Home Heating - Oil vs Gas

LoveBlue

LoveBlue

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My rental home uses oil. Prior to moving here I've always lived in houses with gas.
My landlord & I were talking today about the possibility of him replacing the furnace & A/C. The house may be close enough to a nearby gas line to hook up to (I know the house on one side of me is). I mentioned this to the landlord.

What are the pros & cons of oil vs gas?

I already know about the differences in delivery (have to call to arrange delivery of the oil - I didn't go with automatic delivery).

Is one more cost efficient?
 
Yea, natural gas is cheaper. I'm sure more people would be on it if they could get it. That's the only down side is availability of hookup.
 
The biggest difference is M O N E Y. Oil is now at least 4 times more expensive than Natural gas.

Secondly, you pay AFTER you use Natural gas where you have to pay before to get your oil tank filled. Meaning more stable with monthly budget when using NG.

For me, in the last two years I have been using straight firewood. Since I harvest it myself and it really beats the rest.
 
Hi, There are factors to consider. Gas is usually cheaper. After that though is the pencil work. Is the place you are in going to be your long term home?
You will have to add in the cost of changing over your heating system to the cost of the gas and see how it balances out. How much does an estimated gas bill per month amount to?
The utility should be able to help you arrive at a rough estimate based on the size of your home averaged against costs other area users with the similar size home experience.
The good thing about oil heat can be that you simply shut it off and the fuel stops flowing and the cash register stops ringing right then. If that has value to you it is a consideration.
There are other things too I am not a furnace man. Gas is convenient and of reasonable cost with less maintenance. No tweakers are going to come steal your gas when you are on vacation shutting down your house and freezing everything till it breaks costing you thousands of dollars. If that happens where you are at it figures in.
 
I'm on a budget plan, so planning is somewhat easy though I know the budget amount can go up or down. My oil supplier posts their rate online so I'm watching right now for planning my fill up for next winter. It's dropped 30 cents/gal so far this year.
But now that there's a chance he'll switch to gas, I'll hold off filling the tank. He knows that the oil prices will go up closer to fall, so I'm sure he'll make a decision before then.
 
You get more BTU's per unit out of diesel oops heating oil (same thing FYI) . Diehardbiker is right - it costs so much more now that its now cheaper with natural gas per therm. Also you can get nearly 90% efficiency furance and hot water on natural gas with right equipment - but it will cost landlord big bucks.

You might want to look into other biomass heating like pellet stove or kerosene heating to warm the room you want to be in to lower the oil usage.
Expecting the landlord to change type of heating fuel for your benefit doesn't seem like a wise decision.
 
For the source of fuel itself, I believe the depends on distribution cost and market values.

For the overall cost of heating, this really depends on the efficiency of your heating system. Take the insulation off pipes and you lose a lot of heat.

As far as space goes, you don't need a tank for gas if you're plugged into a town gas line.

Also, you might want to take into account whether your windows are old, big difference in heating bills.
 
I'm a tenent so no cost to me to switch (& the landlord will not up my rent). He's going to look into all the costs & being a friend he'll probably also compare what may costs will be too.
Seeing hat the current furnace is 16 yrs old, a new oil furnace will probably save me money regardless.
It will be up to the landlord but I thought I'd ask around because he'll probably ask me which one I want if the option is there.
 
We have a good relationship and always try to make things win-win for both of us. If switching is going to be too expensive for him then we'll stay with oil.
 
He will most likely get a homeowner deduction either as a rental property or just energy efficiency.
 
Another thing to consider, if you are in an area that gets a lot of snow and or ice, is ability of the delivery truck to get through vs the gas line that is always there once put in.
 
Not really, not much comparing if you switch to natural Gas, then you will see huge savings, and most likely it will pay for itself in a year or two even comparing to oil furnace thats high efficiency.

Don't forget that Natural Gas companies sometimes offer incentive program to have customers switch from oil to gas.

LoveBlue said:
a new oil furnace will probably save me money regardless.
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:dunno: Around here most houses have electric heat and air. Some gas, no oil.
 
That is because your location, most homes don't need huge heat system comparing to the North where we see zero degrees once a while, electric heat will be very expensive, same with Oil.

Reba said:
:dunno: Around here most houses have electric heat and air. Some gas, no oil.
Click to expand...
 
I forget where you are located. Does the home you're renting have ease of access to installing natural gas lines? I know up on the East Coast in the older homes that's harder, and far more expensive, to do. At any rate, if you can get natural gas, I think it would benefit all of you in the long run.
 
Gas is the best. Since your landlord needs to get a new furnace he can most likely get one that is at least 90% efficient. He gets a tax break regardless since it is a business expense. Shouldn't be more than 5k for both heat and ac. That is assuming it is forced air.
 
I'm in DE. Others in my neighborhood who are close to the gas line have converted and one of them told me he thinks this house is close enough to also hook up to it. I'll leave it to the landlord, since it's his money.
 
I have gas in this place. Much cheaper than oil- here in Toronto, anyways.
There is another factor in favour of gas-no tank to replace.
 
My house is a rental. I have a gas heater that also runs on electricity. There is a place in town that helps on heating assistance. I'm going to for that this year. I hope it will help. Otherwise, the electric heaters are going to raise my bill up this year.
 
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