Oil to Gas Heat Conversion?

[Ciao Mickey]

My heating oil bills this year are obscene and I was thinking of converting from oil heat to gas heat. Has anyone done this? Can you give me an idea of what the costs would be?

My oil company (Petro) now charges over $4 per gallon for heating oil if you aren't locked in on a price.

I've had enough and want to convert to gas heat.

 

[vellamint]

I am interested in hearing some ideas about this also.

 

[epd0407]

ive already looked into this.. First you need to find out if there is gas on your street. if its not near your house your kinda stuck. If you have it, the gas companies usually have nice rebates making the changeover pretty cheep.

 

[adkkev]

Do you have gas service in your house now?

We converted from oil to natural gas about 3 years ago ... forced hot air oil system to a forced hot air gas system. Local plumbing and heating guy did it all ... very nice job. Total cost, which included the removal of our old behemoth of an oil furnace = $3500. Our gas furnace is rated at at 97% efficiency. The filter is removed and cleaned monthly ... just spray it and hose it down ... and presto, good as new.

We also installed a programmable thermostat.

We have not regretted our decision to switch.

 

[vellamint]

Do you have gas service in your house now?

We converted from oil to natural gas about 3 years ago ... forced hot air oil system to a forced hot air gas system. Local plumbing and heating guy did it all ... very nice job. Total cost, which included the removal of our old behemoth of an oil furnace = $3500. Our gas furnace is rated at at 97% efficiency. The filter is removed and cleaned monthly ... just spray it and hose it down ... and presto, good as new.

We also installed a programmable thermostat.

We have not regretted our decision to switch.

Wow sounds like you made a great decision......

 

[alexedan]

We converted our 2300 sq ft house from oil to propane (no natural gas available in our area) a year ago. I am paying about 2300 a year in gas fees I think. (I'm not sure how much it cost to convert but we had the above ground tank removed and a new one sunk in the yard. We also have a gas fireplace, installed a 5 burner gas stove, and removed the hot water heater and had a tankless hot water heater installed. That IMHO is the best argument for gas! Never-ending hot water.) Propane is 2.70 a gallon here.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

My neighbors converted to gas years ago and when the gas company installed their gas line I had them put one in for us too. We use it for our water heater. I've always wanted to convert to gas, but our boiler was new and I couldn't see spending the money back then because gas/oil prices were basically the same.

I always lock in my oil prices at the end of the summer. This year we had things going on and I didn't get a chance to call and lock in until the price of oil was up to $3.02. I almost choked on the price, but what could I do? Later on, we get our first oil delivery of the year and the price they charged us was $3.64 per gallon.

I called and told them there had to be a mistake because I locked in the price. A man I spoke to said that I was a long time customer and he was sure that they would adjust the price and he would have a supervisor return my call--I'm still waiting for that supervisor to return my call.

Long story short--Petro would not honor the locked in price.

They claimed they had no record of my call.

I was so mad that I told them I didn't want their services any more after this year (we have a maintaince contract and a Care Program contract that we had already paid for), that we'd either find a new oil company or convert to gas.

I also told them in no uncertain terms that I did not want any more oil deliveries unless they spoke to me first and I authorized them to make a delivery. When they wanted to deliver oil again, they called several times until they got hold of me, and I gave them the OK to make another delivery.

I get home on Thursday and what do you think I find? A $500+ bill from Petro for an unauthorized oil delivery. To add insult to injury, they had the nerve to charge me $4.02 per gallon.

I called and told them that I did not authorized the delivery, was not paying the bill, and for them to make arrangements to come and pump out their oil. The woman said she would have a supervisor call. Again, I'm still waiting for a supervisor to call.

Oh, they did send me a form letter in the mail highlighting all of the reasons why an oil to gas conversion was a bad idea...

 

[dvcgirl]

We converted this year, our first year in this home. Total cost was $4,000, but we got $900 back from New Jersey Natural gas as a rebate.....so $3,100 out of pocket. That was removal of old furnace as well.

Our old tank was 250 gallons....and they previous owners used 3 tanks a year...so that would have been $3,000 a year just to heat this 1,500 sq foot house. We'll spend less than half that amount for this winter on nat gas.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

We converted this year, our first year in this home. Total cost was $4,000, but we got $900 back from New Jersey Natural gas as a rebate.....so $3,100 out of pocket. That was removal of old furnace as well.

Our old tank was 250 gallons....and they previous owners used 3 tanks a year...so that would have been $3,000 a year just to heat this 1,500 sq foot house. We'll spend less than half that amount for this winter on nat gas.

Do you mind me asking how you got a $900 rebate? Are they still offering it? Did you call a local plumber to do the conversion?

Any info would be appreciated.

We have PSE&G (I'm in the Morristown area).

 

[dvcgirl]

Do you mind me asking how you got a $900 rebate? Are they still offering it? Did you call a local plumber to do the conversion?

Any info would be appreciated.

We have PSE&G (I'm in the Morristown area).

The $900 rebate.....$600 was from New Jersey Natural Gas, and $300 from the manufacturer of the furnace, in this case, Rheem. The company that installed the furnace took care of all the paperwork.....and I'm sure any company you use would do the same.

Yes, we just called a local HVAC company on a recommendation from a neighbor.

 

[gilby]

think about a pellet stove or corn stove. We are on our 4th year of heating our house with corn. Our furnace has not ran for months. We have a 2200 sq foot house and it is always above 70 as high as 78 on sunny days. We spend about 600 in corn, but we are benefiting a farmer versus the gas companies. I love the stove it is a constant steady heat and i dry my thick towels down on racks by the stove so I am saving electricity as well as gas. The stove cost around 2500, but paid for itself in 2 years. I love have a low gas bill. It was the one bill we just dreaded no matter what I budgeted it wasn't enough. We live in Minnesota and we all no how cold it can get.

 

[seashoreCM]

Do not let them pump out the oil. There is no way to be sure they don't pump out more than they put in.

A reasonably amicable solution is to offer to pay the locked in price for the oil. This is not a starting point but rather a firm final offer.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[KJF]

I get home on Thursday and what do you think I find? A $500+ bill from Petro for an unauthorized oil delivery. To add insult to injury, they had the nerve to charge me $4.02 per gallon.

I called and told them that I did not authorized the delivery, was not paying the bill, and for them to make arrangements to come and pump out their oil. The woman said she would have a supervisor call. Again, I'm still waiting for a supervisor to call.

You might want to do a search on previous threads for this - I remember a while back a thread about unauthorized oil deliveries & the customer not being responsible for it & not paying for it. I forget all the legalities of it. I do remember the same thing about not letting them pump it out cause you won't know what they take out.

 

[marcyinPA]

I've been considering the switch from oil to gas too. We have lines on our street, because my neighbors (most of them) have gas heat. The only problem is that we have a fairly new oil boiler. It is only 7 years old. When we replaced the ancient one that came with the house, oil was...gulp.... 99cents a gallon! Never in a million years did we think it would come to this! We just paid $3.51 a gallon and we use one of the cheapest oil companies around. We just don't have the money for a new furnace right now, when our old one isn't old at all! BUT, we don't have money for oil anymore either. This is really a HORRIBLE situation for all of us...gas/oil/electricity/food....it's all gotten way out of control!

 

[bobtheinventor]

If anyone has leftover heating oil in new jersey or pa i will buy it i will pump it out and give you cash don't let the tank removal guys charge you for removal call me today

call 732-276-2182 bob