Didn’t know that! Thank you
Changing heating for my house
- Thread starter malibuguy79
- Start date
Well its pretty easy to tell him to put in a gas or oil furnace without knowing if there is existing duct work ?.
Second its mostly likely not an insulation issue and not a water water pipe that broke probably a black iron pipe feed from boiler to radiator that sprung a leak.
Second its mostly likely not an insulation issue and not a water water pipe that broke probably a black iron pipe feed from boiler to radiator that sprung a leak.
This!
OP, a “blower door” test can be performed by home efficiency/energy auditors. Spray foam and high efficiency insulation companies will sometimes have the blower door equipment to perform the test as well. You will be able to walk around your home as it’s put under vacuum and feel where drafts are. It works extremely well.
Why are you using space heaters instead of just running the oil boiler?
Not having hot water circulating through the piping & radiators in an old/drafty house is a recipe for frozen pipes.
Not having hot water circulating through the piping & radiators in an old/drafty house is a recipe for frozen pipes.
OP said busted pipe in a wall so it hasn't been running.
Thanks for all the replies. I never thought about insurance or potential resale issues with a wood stove. Looks like I will have to fix what I have is the better plan.
If you relied solely on wood burning heat, aside from the other objections, who would keep the fires going when nobody was home?
or turn phone to landscape.
I’ve never even tried that before. It worked! Thanks man. I’ll do that when it’s location dependent so I’m not asking around like I did.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
Not all areas of MD have natural gas. And our governor and green representatives want to ban natural gas furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and ban any new gas lines run in the state. I can't convert to gas because the gas company can't get permission to run lines from the main road to our neighborhood. The gas line is like less than 1/4 mile from my house! They want to force conversion to electric.
Just something to consider, can you convert to gas at a reasonable cost to get it to the house?
Just something to consider, can you convert to gas at a reasonable cost to get it to the house?
BrendanC
$100 site donor 2024
if you don’t have access to natural gas, i’d personally be looking into a hyper heat pump. they can provide heat down to negative temperatures and supplement with oil heat when below 5° or so. if you don’t have duct work you can go with a multi zone cassette system for a clean look and more granular control over temperatures in each zone.
if you have natural gas, convert from oil->gas and it will pay for itself quickly.
if you have natural gas, convert from oil->gas and it will pay for itself quickly.
Wood needs to be stoked, can run out, fire risk. Can you convert to a gas furnace?
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I always found freezing rain / ice and the outdoor heat pump is NOT a good combo, Gotta keep ice off that thing.It says right there they're in Maryland.
It is getting into single digits overnight in MD currently. Heat pumps will be running in "emergency" heat mode and the electrical usage will be outrageous.
Hard to give advice of heating a home as it all depends on the area and the price of the fuel in that area being used.
I found living in the Carolina South, a 160 mile move from inland to the coast changed everything.
After I moved to the coast heat pumps, electric hot water heaters and stoves are the norm when inland it was natural gas everything.
Don't you have the option for your own propane tank ? That's very common around here outside of cities where there's no natural gas lines run in the streets. They use the same furnace (with appropriate modifications), water heater, etc as natural gas serviced homes.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
Good question, but if I have to have propane delivered instead of oil delivered I don't see the point. After state energy tax, one costs about the same as the other.
I knew a good HVAC guy. Did everything except oil. Well the only oil thing they would do was decommission… he said 9/10 of them had contamination of the soil and such and total costs were usually more than $10k. One he did was 50 
. That might be a factor to consider.
. That might be a factor to consider.
Yes, but propane has a few other benefits. For one thing, it eliminates an old oil tank in the basement or next to the house. Other benefits are that you can cook with it, dry clothes, etc. electric rates are rising rapidly in many parts of the country, so if you are interested in shedding some electrical load propane is one way to do that.
Back to the current oil boiler - unless it is leaking, it probably has quite a bit of life left in it. Spend $ tightening up the house before you tackle a boiler replacement. That way when you do buy a new boiler (or heat pump, etc) it will be a smaller unit.
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I’m sorry but that makes no sense to me. You’re better off with the oil or natural gas furnace and a stand alone AC system. A heat pump unit is more costly than a standard AC unit and is a nonstop running, defrosting, needing electrical backup strips, noisy-worrisome appliance that can be damaged during in an ice storm…all winter long.
I take it you have no real world experience with modern heat pumps? I'm not trying to come off as rude by saying that but I see these kind of comments often from those that haven't been around modern heat pump technology.
I run an hvac company in northern Ohio and we deal with a lot of heat pumps. Modern heat pumps work in cold climates and a lot of them are capable of heating well below zero without electric back up heat. They are a great option for someone who doesn't have access to natural gas. Yes heat pumps are cheaper to operate than electric heat and depending on the cost of fuel oil or propane can be cheaper to operate than oil or propane.
OP being on oil probably doesn't have access to natural gas. There are still lots of areas in the united states where natural gas isn't available.
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