Bought House: Keep 2004 Oil Furnace or Switch to NG?

[saltorio]

My wife and I just bought our first house. It's a 1970 split-level semi detached in Ottawa. It has an Lincoln oil furnace (MBO115DABR-C) that was replaced - along with the oil tank and water heater - in 2004.

As this is our first place, my experience with having to maintain any sort of heating system is... lacking.

I'm wondering if I should be looking into switching to natural gas for overall cost efficiency (NG is obviously cheaper than oil, and I've heard that oil requires more maintenance?), and if so, what kind of cost could I expect in removing the oil equipment and installing gas?

[das75]

know from getting a quote for a place I had in BC just running the NG line from the street to the house (plus meter) was close to $2000.

Do you have gas to your house already?

[dirtroad]

If I was in the same situation, I would leave things as they are for now. You probably have an idea as to what the previous owner paid for heating, part of the real estate listing usually. After a year, if this is going to be a long term home start by looking into incentive programs offered by gas companies as these may help cut costs of the conversion, or help determine if it will save enough to finance the change over.

Don't forget about the total green alternative of Geothermal before you make a commitment. Like incentives the Manitoba Government offers.

I am not saying one is better than the other, these are things I have done in past, and would look into before making huge financial commitments on a home I'm not yet familiar with.

[txv]

Geothermal is really nice, but costs tens of thousands of dollars. The way electricity prices are going in Ontario, the payback could be longer than the life of the system.

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It makes a lot of sense to switch to gas even when the furnace is new - lower maintenance costs (oil burners have to be cleaned and tuned once a year), no risk of environmental contamination due to oil spill, much lower heating costs, etc.

However, it's important to do any planned energy efficiency upgrades prior to replacing the heating system to prevent over-sizing...

1. A 1970s house may only have R10-20 attic insulation; code calls for R40 now. Insulation is something you pay for, whether you have it or not.
2. If you're planning on changing windows, postpone the furnace upgrade and do the windows first
3. Air sealing may have a good roi

[saltorio]

Thanks for all the comments already.

From what I gathered while following the home inspector around and reading his report, there doesn't seem to be a NG line already to the house (no meter). I know the area has gas availability, and the attached house may have it.

All the windows and roof were redone last year, so they're good, but the inspector did mention that additional insulation would be helpful, though not essential.

I'm definitely leaving toward the wait and see approach. According to the current owner, equal billing for gas was around $140/month this past year.

[Jase88]

I have an older home which I recently upgraded to high efficiency NG heating from oil. The line had to be brought to the house from the street.

I also upgraded my hot water heater to NG (tank) from electric.

Huge difference already in electrical costs (haven't gone through a heating season yet). Electric hot water heaters are pigs...especially if you let them run 24x7 (no timer) with our new time-of-use electricity rates.

Oil furnaces--in my opinion--are also electricity hogs. It takes plenty of electricity to ignite oil (which is basically clear diesel). So I anticipate a further reduction in electricity consumption over the oil furnace.

Also, it freed up a ton of space in the basement. No 800L tank, and a furnace that's less than a quarter of the size of the old one.

NG is at very low prices right now. Fracking and other new methods of finding NG have produced much more yield...with more supply comes lower prices.

[txv]

All the windows and roof were redone last year, so they're good, but the inspector did mention that additional insulation would be helpful, though not essential.

I'm definitely leaving toward the wait and see approach. According to the current owner, equal billing for gas was around $140/month this past year.

It's possible to calculate how much the house will cost to heat with gas if you know the oil consumption.

$140 a month ($1680) seems a bit low for oil heat unless the house is small.

A good higher end furnace may cost $3000-$5000 (depending on brand) and gas costs less than half as much as heating oil, so the return on investment is well over 10% per year (good luck getting that with paper investments ) after the conversion has payed for itself in 3-6 years.

Insulation also has a good ROI and reduces cooling costs if applicable.

re: Gas line costs - see https://www.enbridgegas.com/homes/st...t-gas-service/

[ScaryBob]

The real wild card is the price of oil. All things staying the same, it will be fairly stable. If the Middle East situation gets worse, it could skyrocket. Natural gas is a North American market commodity and is forecast to stay low in price for quite a few years. If it's going to happen, this would be the time to switch.