Still have the original oil furnace in my 50 year old house. The burner has been getting flaky, may needs a new motor. I got a quote today for a thermo pride oil furnace, about $4550. A gas Trane XV95 is $5550, but has maybe $700 in rebates. I'm also looking at adding AC, about $4000.

I was told that the gas furnace needs less maintenance and is much quieter, but you don't get the same warm feel that oil heat provides. If I go with gas I will have to decommission my in ground oil tank and get a gas line run to my house. Not sure what that will run. Please feel free to offer advice, thanks.

Well if the EPA gets involved It'll probably cost a small fortune to "decommission" the old underground tank.

Several years ago I had a customer that bought a house and found out it cost about $5,000.00 to have a small oil tank removed.

I was afraid of that Dean. Are there other oil furnaces beside the Thermo Pride? Also they offer a choice of a Beckett or Riello burner. The Riello is about 3% more efficient.

I know just about nothing about oil furnaces since there are none around my neck of the woods.
I only remember working on one in my 40 years of servicing HVAC systems and that was years ago.

You need to talk to some of our upper east coast members! They use a lot of heating oil back there!:thumbsup:

You need to talk to some of our upper east coast members! They use a lot of heating oil back there!:thumbsup:

HEY!!
That hurts! :) 80% of the homes here use #2 oil.

...from today's local online news......"The average price for heating oil was $3.11 a gallon on Tuesday, or 92 cents higher than a year ago, according to a weekly heating fuel price survey by the Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security."

I've been pitching and splitting firewood like crazy lately to keep the oil furnace from running too much.

I also have a 50 year old CRANE brand oil furnace. It still runs like a champ after a complete electrical upgrade. It has a Becket burner, but with Carlin set-up. I don't know the particulars on why it's better but it runs smoother, quieter than the old stuff attached to it before. It hums along at about 79% efficiency. I know there are better heating appliances out there, but I really don't want to spend 5,000 bucks to gain 3% more.
I'm hoping for a new heating technology to appear one of these years. One that will pay for itself in ten years or less.
Tom

As long as you plan on staying in your house for a long time and aren't concerned about the selling issues involved in this, then I say go with natural gas and just leave the oil tank where it is.

I think you folks in the U.S. pay more for your electricty than we do. I have an electric forced air furnace and I love it. I have a basement suite in my home I rent out to a single woman, and I have a small 220 volt forced air wall mounted heater just to give her some back-up, because with the thermostat upstairs, her place some times gets a little chilly. So that is 2 sources of heat, a 40 gallon hot water tank and 2 stoves all powered by electricity. I have a 12 month averaging plan on my bill and even with recent increases, my electricity bill is just under $180.00 a month. You might want to at least look into electric forced air.
Note though, we do not get any really extreme temps here. Hot is 70 degress and cold would be 30-32 degrees. I am almost sure, there is not one home in our community with air conditioning!! LOL

Steve,
If it helps with your decision any, our house was built in 1978 and originally had an oil burning hot air furnace. About 10 years ago they ran a gas line up our street and gave us the option to hook up for free. Our oil furnace was about ready for replacement anyway so we went with the gas and installed a gas water heater also to replace the original electric one. The gas heat is every bit as warm as the oil was. The gas water heater has saved us a bunch over the electric one.

That being said .... you need to research the gas prices in your area and compare them with oil. There are several web sites that will help you figure out how much gas and oil you will use for the same btu of heating. In our area, the gas is still ahead of the game, but it might be different where you live.

Hope this helps,

My parents went from oil to gas and you couldn't tell the difference. House was cleaner though and the gas water heater is a lot cheaper in the long run than electric (guessing you have elec now)

Check with your household insurance carrier and see if they have incentives for decommissioning the oil tank. It's a liability to them so they may offer $ to get rid of it.

And maybe you've seen this but here's some info for your state.

http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/tanks/hot/index.htm

Looks like you can do your own tank?

http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/tanks/hot/guidance.htm

Thanks Kurt for the links to the tank web sites, good info to know.

Can anyone give feedback on Thermo Pride furnaces? Also the Beckett VS Riello burners.

I have a beckett and it has been very reliable.

you wont tell the difference in forced air heat.
You will with hot water hear or steam.

Nearly all new furnaces will run around the same efficiency.
You will do more good to insulate your house better than to look
for a very , very efficient furnace.
Or, do both.

Hot water is my prefferred heat, but you will need separate ducts for air cond
if you want that too.

Well if the EPA gets involved It'll probably cost a small fortune to "decommission" the old underground tank.

Several years ago I had a customer that bought a house and found out it cost about $5,000.00 to have a small oil tank removed.

Residential tanks under a certain capacity (400 gallon I think, I'm not a work so I can't look it up) are exempt. I've had a few removed from homes that we converted to office uses. You need to have them drained and then can remove them, or cut out the top and fill with sand (I have them removed). Somebody got taken unless it had been leaking a lot for a long time and the soil was contaminated.

Steve,
Every Oil to Nat gas conversion I have seen simply required draining the tank and capping the supply and return line. My company WILL NOT service oil furnaces, but we do replace them. The tank situation is left to the homeowner, City of Portland will require an inspection to verify all the proper steps have been taken. You should find out exactly what NW Natural is charging to run a line to the house and set a meter. Natural gas has always been cheaper than oil up here. There may even be rebates for installing a 90+ eff furnace, generally offered through the installing contractor. My company deals with commercial equip 99% of the time, so we don't offer those rebates.
A-Temp, and Tri-County Temp Control have good reputations, Run from Jacobs, as they have a HUGE turnover rate with their employees.
Carrier Trane and Rheem have great product support and parts availability here in Portland, York (Coleman) and Lennox are difficult to have parts in town. Run from any dealer offering Goodman, Heil, or Janitrol, their price may be right, but the craftmanship of the installers are bottom of the barrel.
I can't comment on which brand of burner is best, as I haven't worked on an oil furnace in 10 yrs.

If you plan to sell your house the existing tank will have to be disclosed, I'm not sure of your liabilities though.

Rob

Good stuff Rob, thanks. I'm being told by the two contractors I've talked to that a gas line installation to my house would be free because the install would be very easy. Had the Lennox guy over this AM so it's good to know that parts might not be readily available.

Too bad that Lennox parts are hard to come by in your area, they are one of the best.
I agree with the "stay away from Goodman, or Janitrol" but Heil makes a good product.
I would also stay away from Trane or American Standard, they're OK when new but suck after a couple of years.

Of course just about all manufactures have good - better & best so it's possible to get a builder's model or one designed for the apartment house slum lords market with a good name on it.

We sell York's best, why - because we feel they are the best.

Too bad that Lennox parts are hard to come by in your area, they are one of the best.
I agree with the "stay away from Goodman, or Janitrol" but Heil makes a good product.
I would also stay away from Trane or American Standard, they're OK when new but suck after a couple of years.

Of course just about all manufactures have good - better & best so it's possible to get a builder's model or one designed for the apartment house slum lords market with a good name on it.

We sell York's best, why - because we feel they are the best.

Lennox is a good product, we have many of them with our National Accounts. The issue in Portland is we have to call Dallas Texas before 2pm pacific time to find out if there are parts available in Clackamas, if not they ship from Des Moines. Which isn't good for a Friday afternoon service call. I love York, installed York AC to my rheem furnace, but the York distributer in town just closed down and have few parts on hand, new distributer isn't open yet. The point against Heil isn't with the product, but with the contractors that sell them around here... shady.

The thing with natural gas is you don't have to watch the tank level like everyone else who has oil heat just before a big cold snap. Much like Nascar teams knowing they are 3 laps short on fuel to finish the race. With oil heat all it takes is one rookie tech not adjusting the ignitors and flue damper correctly and you have a house full of smoke in a few hours (don't ask me how I know this).

We sell York's best, why - because we feel they are the best.

Good to hear, I'm having a York Affinity modulating gas furnace installed in my house on Monday!! :)

I have one furnace contractor who is suggesting that I get a heat pump instead of AC and that the pump will be the primary heat source with the furnace being a back up. Does that make sense. I have heard less than positive comments about heat pumps. What is the latest on them?