Oil Heat vs. Everything Else (Northampton: for sale, house, neighborhood)

[Rosanne]

Is there a way to figure out which would be better, oil heat or something else? We are preparing to start our search to move to another home in the Lehigh Valley, and we presently have oil, which is quite expensive. We know that the best would be gas and that would be our first choice, but it's hard to find homes that offer gas and around an acre of land too. Are propane or all-electric any better than oil? Can anyone offer insight into this, or maybe suggest a website or calculator of some kind for us to use to try to figure out the answer to this? Also, if anyone knows of any areas that offer homes on an acre and also offer gas, please let us know. Thanks much!

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Rosanne

Is there a way to figure out which would be better, oil heat or something else? We are preparing to start our search to move to another home in the Lehigh Valley, and we presently have oil, which is quite expensive. We know that the best would be gas and that would be our first choice, but it's hard to find homes that offer gas and around an acre of land too. Are propane or all-electric any better than oil? Can anyone offer insight into this, or maybe suggest a website or calculator of some kind for us to use to try to figure out the answer to this? Also, if anyone knows of any areas that offer homes on an acre and also offer gas, please let us know. Thanks much!

Very small percentage of homes use Liquid Propane (LP) ; see table.

In units of energy, home heating oil (HHO) is equal to 40.6 kWh of electricity. Up until two years ago, a gallon of HHO was much cheaper than 40.6 kWh of electricity. Today they are almost equal. In addition oil is not as efficient as electricity. (1) Even the best boiler is only 85% efficient, (2) oil heat is much harder to zone heat to turn down the temperature of rooms that are not in use.

For instance using my rates, you do the calculation
$0.010813 electricity rate per kWh TIMES
40.6 kWh per gallon of home heating oil TIMES
85% efficiency of the boiler
= $3.73 = the electric energy equivalent to a gallon of HHO
$3.70 current price for HHO

You see, they are currently about the same price.

Natural gas is about 4 times cheaper.
$0.65 price per 100 cubic feet *1.387 =
$0.90 = the natural gas energy energy equivalent to a gallon of HHO

Predicting what is going to be cheaper in the long run is a game of trying to predict the future cost of commodities. Personally I think that HHO is going to be the long term loser. HHO is the same as diesel, which follows the price of gasoline. But electricity will probably always be more expensive than natural gas. Most of the country uses natural gas, so there will be a lot of concern about it's price. Very few people countrywide use HHO.

What I would do is to use Zillow.com to find homes with acceptable lot size. For instance there are 9 homes for sale in 18017 zip code with lots of 1 acre or more. Then you check the property records online for Northampton County at Property Search.
They tell you what kind of heat is the primary source.

-------------------
City - Data offers the following for % homes with heat
(Northampton county)(Lehigh county)
Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (44.3%)(41.9%)
Utility gas (26.9%)(22.9%)
Electricity (23.2%)(30.6%)
Bottled, tank, or LP gas (2.3%)(1.5%)
Coal or coke (1.9%) (1.6%)
Wood (1.1%)(1.1%)

[keithlantz]

You can always put in a new nat gas furnace to replace an oil furnace.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by keithlantz

You can always put in a new nat gas furnace to replace an oil furnace.

Well that would be a no brainer if there was a gas main on the street. At a 4:1 price differential, you can even finance the new boiler and still come out ahead. But not everyone has that choice.

[Rosanne]

Paco, that's exactly what I was thinking. If there's a gas line available, we would definitely change out from oil. We presently have oil and are not happy about it.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Rosanne

Paco, that's exactly what I was thinking. If there's a gas line available, we would definitely change out from oil. We presently have oil and are not happy about it.

We had a contract price for fuel at $2.15/gallon only 15 months ago, and now it is $3.65.

That is many tens of thousands of dollars you have to depreciate your home in order for the new buyer to keep his monthly payments the same.

With the president denouncing oil as the fuel of the past, you know that there will be no new initiatives. If HHO goes to $5/gallon and we have a return to cold winter, the effect will be mind numbing.

So, it is a little irritating to have someone suggest that you should convert the boiler to gas. With oil 4 times the price of gas, if I had a 3rd grade education, I could think of that solution (if it was available).

The question is it worth the cost to switch to some electrical solution, which depends on electric prices staying stable over a ten year period to pay back the upfront costs (I just got the electric down to 10.3 cents per gallon).

We have a pellet stove , but there is a lot of issues if you use it as the primary heat source, not the least of which is handling tons of pellets.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Rosanne

Is there a way to figure out which would be better, oil heat or something else? We are preparing to start our search to move to another home in the Lehigh Valley, and we presently have oil, which is quite expensive.

I did an experiment with the oil heat. Instead of 62 degrees, I turned the thermostat down to 49 degrees (which is uncomfortable) and used electric space heaters to keep individual rooms warm.

Over two 6 week periods with nearly identical degree days, oil use went from 7.7 gallons per day to 4.7 gallons per day. The electric usage went up about 11 kWh per day. So saved 3 gallons per day of oil (could be up to $12 next year) to replace with $1.20/day more electricity.

Use only safe space heaters, with no exposed heat elements and fans. Use only energy saving settings (600 Watt).

While this experiment is not very sophisticated, it shows that dramatic changes can be made without the expense of switching out the core home heating system.

If oil goes to $5/gallon, then it will probably make sense to rip out the core system and chuck it. There will probably be no recovery from this point.

[thecoalman]

I have a calculator here:

Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

We have a pellet stove , but there is a lot of issues if you use it as the primary heat source, not the least of which is handling tons of pellets.

Instead of the pellets you should consider coal, cheaper, easier etc. Coal can be delivered in bulk from a truck and stored anywhere and if you have basement window it can be chuted right into a storage bin in your basement. It takes up far less space too. The only real advantage pellets have over coal is less ash. In addtion to that it's not just for supplemental heat if you go full boiler/furnace.


EFM DF 520 Biofuel Boiler System_0001.wmv - YouTube

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

I did an experiment with the oil heat. Instead of 62 degrees, I turned the thermostat down to 49 degrees (which is uncomfortable) and used electric space heaters to keep individual rooms warm.

You can save a lot doing it that way when comparing electric to oil because they nearly cost the same per BTU. On the other hand if you were comparing it to natural gas you can heat 3 or 4 rooms for the same price of keeping one room heated with electric.

Ideally you have zoned system where each room or area has it's own thermostat. It's expensive to install hydronic or hot air like this and long term you may not save much because of the expense to install

Use only safe space heaters, with no exposed heat elements and fans. Use only energy saving settings (600 Watt).

You're not saving anything, just making less heat. If that's adequate to keep the room warm then so be it.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

You can save a lot doing it that way when comparing electric to oil because they nearly cost the same per BTU. On the other hand if you were comparing it to natural gas you can heat 3 or 4 rooms for the same price of keeping one room heated with electric.

You're not saving anything, just making less heat. If that's adequate to keep the room warm then so be it.

You missed my earlier post that there is no gas main in this neighborhood, nor are they planning to install one. Gas should be the first choice if it were available.

This house had coal fired boiler for the first 40 years (out of 80 years). The pellet stove was installed 10 years ago. If it was a fresh start, I would probably go with coal (if gas was not available).

I know the low setting just means less heat with a space heater. If it is a safe design, you can keep it close to you in a chair or in a bed if you are sleeping.