Question about heating in houses... (Boston: renting, heat pump, neighborhood)

[heather3]

One thing I have noticed looking at houses online in the Boston suburb area, 90% of them have electric baseboard (or what look like it anyway) heat. Why is that?
My husband may be relocated from MD to a job in Boston, and I'm looking at houses about an hours commute (on the train) away. Doesn't matter if it's a house built in the 90s or one in the 40s, I see those baseboard heating units. Here, in MD, they were popular in the 60s and 70s but you rarely see them anymore. And if your older house had one, many have ripped it out b/c they jack up your electric bill.

Thanks!

[CaseyB]

They are for oil heat, it's very common here.

[heather3]

Ok! That makes sense as most of the listings say OIL HEAT. Thanks! How is oil heat? My husband wants to stay away from it, haven't asked him why. Is it expensive? Oil heat in MD are for older, pre 1940 houses so I don't know much about it.

Thank you!

[CaseyB]

It's been very expensive this year, but might be hard to avoid as you are finding out. Look for houses that have seperate heating zones so you can turn the heat way down if you aren't currently using those rooms.

[QuilterChick]

Originally Posted by heather3

Ok! That makes sense as most of the listings say OIL HEAT. Thanks! How is oil heat? My husband wants to stay away from it, haven't asked him why. Is it expensive? Oil heat in MD are for older, pre 1940 houses so I don't know much about it.

Thank you!

Oil per gallon is about the same as gasoline per gallon in the northeast. Depending on the size of the home and whether or not there is sufficient insulation, you could be looking at $4,000 a year for oil for an average 1500 sq. ft. home keeping it at 68 to 70 degrees. Best to call an oil company in the area if you are going to pay for oil; and get the actual heating and electric bills history for the past 12 months from the seller. Very important.

[breezy1]

I moved to MA recently - Heating (gas) and electric costs are much higher here than what I was paying in upstate NY (where the weather was just as cold) for the same size/type of house. I think that oil heating costs even more here than gas - something to keep in mind. As you've seen, alot of homes in this area heat by oil, so it does limit your selection a bit to only look for gas. It may depend on particular areas, i.e., whether there are more homes heated by gas vs. oil. I've noticed that in certain towns, oil heat is more prevalent.

You'll see baseboard heating in most homes, whether oil or gas. I think that's because it's very common here for the heating to be "radiant" rather than forced air, which is hot water going through pipes throughout the house into those baseboard units - whether gas or oil. (The house we're renting has gas/radiant heat with those baseboard units.) When I lived in upstate NY, almost all the homes has gas/forced air - so this is very different here.

[heather3]

Breezy1, we are the same here. I have a heat pump in my current home. How does the oil work? Is it like propane, where your tank is above ground for each house...or like natural gas where you just have a pipe coming into your home?

Thanks for all the info!

[breezy1]

There is an oil tank (which is very large) that is inside the home in the basement. There's an opening into it on the outside of the house that the tanker truck pulls up and pumps the oil into. You probably have to have the tank filled a few times a year.

Many homes still have oil because there may not even be gas lines in the neighborhood. Some that have the gas lines in the area now may not have converted over to gas. It's very expensive to convert over, but may pay off in the long run due to better efficiecy and lower costs with gas (and it's just cleaner and you're not dealing with the oil tank in the basement).

We've looked at some homes that you can smell the oil as soon as you go in the basement - probably due to some kind of leak as many (if not most) of the tanks are probably very old.

We are going to try really hard to avoid oil when we look for a home.

[laf28]

Just had our oil tank filled the other day at $4.99 a gallon. Yes, it's very expensive but at least oil doesn't explode and take the whole house with it. Choose your poison.

[breezy1]

How many gallons does a typical oil tank hold? How many times do you fill it in a typical year?