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Thank you everyone for your opinions. After much research, we are moving forward with converting. The price to convert is very reasonable, and my kids will never have to deal with us running out of oil again.
hello,
we live on the island as well and spending about 750$ every 40 days for a 3br ranch house, i have called home depot to find out where am i losing all that heat but read your posting and i am curious to find out if u converted and how easy and economical was it? i called the energy co. and unfortunately, our block is the only one that does not have the gas line and so i dont even know if we have an option to convert? would like to know how your experience was, definitely these hi oil prices are driving us nuts!
There is alot you can do to save both heating and electric costs without converting. Two big areas is insulation and air seals which is 2 very different issues. During inspections, I can not tell you what we find! If you are somewhat handy, you can save a ton of money. I do energy audit inspections and although you spend money for it, you make it back in a year. Attics and basements are typically the biggest offenders. Good Luck.........
There are always lots of opinions on these forums that lack the fact-finding support needed (aside from those who have actually made contact w/ Nat Grid or plumbers). It sounds like you are not on a budget?! Most of us are not getting an oil delivery every month of the year, or paying that much for each delivery either (depending on the size of each tank)! Not that I'm a fan of paying for oil in the summer when you're not using it (and your electric bill spikes due to a/c & pool usage), but being on a budget does spread out your usage costs over the entire year instead of just over the five or six times you may get oil delivered. It's definitely true (as someone mentioned earlier) that there are a great many factors involved in a conversion: condition of current boiler, age, condition, and efficiency of home, amount of usage, wanting to be greener, etc. National Grid may run 100' of house service from the street (IF you have gas in the area) at no charge, but your private plumber may want $3000-$8000 for the inside conversion depending on what you need). The gas company does not always offer free boilers and other equipment for a conversion. They seem to run periodical / limited offers?! If you do not have a gas main on your street...National Grid wants one additional customer to convert for every 100' of main they have to run. Good luck w/ that one! I live 1600' from the nearest main, which is not very far, and the likelihood of convincing 16 of my neighbors to convert would be a monumental task in and of itself!!! What noone has yet mentioned is that once on gas...you are at the mercy of huge company to deliver gas to your ONE home from a shared gas line in a reliable manner. Gas lines and especially mains get shut off w/out warning to customers somewhat regularly. When's the last time your oil company said we're not delivering oil to you today for maintenance or repair to their fleet? Depending on where you live, the gas main is simply shut down in many disaster situations! Hurricane Sandy victims on the south shore of L.I., Queens, and other areas had their mains shut off completely! This does not help you...nor does it help run your generator if you have one hooked up to a transfer switch for emergency situations and run it off of NG (which is a very common practice on Genset installs). This also happened during another Hundred Year Storm in Bayville a few years back. People go extended periods of time w/out gas for heat, cooking, generators, bbq's, or whatever because the main was shut down for safety! Then, once turned back on...the mains may be flooded w/ water or contaminated just like in the situations mentioned! You may have multiple shutoffs after that to make repairs and handle all the "relights" once the main does get turned back on. Part of me would like to convert to gas and get the oil tank out of my basement...but, the other part thinks...at what true cost (over and above the obvious monetary one)?
15 years, no problems and although nat'l grid and keyspan are expensive for what they offer, I've saved a ton of money over oil heat. In the future, any house I live in will be powered by plentiful, cheap natl gas, until geothermal goes mainstream or costs rise.
Shutdowns? Never happened in my nbrhood, however, I can see if you live in a flood zone the utility may want to shut-off access... just so fires don't break out alla Breezy Point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JK69
There are always lots of opinions on these forums that lack the fact-finding support needed (aside from those who have actually made contact w/ Nat Grid or plumbers). It sounds like you are not on a budget?! Most of us are not getting an oil delivery every month of the year, or paying that much for each delivery either (depending on the size of each tank)! Not that I'm a fan of paying for oil in the summer when you're not using it (and your electric bill spikes due to a/c & pool usage), but being on a budget does spread out your usage costs over the entire year instead of just over the five or six times you may get oil delivered. It's definitely true (as someone mentioned earlier) that there are a great many factors involved in a conversion: condition of current boiler, age, condition, and efficiency of home, amount of usage, wanting to be greener, etc. National Grid may run 100' of house service from the street (IF you have gas in the area) at no charge, but your private plumber may want $3000-$8000 for the inside conversion depending on what you need). The gas company does not always offer free boilers and other equipment for a conversion. They seem to run periodical / limited offers?! If you do not have a gas main on your street...National Grid wants one additional customer to convert for every 100' of main they have to run. Good luck w/ that one! I live 1600' from the nearest main, which is not very far, and the likelihood of convincing 16 of my neighbors to convert would be a monumental task in and of itself!!! What noone has yet mentioned is that once on gas...you are at the mercy of huge company to deliver gas to your ONE home from a shared gas line in a reliable manner. Gas lines and especially mains get shut off w/out warning to customers somewhat regularly. When's the last time your oil company said we're not delivering oil to you today for maintenance or repair to their fleet? Depending on where you live, the gas main is simply shut down in many disaster situations! Hurricane Sandy victims on the south shore of L.I., Queens, and other areas had their mains shut off completely! This does not help you...nor does it help run your generator if you have one hooked up to a transfer switch for emergency situations and run it off of NG (which is a very common practice on Genset installs). This also happened during another Hundred Year Storm in Bayville a few years back. People go extended periods of time w/out gas for heat, cooking, generators, bbq's, or whatever because the main was shut down for safety! Then, once turned back on...the mains may be flooded w/ water or contaminated just like in the situations mentioned! You may have multiple shutoffs after that to make repairs and handle all the "relights" once the main does get turned back on. Part of me would like to convert to gas and get the oil tank out of my basement...but, the other part thinks...at what true cost (over and above the obvious monetary one)?
My most recent research showed gas costing 40% less than oil on Long Island. Plus, I think you'll get the money back when you sell. I've had oil for the past 25 years in two houses. While it didn't used to be a big problem, I now hassle every year with the oil contract. Now that I'm selling my home and looking to buy, I'm avoiding oil-heated houses (especially those with buried tanks).
I am 3 houses away from a gas line and I keep begging my neighbors to switch. I really wish we had gas heat, I am so tired of wasting money on oil.
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