Talk to me about Oil heat

JHZR2

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Joined
Dec 14, 2002
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49,867
Location
New Jersey
I’m a big fan of hydronic heat, regardless of the way it’s done - coal, oil, or gas. My parents have a dual fuel stoker (coal and oil) at their mountain home, and still run coal in the winter!

I don’t think that oil is a bad choice if you have the infrastructure there. If you have natural gas, the modulating/condensing 97% efficient boiler with indirect hot water has been great for us. The zone with the indirect is all that really gets heated in the summer.

if you wanted to keep oil for winter heat, and had natural gas, some sort of tanked or tankless water heater That allowed you to bypass or just plain turn off the oil boiler in the summer, would seem like a great option!
 

montero1

Thread starter
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
1,079
Location
Md, USA
I'm looking into Natural gas, supposedly the gas company in my area may pay for all the lines to the house.
 
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Zee09

$200 Site Donor 2022
Joined
May 5, 2018
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10,533
Location
Fairhill Maryland
I have several places with oil and propane. Grew up with nothing but oil heat. I understand them well but honestly I see little difference in cost between them based on yearly cost. Oil does dry the air out and i see less dust by far in a propane furnace house.
That said here the propane companies only want to do a fill when you are below 30% .
Oil... They will deliver 25 gallons if you want.
If you go by what you hear or furnace efficiency numbers the above doesn't make sense but if you compare I see little difference.
My last house I built with oil was in 1999 and then I didn't know about propane and was told new houses don't use oil anymore. Most dont..

That said oil beats the heck out of getting caught up in the propane tank scam...
 
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