Why does anyone on LI still use heating oil? (East Northport: how much, houses)

[ahoyhoy]

My parents have had an oil burner for decades and it costs a fortune (>$3000/yr in heating oil). We have gas and despite our house being significantly larger and using gas for more things (dryer, generator, etc), we pay less than half that. I've been trying to convince them to convert for at least a decade but each time they say they don't want the hassle. I'm pretty sure they have a hookup on their street and it seems many of their neighbors have done it. I hear estimates of about $10,000 to convert, suggesting that the payback period would be less than 7 years even with last year's prices. With this year's prices it would likely be significantly shorter.

Is there any good argument not to switch from oil to gas? Or are they just being completely obstinate?

[enptguy]

First post-
I don’t have gas available, so that’s one reason. I’m in East Northport, so I’m not exactly in the boonies. That may be the answer for many.
In my case, and it may apply to others, I don’t know how much longer I will be in this house- so a conversion likely wouldn’t pay off. Maybe your parents are in that situation.
Then there’s inertia- doing nothing is always easier.
I guess if I’d just bought my house, and were young, and gas was available, I would consider it.
With oil I can shop around, maybe get a better price, and not be beholden to one entity.
$3,000 sounds like alot- maybe their burner is old and in need of replacement. To be honest, I never did a comparison study comparing gas to oil, but maybe your houses and uses are different enough to warrant such a differential.
I do believe that gas does not require yearly maintenance, a definite plus.

[ave1024]

Not everybody has access to gas.

[sabbathunter]

Reasons people do convert to gas.
1) up front costs. Not everyone has the money necessary to bring the gas line to the house, install all new heating, hot water equipment. Plus cost of removal of oil system.
2) no access to gas lines. Not everywhere has access to gas, even if the were willing to pay the costs to bring it in to their house. Gas lines simply do not have 100% coverage on LI.

[trusso11783]

When I lived in Holtsville, I wanted to get gas after my disgusting oil burner had a puff back and I didn’t want to go through that crap ever again. I called the gas company and they said I would be charged $10k to run a gas line to my house. The only way around that was to get a few families on my street to want gas and it would be free. There was a line 50’ from me for the house behind me but they don’t count under the grass. It has to be 40’ or so under the road. So, I had no choice other than to pay $10k, which I wasn’t about to do. Thank goodness my house now has gas. No problems, cheaper, never runs out and clean.

As to your parents, they have to pay to decommission their current oil tank. If it is in the basement, outside above ground or in the garage, it’s no big deal. If it’s buried, they will have to he get it filled and inspected by the town and get documentation from the town. They will need that to sell the house

[twingles]

Do your parents have the money for this endeavor? If they are retired and living on a fixed income this may not be something they want to be bothered with. Also, gas being on the street doesn't necessarily mean it's that easy. We converted to gas when we lived on LI because everything but the burner was already gas so it was easy and made sense. Not true for everyone.

[OyCrumbler]

It's a large capital expense and that makes people nervous even though there's a fairly reasonable assurance that there will be a fairly short pay-off period. This applies to a lot of things. If they don't have the money upfront, perhaps they can look at financing? Another option to consider would be heat pumps where PSEG will offer you rebates on a ground source heat pump. That, too, though has that issue of a larger initial capital expense. Again with that, perhaps they can look at financing.

[ahoyhoy]

Thanks, these are all good responses. There is a hookup on the block, I believe the tank is in the basement, and they could afford it, I was just curious if there was a good reason on the merits not to convert. Sounds like there isn't really. Not a huge deal but it really does seem to make sense over time for almost everyone still on oil to convert because the payback period is so short. Of course, at some point in the future we may all end up on electric heat with free-ish electricity from solar, but that's far enough away that in the interim the #'s on a gas conversion seem quite attractive.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Anyone have experience with magnetic induction steam boilers?

I am thinking about the induction cooktops that boil water very fast.

If they using the same tech for heating, then should be better than oil/gas burners.

[sojourn traveller]

Both houses I bought in Queens years ago still had oil heat, even though they had gas cooking and a gas dryer.

Even though I upgraded both houses, sometimes older people don't want to change. If it works, why bother?