Oil vs. natural gas for heating??

[JayM5209]

The thread about drilling through a stone wall for new furnace installation got me thinking about the ongoing debate in my head - - - should I convert my oil fired boiler to natural gas? Bought the house six years ago. It has a very high quality oil fired boiler, installed just a year or two before we purchased the property. The boiler and all components of the four zone system are in very, very good condition. With the price of #2 fuel oil being what it's been for the last two or three years, I really want to convert to natural gas. I'm betting there are some engineers and/or heating pros on WC who can tell me whether the conversion is wise, and how many years it might be to recoup the cost of the conversion.

Incidentally, an added benefit would be that I could buy a new gas range!! I do 90% of the cooking here, and I HATE electric stoves. The house does not have natural gas in it. My understanding is that in this city, the utility is required to get gas to the house if I request it (probably 50' from the street to the foundation) so that won't be a cost to me.

Wise or not??

[ffishman]

You may want to check into "that won't be a cost to me". Its true, if you request it, they have to do it, but, they usually charge for it.

[JayM5209]

Originally Posted by ffishman

You may want to check into "that won't be a cost to me". Its true, if you request it, they have to do it, but, they usually charge for it.

Thanks for the tip. I will check it.

[Justfishing]

gas and oil prices have headed in opposite directions in the last few years. Oil will be subject to increasing world demand and instability of the market. Natural gas on the other hand will be more stable BUT Japan has moth balled all nuculear power plants. They are going to natural gas. Also the US is replacing many of our coal plants with natural gas. So increasing demand may erode some of the price declines.


Before getting a new boiler I would look at how energy efficient your house is. The best way is with a full blown energy audit. It may be well worth it to air seal and insulate. There are rebates and incentives from a variety of sources...state, fed, utilities, etc.

If you house needs siding I would look incorporating energy efficient upgrades into the replacement. Adding 2 to 4 inches of exterior foam will greatly reduce energy use and improve comfort. It is not that much more when done with new siding.

You state may also have some low cost financing.


You have a boiler so I dont know if you have ac and the duct work. Todays heat pumps are much more efficient and able to run at lower outdoor temps.


As far as the payback period for a change over you can look at your average gallon of heating oil and compare btu's used against what it would cost producing the s
ame btu's with gas

[Phil T]

The price of natural gas hasn't bottomed out yet, and will stay low for years. Fracturing gas-rich rock formations has led to a surplus. If most of the coal-fired electric generating plants convert, gas prices may reach $4/decatherm. Oil will continue to be variable. It won't drop much or long term, because refined products are as much in a world market as crude is.

[JiMinneye]

You have a gas main in front of your house and your still burning oil? I just checked in my area and you would have to be buying oil at 94 cents a gallon to be equivelent to the price of natural gas. Oil is well over $3.00 a gallon around here. I live 5 miles out of town and I have to burn propane and I would have to buy it at 54 cents a gallon to be the same as natural gas and I just did a pre-buy for the winter at $1.40 a gallon. Unless you don't plan to live in the house very long you'ld have to be NUTS not to convert. Natural gas has been a deal for a long time and will continue to be well into the future with all that they are finding in this country. I know that most gas companies will give you so many feet free of service line and then so much a foot after that. So your expense would be a new boiler and most gas or energy companies offer rebates for high efficiency equipment that you install so you could even reduce your payback even more.
I would be on the phone tomorrow to the gas company to get all the details if it was available to me. Good Luck. Jim

[JayM5209]

Thanks for the replies thus far.

My original post was not as complete as it should have been. The oil fired boiler is a hot water, radiant heat system with four separately controlled zones, each with its own pump. Except for one large, still efficient picture window, all windows and doors were replaced with high efficiency units 2 years prior to our purchase. Central air was added by a previous owner and is totally independent of the heating system. The one story house with a half basement has a stone exterior. Don't know how much insulation is in the exterior walls, but it's heavily insulated above. An energy audit to rule out major leaks that I'm not aware of would be in order.

Any other advice? TIA

[REW]

By all means convert -
Move on and enjoy the convenience of natural gas.

It sounds like your house is plenty energy efficient and doesn't really warrant further changes in that area.

With use use of a separate boiler to heat the water, the change will be very straight forward.
Remove the oil boiler and install the gas boiler.

Since the oil boiler is fairly new, it is possible that you might be able to sell the boiler on the used market for decent money .

-------------

Years ago, when I was very young, living on a farm, a main natural gas line came through our pasture about 250 feet from our house.
The gas company put in a line drop with pressure reducer and meter for our home.
My father dug a trench from the gas line to the house and we converted our then current coal fired furnace to natural gas.

In this case, he simply installed a gas burner into the coal furnace. I assume that there was appropriate safety controls on the burner.

I can still remember shoveling coal to the furnace when I was very young. Nice not to have to do that any more.

Good luck
REW

[AllenW]

Cost per BTU, and cost to update (pro rate cost as you have some life gone from oil unit) compare and go to gas.


Make sure you tell who ever you have install the boiler you have zones, they are set up different.


Al

[paulie]

Yeah, gas.

Myself, I live in a passive solar house, located fairly far north in upper Michigan. My home has electric base board heaters but we don't turn them on. When we bought this home it did have a large gas fake wood fireplace that was the main heat system but then we switched that over to a high efficiency cordwood burning stove and couldn't be happier: last year we used 4 1/2 cords of wood to heat a 3300 square feet, with 18 foot ceilings, house. We heat from late September to early April. $65.00 a cord. Our house isn't just warm in the winter, its toasty warm.
Our electric heat is in the process of being totally removed and a small natural gas, forced air furnace is being installed for when (if) we travel during the winter.
I'm totally amped about wood heat and if your house makes a wood heating system somewhat easy to install, and your municipality allows it, that's what I would do if I were you. However heating with wood is somewhat of a lifestyle and in our easy way of modern living can be too much of a task for some people but I totally believe that it is worth it.
It's hard to gauge how much wood heat really costs; chainsaws, gas, oil, etc.. Every other year I have to spend a weekend busting my hump to cut up a 10 cord load of logs, then another weekend of stacking it. Then I use a 28 hp tractor to help haul it to where we take it into the house every week. I have to snowblow an area, with aforementioned tractor, from the garage to the wood pile, about 100 yards. I guess I could stack the wood close to the house so I wouldn't have to even use the tractor but I make trails through the snow so I can pull my children on sleds behind a atv. Cordwood is messy so I have to be careful and clean the house more than average. I also have to clean the chimney several times a year, for me that's just a 30 minute job that I do monthly even though its total overkill.
Just stay safe and warm regardless.