at that time.

I replaced an old oil fired boiler, with a new gas fired boiler for my daughter, & S.I.L. on Long Island about 12yrs ago. My S.I.L wanted a clean, odor free, quiet, forced hot water system. It turned out just that way, but in the long run it cost a bit more yearly for the natural gas, but I'd say it was probably worth it, especially because the old age of the orig. system.

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

Baseboard heat would be a stretch with only 100 amp service, and all but impossible with 60 amp.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I've had both oil and propane gas furnaces. They both have advantages and disadvantages. Oil furnace are a lot of maintenance. They must be serviced every year and they can stink up the house while servicing. But, they are basically burning diesel fuel so if you accidentally run out you can go down to the nearest truck station and buy a few gallons of fuel to dump in and get by until later. Also, you can run a oil furnace on vegetable oil. We have a lot of that in the US. Also,I don't recommend it but, there are people out there running there oil furnace on used deep fat fryer oil. You have to do a nozzle change and then it works.

Propane or natural gas furnaces are soooo much easier to maintain. They run for years with no maintains at all. They burn much cleaner with no smell at all. But, if you run out of fuel you have to call someone to fill it. They are more complicated and all the new ones have a circuit board that can go bad on rare occasions. There have been a few problems with the new safer/circuit board style working correctly. If the slightest thing is wrong they shut down. Most of those bugs have been worked out.

The absolute worst thing your fuel old furnace could do is to start a fire. That is dammed rare.

But if your gas furnace malfunctions it could blow up you house in a big BOOM. Does not happen to often but, it does happen. I went to school whit a guy who is in a wheel chair now because his whole house blew up.

I've never heard of a oil fired water heater. I don't think we have them in MN.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I replaced the old furance and hot water heater in my house with a tankless gas water heater and a 95% gas furance. I've been very pleased with the drop in my gas bill. During the summer pay $15-$20 a month. During the winter maybe $90 during the coldest month. I also got a $300 credit on the water heater and I don't remember about the furnace. By the way have a gas dryer and stove.

I've been wondering about the tankless system. Does it feed hot water to multiple faucets at the same time? $90 bucks for both system in the winter is pretty darn good. How many peoples in your house, how big is the house and what is your thermostat set on?

I lived in an apartment years ago with a radiator system. I don't know how efficient it is but I stayed warm and didn't even need lotion (I hates that greasy stuff) that winter. I like the moist heat it put out.

 

[qaztwo]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

The house is about 1300sf excluding the basement. water heater is a rheem 7.4gpm model, that supplies 1 full and a half bath, plus dishwasher, and washer. There's only 2 of use that live hear unless you count the dogs. Have a programable therm set for 68 from 5:30 to 6:00am then drops down to 60 untill around 4:30pm when it goes up to 68 untill 10:00pm then back down to 60 for the night. It an older house 1920 that had a furnace from the 60s-70s, and a large 50gal water heater, that had to be at least 10yrs old. 1st winter and a gas bill was over $200 per month. Replaced furnace first which droped heating bill to around $120-130. 2yrs ago replaced water heater droped bill to $80-90. During the summer gas bill is normally what the min. amount charged is.

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

I've never heard of a oil fired water heater. I don't think we have them in MN.

Me either until I bought my current house. The benefit is how fast they recover. The prior owners had a giant whirlpool tub they must have used alot. I've only used it a few times but you can essentially continuously fill it while the water heater is running full blast and keeping up without breaking a bead.

About 6 months ago, I happened to walk by the water heater and oh, oh! the tell tale signs of impending doom. Over the course of the next two days (I'm hoping to make it to the weekend) the dampness turned into a trickle and then a stream and it was time to shut 'er down and take immediate action.

Headed down to the contractor's choice for plumbing supplies and lined up at the retail line (peons). When I spoke up and asked for a replacement tank, there were groans from the contractor's line and a lot of comments like- bummer to be you!!

Turns out I had the Cadillac, glass lined tank and it was $700 for a replacement (the good guy price no less)! After a moment to recover my senses, I explained I was probably more interested in the basic Chevrolet version, which fortunately they also had. Off the cuff, the guy says I may need to finagle the burner to work. Silly me, I brushed that off and went off fat, dumb and happy with my "bargain" $350 tank.

You guessed it, the burner wouldn't fit and there was no way to make it fit right. A new burner was another $200. Now I might as well buy the original tank. The threshold of pain had been met. I boxed the tank back up, returned it and off to Lowes to buy their biggest, baddest, electric unit along with all the goodies to install it (have you checked the price of copper wire lately?!?). A few hours later I had a capped off oil line and whisper quiet hot water. Life is good again.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

Around here the electric company will give you the electric hot water heater for free. You have to pay installation.
There is one catch. It's on a radio controlled device so that in the summer when every one is using there Air Conditioner and the load is high the electric company shuts the water heater off. However they give you a great big efficient mother so that even when it is shut off you don't run out of hot water.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

....d.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

....

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

In southern Ontario, Natural gas is the cheapest. Not enough difference to warrant changing from oil, but if replacing electric, one would definitely go with gas if it's available in the area.
The other advantage of gas is that you can have gas fireplaces (which will continue to operate without hydro), bbq, and other appliances plumbed in and you never run out of fuel.
House insurance is getting real sticky about the age of oil tanks.
If it ever rusts through, it basically destroys the entire house. It will have to be bulldozed to the ground.
There was a good CBC episode of 5th estate or Marketplace or something a couple years ago- some real nightmares....one in Belleville, ON where the oil delivery guy heard the tank crash into the basement while he was filling it.... by the time he got authorization to break down the door, there was 900 litres of oil soaking into the concrete foundation.....after 5 years of fighting with the insurance company, the owners walked away bankrupt.... the house stood condemned...
10 years is all my insurance company will allow on an oil tank. Mine's turning 10 this year....it's basically as new, but I hafta get another one next year. They rust from the inside out at the bottom where water settles.....
I don't understand why some sort of hygroscopic additive can't be added to home heating oil to emulsify water.

Nat. Gas line stops 5 miles from my house so I went oil. I called Consumers Gas first to see if gas was ever coming my way. They said "nope". Had they said "yes", or "maybe" I would've went Propane so I could do an easy conversion down the road.

Whhhaaaattt? Never heard of a oil barrel rusting out. And, if it did leak you just mop it up. How can it soak into the cement? When my oil fired furnace finally quit 3 years ago the original barrel from when they built the house in 42 was still in use. Things must be different in Canada.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Oil vs Gas Heating

As far as setting the mixture all the oil furnaces in my area use a pump which pumps the fuel through nozzles at high pressure to atomize it. Then it lights with a spark. There is no mixture setting. But, you can change the size of the nozzles. There is not reason too but, you could.