Experience of Switching a House from Oil heat....

[heath dog]

Does anyone have any experience of switching the oil heating of a house to other sources of heating? I was wondering of the expense and hassle if there are any negative opinions out there?
Thanks

 

[nativetxn]

No experience with this, sorry. I'll bump this back to page one for you, though

 

[swea_pea1]

I've thought about switching mine from oil to gas heat. For me, the first thing was checking with my county office to ensure that I was permitted to change. Ends up I wasn't, the gas line ends at the woman across the street and one house over from me so they would have to rip up the street to lay the lines across to my house.

From what I've heard though if you're permitted to change it, the gas company sometimes picks up a portion of the cost to do it.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I can give you an idea of what you need. Can't tell you the cost in your area. Some things may not cost, the utility company may cover it. In the long run it is worth it, especially if your oil burner is old.
If you are going with proprane, you need to get a tank set and the propane line run. Propane company should do this for free. If gas you need to get the line run from the street and the meter set. You can dig the ditch for the gas line yourself, if you rent a ditch digger and save some money. You may need to have your chimney cleaned. Then you need to have the new heater put in. Will you be wanting to switch to forced air, and don't have ac and duct work, then you need to have the duct work run. Once you get the heater done, you will as time goes on, be able to convert your other appliances over. If you don't need duct work and are in a basic rancher, the heater will run around $5000. Duct work might run 2000.
If you are getting this done, and don't have ac it is cheaper to add it now, rather then have them come back later. There isn't a huge labor charge, it's mostly equiptment.

 

[amid chaos]

We switched from oil to gas during some construction work so i can't tell yout the exact cost. i can tell you a few things.

We had to pay to bring the gas down the street to reach us. funny, once we brought it this far, several others took it even further down the road.

You will need to buy a new furnace designed for gas heat.

You will need to pay to have your oil tank emptied, environmentally cleaned and removed. Ours was in the basement and they had to cut the thing in half to get it out. if they do that, may I suggest you leave the house while they cut it apart...LOL .

 

[Tiggeroo]

If your oil tank is underground, it may be legal to fill it with cement and leave it. Your contractor will know. Oh, yeah. Disposing of those big old oil furnaces is a pain. Make sure the cost of disposal is included in your contract. If not, some metal scrappers will do it for the value of the scrap metal.

 

[maleficent1959]

My parents had this done a couple years after I graduated from high school. In my experience I found that if the really cute heating and cooling guy asks you out save yourself some trouble and say no because he will just stand you up.

 

[my3kids]

We switched an old heating system for a new heat and AC duct system. This wasn't oil though, and was about 15 years ago.

The project manager came and got all the measurements then came back with his ideas.

I think it took less than a week for the entire installation project. They were able to run duct work through the walls and we ended up looking perfect...no visible signs of the changes. We got rid of the radiators and ended up with gas forced air, air conditioning and a heat pump. I think the cost was about $10,000 back then. It was worth every penny.

 

[cabmom]

We converted from oil to gas last June 03. We own a 93 yr old house and our monthly oil bill was at least $450/mth, plus we had a gas fireplace in our sun room and it would cost us another $100/mth. So in total about $550/mth for the winter of 03.
Our total price to convert Canadian funds was $6200, that is a new high efficiency gas furnace with hot water tank and air conditioning. The water tank was $300, divide the rest in 2 and that what it cost for air and new furnace. The company removed the old tank as well. I'd recommend them, but they don't go to your area!
I can't tell you yet if it has saved us any money, because it's been estimates most of the winter. I've noticed it doesn't smell anymore when the heat kicks in though.
No negatives from me! Good luck with you decision!

 

[heath dog]

Thank you all so much!! You were a wealth of knowledge. It was a house that we were considering buying and we were wondering these questions before we got into it.
Thanks again!!

 

[wdwnutze]

We switched from oil to gas last year. Our oil furnace was very old and needed to be replaced. We already had gas in the house for cooking. The gas company in our area was offering a free gas furnace if you switched over. That was the deal maker for us. We bought a water heater($250-$300). We had to pay to have a liscensed plumber come in and install everything and then it had to be inspected buy the town to make sure it was done properly and that the right permits were done. We had an estimate from a local plumber and it was somewhere around $3000. This did not include tank removal($500) and removal of the old furnace. My husband is lucky and knows a plumber, an electrician and a junk man(to take the old furnace) so we were able to get everything done for a total of about $500. I agree that the gas is cleaner and has no oder when it comes on. Our house is very old(160yrs +) so it is not energy efficient. We went through a lot of oil and didn't like the thought that we could run out at any given time. I like the fact that the gas is here and I don't have to think about it - just pay the bill when it comes in.

 

[C.Ann]

A year ago last November I purchased a new energy efficient oil boiler and I am absolutely thrilled with it!!!

Last year and this year I have been able to heat my house for the entire winter season on what it costs my son-in-law to heat his house with gas for two months..

I don't like gas - I'm afraid of it (bad experience years ago) - and unless you're using propane gas, you can't really shop around for the best price.. You just have to pay whatever the utility company is charging..

 

[RUDisney]

When we moved into our house 10 years ago, we had 3, yes 3 oil furnaces. The previous owner also owned the oil company. We had 2-250 gallon tanks in the basement.

We added a gas fireplace first in our living room to help with the heating bill. The next year, we replaced the main furnace, but kept one of the two others in production... primarily to use up the oil that we had. We removed the final oil furnace the third year.

The gas company didn't charge us for the hookup. We paid about $6,000 for our furnace and installation for a 3,800 sq. ft. house and we used our existing baseboard hot water heat system that is zoned in 4 places.

The closet where the oil tanks were was converted to a wine cellar that can hold 900 bottles at full capacity.

We added central air last year to our second floor and put two split units in to cool our first floor.

The best part about switching to gas was being able to hook our gas grills up to the gas line so we don't have to get propane anymore. We also bought a gas dryer for its efficiencies, a gas stove because I hate electric ones, and the hot water heater doesn't require us to keep the furnace on all summer and use extra money because it just burns the oil.

Oh, and my basement doesn't smell like oil anymore.