Home heating question - oil vs gas?

[New England Eeyore]

Hello,

I'm looking for opinions. Our oil burner is on its last legs and we need to make a decision of what we want to do to replace it. Should we just keep oil, or convert to gas?

I was all for switching to gas at first, until I looked into it. As best I can tell, it would be $2-3,000 more to convert the house to gas than to buy a new oil burner. I don't think we'd recoup that money since the monthly heating bills would probably be pretty similar. (?) We've been in this house for 3 years. For both 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 we paid $1650 for the year for oil. We do a monthly payment plan, and this year it skyrocketed to $2650 for the year, but based on our usage so far, I know I'll have money left over in my account (We pay from August to June) - I think they overestimated our usage. I really don't know what gas prices would be like. My dad has gas but he has a much smaller house than we do so it's hard to tell.

I was really turned off by my encounter with Keyspan, the gas company here. When they came out to give me their estimate, the whole encounter was disorganized and left a bad taste in my mouth. On the other hand, I really like my oil man. We can call him 24/7 and he'll come out or troubleshoot over the phone.

At this point, I'm inclined to stay with oil. From what I've read, just buying more modern equipment will help at least a little bit with fuel efficiency. Am I crazy to think of keeping it?

I'll take any opinions here - I'd like to know what some of you have done. I'm especially interested to hear if anyone has done the conversion from oil to gas and if they were happy with it or not?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SplshMtn99]

Sorry, no help. We have electric heat which I refuse to turn on. We use a pellet stove instead. But even the price of pellets skyrocketed this winter due to a shortage. We also had big problems even getting pellets.

 

[Dan Murphy]

 

[Mackey Mouse]

At this point, I am not sure what to tell you..

For 34 years of my marriage, I had oil heat watching those who have gas pay lesser bills. Now I finally have gas heat, the prices are exhorbitant.

I think it is a toss up. Although the person who put in my gas fireplace claims he heats his whole house with the gas fireplaces which cost less because of the BTU's....I do not claim to understand but he swears by it.

 

[mickman1962]

My opinion is that no matter what you use to heat your home, it is a conspiracy that it will cost about the same to heat your house no matter what fuel you choose.

 

[Randi]

I have oil. I am absolutely terrified to have gas in or around my house. I don't have a fireplace either. Just one of my quirks, but I was in a house fire once when I was quite young and remember it vividly. So for me, gas is way too expensive mentally.
Most fuels go up and down in price. One year low and then a big jump the next. I ride it out and use a budget plan.