Oil vs. Gas Monthly Cost - 1500 Sq. Ft. House (Levittown: houses, purchasing)

[purelygeneric]

I know the debate of oil vs. gas rages on as the winter season sneaks closer and closer. Realizing there are many factors, I'm trying to assign a dollar amount of monthly bills between two houses. While this is not the only factor when choosing a house, it definitely comes into play.

Let's assume the windows, insulation, etc. are all equal.

House A
1700 sq ft.
25-year-old burner
oil (500 gal tank)
evidence of steam leaks on pipes

House B
1500 sq ft.
15-year-old Weil McClain Boiler
gas
two zones

What do you estimate the monthly difference to be during winter months between House A and House B?

[Kbinspections]

Originally Posted by purelygeneric

I know the debate of oil vs. gas rages on as the winter season sneaks closer and closer. Realizing there are many factors, I'm trying to assign a dollar amount of monthly bills between two houses. While this is not the only factor when choosing a house, it definitely comes into play.

Let's assume the windows, insulation, etc. are all equal.

House A
1700 sq ft.
25-year-old burner
oil (500 gal tank)
evidence of steam leaks on pipes

House B
1500 sq ft.
15-year-old Weil McClain Boiler
gas
two zones

What do you estimate the monthly difference to be during winter months between House A and House B?

Well, both systems will not be greatly affected by 200 sq feet so assume that are both the same. Remember most boilers are oversized for the home they are in. Extra cycling cost would negligable.

A steam system is at least 15% less eff. than a forced hot water system.

A 2 zone system is about 6% more eff. than a one zone system.

A typical gas system is at least 10% more eff. than oil.

So in this case, House A will cost you at least 30% more than House B during the heating system. That does not include the price difference of oil vs gas.

[purelygeneric]

As always, great info KB.

I should have also mentioned that House A utilizes radiators while House B has baseboard heating.

Can anyone assign an approximate monthly dollar amount given the current (or projected) prices?

[MTAtech]

The factor that will effect this most is the relative prices of gas and oil. A gallon of oil has 1.4 times more energy than a therm of gas. At the present time (July 2008) there is a great spread between the two fuels. I did the calculation last week and the price of gas is about the equivalent of a gallon of oil selling for about $2.50. Considering that I paid over $4.50 a gallon in March, one can see the potential difference.

Saying that, nobody can predict if the spread between oil and gas will remain, will narrow or gas will spike ahead of oil. However, gas typically is cheaper. I do remember five years ago when gas briefly spiked and it cost twice as much to heat a home than oil.

Without knowing how well the home is insulated, it's difficult to calculate usage. However, you can use this calculator (http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/bulk_purchasing/bpsavings_calc/Calc_Boilers.xls - broken link). (You will need MS Excel.)

[Johninwestbury]

When I grew up in my family's house in N.Wantagh, it was a Levitt house with an oil burner (no gas service there).
It was unreliable, smelly, and slow to warm up the house and hot water. Since then I've been in places with gas heat and water and it's much quicker. If it's cheaper too, I'd go with gas. Which brings me to the question, what communities on L.I. have no gas service? I know Levittown didn't.

[MTAtech]

Whether gas service is available or not depends upon the street. If gas isn't already available, National Grid (Keyspan) will run a main if 10 neighbors agree to use gas. I'm sure there are areas that are too remote for any service but they're exceptions. The populated areas have service.

Levittown definitely has gas service available now.