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[C.Ann]

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[C.Ann]

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[mickeyfan2]

I My Dad built that house back in the early 40's and the oil heating system has always been quite sufficient - nice even heat throughout the house.. Here at my SIL's house the gas heat tends to be very "uneven" and hard to regulate to a comfortable degree.

This is comparing apple to oranges. I am guessing that your oil heat is hot water and his is forced air. Hot water is a premium heating system that has more even heat and does not remove the humidity from the air.
BTW we use propane (a component of natural gas) and we had oil before in our rented house. The oil was far more than the propane. We would never heat with oil. My cousin uses oil and hers skyrocketed this year. The propane we buy is a by product of the refining of oil into gas. So it is very cheap in the summer when supply exceeds demand. We buy our propane in July for the entire year and it is far cheaper than oil would ever be.


ETA: We had to clean our oil heater each year, we never have to clean the propane heater. Propane is so clean burning so the boiler never needs to be cleaned. That cost extra money too.

 

[Marseeya]

I live in SW PA and I don't know anybody who heats with oil. We've only ever lived in one house that didn't have gas heat; it was electric, and OMG was it expensive to keep the house warm!

DH works for a gas company, so hopefully he'll be able to stay in business for a good long time.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Yes - I have seen some oil tanks outside - and in this neighborhood some were actually buried underground (not too swift an idea)..

Why?
We have our propane tank sunk in the ground. It is the prefered way to store it. Now we could sink it because we own it.

 

[cepmom]

when we originally bought our house in 1996, it was heated by oil. The dryer and hot water heater were electric. One day the dryer died and within a week the hot water heater died too. At the time our gas company was running a really good deal that if you installed a high efficiency furnace, they would run the gas line to your house free of charge. There were also some really good rebates included with the deal for gas dryer and hot water heaters. DH's friend is a plumber so he was able to get us the furnace and hot water heater at cost and install them for free (DH helped).

At that time, gas was cheaper than oil and the hot water heater and gas dryer were way cheaper than electric. That's something to consider too...your oil heating bill may cheaper than a gas user's bill, but perhaps your electric bill is higher due to a dryer, stove/oven, hot water heater etc.

I also like being able to spread the payments out over the course of the year instead having to pay cash each time I had to get the oil tank filled.

 

[cepmom]

Why?
We have our propane tank sunk in the ground. It is the prefered way to store it. Now we could sink it because we own it.

because if the tank leaks, the oil will contaminate the ground...it's an enviromental hazard

 

[mickeyfan2]

because if the tank leaks, the oil will contaminate the ground...it's an eviromental hazard

That makes sense.
With propane it turns into a gas and rises into the air. It is scented so you know this is happening. So it is completely safe to sink it.

 

[KristaTX]

I have no idea what the cost differences are or why one would be preferred over another. I just wanted to say that I think it's great that we all things about other parts of the US here on the DIS . I had never even heard of using oil to heat houses until a couple of years ago and that was here on the DIS. Like Kathy said, we just don't have that option here in Texas. It's either electric or gas. Or firewood, I suppose.

Does the oil come through pipes to your house? Or is it stored in a tank or barrel outside? Do you go buy a barrel of oil? I'm trying to picture how it works. I saw barrels of oil (or something ) at Sam's Club one day, and I wondered if it was the kind of oil you are talking about.

 

[nwdisgal]

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See - I don't get any of this.. We never had odor problems and I've never seen a gas heating bill that was less costly than my oil bills.. Maybe I was just lucky?

I think it depends on the region, too. I know my brother who lived in Washington, lived in an older home - built in the 1950's. Th original house was heated with oil. He ended up converting to natural gas, because at the time, it was more expensive to heat his home with oil.

 

[cepmom]

Krista ~
oil is delivered by an independant oil company that fills an oil tank either inside the basement or outside the house. (mine was in the basement and stunk like crazy!)

I never knew that TX didn't have oil for heating homes!

 

[KristaTX]

Oh okay - Thanks for the explanation . I wonder what I saw at Sam's in those barrels .

 

[Doctor P]

As far as I know from when I lived in MA, natural gas is not available for heating in New England (there is some propane available, but it is very expensive). Heating oil and electric are the primary means of heat there, with most older homes almost exclusively oil heat (boiler with hot water system). The natural gas pipelines do not run to New England, so getting gas is very difficult and expensive. However, when I had my condo in MA, it had electric heat that could be turned off and on at each individual heating element. That made it very, very efficient and also very inexpensive as it turned out. For example, I would leave the heat off in the bathroom (interior rooms stayed fairly warm anyway) and then turn it on as I got into the shower so it was toasty when I got out. Then I just turned off that heating register when I got done drying off and didn't waste the heat. I could also heat unused rooms by just turning one heating register on, and even most occupied rooms would stay quite warm with very little in the way of heating elements on.

 

[cepmom]

As far as I know from when I lived in MA, natural gas is not available for heating in New England (there is some propane available, but it is very expensive). Heating oil and electric are the primary means of heat there, with most older homes almost exclusively oil heat (boiler with hot water system). The natural gas pipelines do not run to New England, so getting gas is very difficult and expensive. However, when I had my condo in MA, it had electric heat that could be turned off and on at each individual heating element. That made it very, very efficient and also very inexpensive as it turned out. For example, I would leave the heat off in the bathroom (interior rooms stayed fairly warm anyway) and then turn it on as I got into the shower so it was toasty when I got out. Then I just turned off that heating register when I got done drying off and didn't waste the heat. I could also heat unused rooms by just turning one heating register on, and even most occupied rooms would stay quite warm with very little in the way of heating elements on.

perhaps just the town where you lived in MA did not have natural gas, because I have lived in MA my whole life and grew up with natural gas for heat.

 

[KathyTX]

We don't use radiators or baseboard heating systems, either.

Krista, I think the oil is used to heat water, which is then pumped throughout the houses into radiators or through pipes in the baseboards to heat houses in cold places. (Something like that, right?)

Here, it's typical to have one system that includes both cold and hot air, with the vents in our ceilings or high on our walls. When it's warm out, the A/C compressors kick to chill the air. When (if) it gets cold out, the natural gas or electric furnace kicks in to warm the air. Then the cooled or warmed air blows through vents in our ceilings or high on our walls. Either way, cool or warm, the air comes through the same ducts and vents. And it's not unusual to have days when we run the air conditioner in the afternoon and the heat at night.

We got into the 80's today in the Dallas area (yes, it's January.) Heat really isn't our biggest concern; cooling our homes most efficiently is where we spend the VAST majority of our money. It's not unusual for my electric bill to be over $400 in July and August.

C.Ann- I'm sure we make LOTS of heating oil here. We just don't use it, because we'd rather ship it up to you so we can make more money from it.

 

[dbarker]

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Really? See that - learn something new every day.. Kind of ironic though that "Texas" - of all places - wouldn't have heating oil.. How did the Ewings ever get by?

Probably b/c we don't get very cold down here. At least not for long. 85 two days ago, mid to upper 70's today. We had a cold spell for a couple of weeks before Christmas, but the temps have been warm since then. It gets cool at night w/o the sun shining, but warms up during the day.

Our choices for heat are wood, electric, natural gas or propane. We don't use oil or coal or anything else. But, like I said, we really don't getvery cold for long. Now in the summer we get HOT and stay hot. My electric bill in the summer is what gets me.

 

[jfulcer]

Oh okay - Thanks for the explanation . I wonder what I saw at Sam's in those barrels .

Most likely Peanut Oil or some sort of cooking oil. I sam them too at our Sams if we're talking about the same thing. People use it to deep fry turkeys in those big deep fryers outside.

 

[Feralpeg]

Heat pumps are most common here, at least in new construction. My home is all electric. From what little I've learned about heat pumps, they would be impractical in northern climates. It just gets to cold there and the heat pump would not be able to work efficiently.

 

[jfulcer]

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I've always had electric hot water heaters, electric dryers, and electric stoves.. I really prefer them to gas - or maybe I'm just more accustomed to them..

That's the reason for the difference in your oil versus gas bills. When you have gas, you most likely have a gas water heater, gas furnance, gas dryer, and a gas stove. You are spreading your costs between your oil and your electric because you have electric appliances. Now if you used oil for all of those appliances, you could compare them properly. Of course you prefer them - you've not had a choice if all you've had is oil in your house.

What you SHOULD do is compare your oil and electric bill to someone's gas and electric bill in your area that has gas appliances and see what the difference is.

 

[KristaTX]

Most likely Peanut Oil or some sort of cooking oil. I sam them too at our Sams if we're talking about the same thing. People use it to deep fry turkeys in those big deep fryers outside.

Ah okay. That makes sense I guess. I couldn't see anywhere on them what kind of oil it was, but I didn't inspect them very closely. Just more a passing curiosity. And it never dawned on me that anyone would buy that much oil to cook with .