Gas or Oil Heat??

[mwt137]

This is a question I have thought about many times. For me, I prefer gas, but gas is not always an option, especially in the Northeast (it seems about 1/2 the homes have oil heating). Here are my pros/cons for oil and gas:

OIL
- Pros
- More readily available
- Cons
- Requires annual maintenance/check up
- More costly form of heat
- Leaks won't cause your house to potentially blow up (but they are costly and messy)

GAS
- Pros
- Cheaper
- Lower maintenance
- Cons
- Leaks can be *very* dangerous, so you have to evacuate your home fast if you smell it
- Requires a gas line on your street

[makeawish3]

Thanks to all of you who have answered my question. In our home search,we will be avoiding oil and septic. Dosn`t make it easy

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by makeawish3

Thanks to all of you who have answered my question. In our home search,we will be avoiding oil and septic. Dosn`t make it easy

Why no septic? Also, where are you looking? I know most towns inside 128 have public water & sewer, but the further west you go the more common septic systems and wells become.

[cocomitch]

dear all thanks for the responses and keeping this forum alive. the information and learning of others experiences is invaluable. well, we were only hours away from the last major snow storm. again the boiler broke down. i had no time to make choices, i went with our oil company, petro who was able to completely overhaul the old oil boiler, at the moments notice, all for the low low price of $8,500 (i say this jokingly) thank goodness my mom, who has excellent credit if you can believe it in this day and age, had a credit card with 0 balance, another unheard of with only a 6% interest rate - i know, unreal. fortunately, good ole mom saved the day (oh yeah, did i mention her credit card has a credit limit to handle the whole costs). i so want to be like her when i grow up. eventually, at some point in the future i want to look into converting to gas - for sure

[mdovell]

I would also add that gas as another little advantage. There are special gas grills that can run off of the home system. They cost a bit more than the propane but you won't have to refill or exchange a propane cylinder again :-D

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by mdovell

I would also add that gas as another little advantage. There are special gas grills that can run off of the home system. They cost a bit more than the propane but you won't have to refill or exchange a propane cylinder again :-D

I have a natural gas grill. I just bought it and I think it was $20 more than the propane equivalent. Some manufacturers make a proprane grill and then sell an NG conversion kit, but Weber has seperate models. My house didn't have gas access outside, but a plumber added it for me and it wasn't too much but he didn't have to run the gas line far for me either as my grill is basically on the other side of the wall from my boiler.

The one mistake I made was that I didn't have the grill before the plumber installed the gas feed. I had to go to the hardware store and get a few more bits & pieces to mate the grill to the gas valve. I don't like to mess around with gas, electricity, or plumbing if I don't have to.