If You Were Buying A Home -- Oil Or Gas Heat?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Long story short – we’re selling our house, but before we do we have to replace the oil-burning furnace. We can either replace it with another oil furnace (and the oil tank as well), or we can convert to gas.

After having a steady stream of contractors come through and give estimates, we got the bottom line for each option, and it would cost us $1,600 to upgrade to gas. That would be fine by me if we were staying here, but since we’re not, I have to look at this as an investment to be recouped.

So then, let’s say you we’re looking to buy a home, and you found two places that you loved – they were amazingly similar, but one had oil and one had gas heat. Would you pay an extra $1,600 for the one with gas?

2

Definitely.

I had an oil furnace once and it was nothing but trouble. After about 10 years of fighting with it, we called the gas company. They installed a new furnace. We didn’t pay for it all up front. They added a small charge to the monthly gas bill. If we had sold the house before the new furnace was paid for, we would have had to pay the balance.

Are gas companies still offering this? Are you dealing with the gas company or with heating companies?

3

I’v never had to deal with an oil furnace, only gas or electric. I would pay the difference for gas, though. Seems that gas is a bit more stable in price than oil. Our gas rates went up a couple years ago, but it was nothing like the stories I saw about oil prices in the north east.

4

I’ve never heard of anything but problems with oil.

Aside from the issue of keeping a couple thousand gallons of toxic stuff in the basement, oil burners need a lot more service and maintenance than gas burners, and somewhere around the beginning of March, you’re agonizing about whether or not to order another delivery of oil, since they have a minimum charge, and you don’t know if you’ll really need it or not, and if you don’t get it, and you wind up needing it, you’re waiting a week for them to come back.

Gas, OTOH, is just there, waiting for you in the pipe. No tanks, no delivery issues, no funky smells lingering in the basement. (Unless there’s a leak!)

If I was home-shopping, all other things equal, oil heat would lower a home’s ranking, unless oil was the only option in the region.

5

That’s my perception too. I don’t have any heating in my place, but if I did, I’d go with gas.

6

We have electric. (Yay abundant hydroelectricity!)

7

I agree with the posts so far, but wanted to add my own two cents’ worth:

  1. The standard size for a residential oil tank is 275 gallons, not thousands of gallons.

  2. That being said, it’s certainly toxic. I’ve spent a good part of my career as an environmental engineer dealing with old leaking underground storage tanks contaminating the soil and groundwater. A leaking basement heating oil tank is no picnic, either.

  3. I had oil heat in my last house, and the furnace used a “power-vent” instead of a chimney. This was an electrically powered fan used to produce the draft for the furnace. Because it was used to draw hot combustion gases through it, it corroded and failed every 2-3 years, always in the middle of winter, and cost $700+ to replace. :rolleyes: Also, since the furnace was used for hot water as well, it kicked on in the summer, and was like having a diesel truck idling in the backyard. :rolleyes: Note that home heating oil is basically the same stuff, chemically speaking, as diesel fuel.

  4. Even here in New England, oil-heat central of the U.S., there are alternatives. For our current home, natural gas was not available, so I thought I would have to go with oil heat again (though I would have done a chimney). Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that the builder offered propane as an option instead. I have a 500-gallon underground storage tank for propane, and use it for heat and hot water (and our stove). We get propane delivered to our house with a truck just like we did oil.

8

This might be a regional thing, but all of the oil burning furnaces in my neighborhood have been converted to gas (propane). Heating contractors claim it is the cheapest way to heat a house.

Personally, I like electric, as the ease of controlling individual rooms is desirable and it is quiet and clean, but in Wisconsin, it is reportedly the most expensive to run and is used only for “extra” rooms used seasonally.

9

We have a new oil furnace at it works fine. You have to get oil deliveries of course and we have had to get one emergency delivery when ours ran out when it was very cold. I would prefer gas except there is a safety issue. There have been a number of gas fueled houses in the Boston area that have flat out blown up and were destroyed since I moved to the Boston area. One was fairly close to us and right down the street from my daughter’s day care. Two little girls in the top story were killed instantly and the house was destroyed. I have had 4 friends die from a different type of natural gas explosion and my wife had a sorority system and her boyfriend die from carbon monoxide poisoning coming from a gas space heater.

I have no idea what the magnitude of the risks are but it would give me pause. Oil heat may have deadly dangers as well but I have never heard of something similar with oil heat.

10

We have an oil furnace, and it’s been very dependable (the boiler is over 60 years old, and still good). Replaced the burner about 28 years ago and it’s been fine. We had a problem with a oil leak that we had to fix (they had to replace the filter) about five years ago. Had another problem a couple of winters ago because the serviceman turned off a valve.

Oil risk is small. Leaking oil won’t burn (it has to be atomized first) and it can’t explode, but I don’t really thing gas explosions are a big problem, either.

So it’s worked fine for a very long time. The biggest issue is the cost of the oil.

11

I rent a house with oil heat/electric cooking.

I miss my other house heated/cooked with propane - nothing like cooking with gas.

Other than that, the cost is boggling re: oil right now, but I haven’ t had any other issues.

VCNJ~

12

I would insist on oil. Gas can explode. Yes, it doesn’t do that often, but if it does, kiss everything goodbye.

We’ve had oil since our house was built in the 1950s and had no problems.

On cost, sometimes gas is more expensive, sometimes oil.

13

Yes. I would not buy a house heated by oil. It just seems like too much of a PITA.

But of course the question isn’t whether I would pay an “extra” $1,600 for the one with gas, but whether I would expect gas for the same price. And I probably would, assuming the house isn’t in BFE. IOW, I don’t think you can assume you will be successful in passing on your costs to your buyer, though you almost certainly will expand your pool of potential buyers.

14

I’d prefer gas, but if I absolutely loved the house otherwise, I’d put up with oil. If your house is awesome, you’ll find buyers who won’t object to oil. If your house is just average, you’ll expand your pool of buyers by putting in gas.

15

I bought a house with an old oil furnace. When budget permitted, I replaced it with a gas furnace. I didn’t let the type of furnace sway my decision to buy, but (all other things being equal) I would prefer the gas furnace to oil.

A question, though - When I converted, I had to get the gas company to okay the additional load created by the furnace. According to what they told me, they model demands based on their existing piping and may not be able to support additional demand.

This is getting beyond the OP, but here are some things to consider between the two:

Furnaces (oil or gas) should have at least annual maintenance. Oil tends to be more messy and finicky; however, any good oil company should have technicians on-call around the clock. (My brother’s wife’s family owns an oil company and he delivers oil and fixes furnaces. He is always on call during the holidays.) Furthermore, they’ll usually schedule their maintenance with you during the summer to service the burners. Some gas companies have separated themselves from maintenance, and you’ll need to contract with an outside firm to provide this.

Oil tanks take up valuable space in your basement if you have one, or elsewhere if you don’t. I don’t know if it is still legal where you are to bury an oil tank below ground, but don’t do it. Just don’t. Gas just requires a meter and a pipe.

You can get an occasional whiff of burning oil from your furnace. Not so with gas.

Gas can blow your house to matchsticks. Maybe it’s my imagination, but whenever you hear of this you also hear that the gas company was doing some work in the neighborhood not long before. The gas company has been working on my street over the last month to replace services to homes. So yeah, I’m a bit nervous.

The new gas furnaces (I have one) are energy efficient, involving preheating air, purge cycles, what have you. It’s all controlled by a circuit board. If the circuit board fails (like what happened to me), fate dictates that it happens on the coldest day of the year, and you’ll be staying home waiting for a tech to tell you that they don’t have it in stock and can you find a place to stay? because tonight’s even going to be colder, maybe even breaking a record.

Gas is on demand; you pay for what you used. Oil is in reserve; you pay in advance for what you might use.

In short, gas is cleaner but there is that concern over pesky explosions. Oil is more awkward, but I think that the service is more reliable.

16

Representing a home buyer, I would advise the buyer to at the very least get information about the oil tank in an oil-heated home, and might want more testing if it were an underground tank. I wouldn’t want a client to unknowingly purchase a property with environmental contamination from a leaking oil tank.

If you are replacing oil with gas, an important aspect is to get the existing tank closed (and tested if required) in accordance with the appropriate regulations, with everything properly documented. At a home closing with a former oil tank, I will request the seller to provide documentation of legal closing of the tank.

17

One major problem with oil, as others have mentioned, is the tank. It is either underground (a toxic event waiting to happen, costing $$$ if it does) or it is in the basement, taking up space.

I’m not sure what size our oil tank was in terms of capacity, all I know is that one we switched to gas and had the HUGE tank removed it freed up a room we now use for cold storage - very handy. :cool:

18

Definitely. However, in reality, there are not going to be two homes identical in every way except that. Also, it’s a buyer’s market, and people are going to be lowballing you, whatever type of heating system you have.

19

If I bought a house with oil heat, I’d work out the mortgage if possible to allow for upgrading to gas heat. I’ve lived in a home with oil heat and did not care for it compared to gas.

20

Now that I think some more about it, I think you should do gas and forget about the $1600. If gas is more attractive to people (and based on this thread, it is) it may mean the difference between getting any offer at all, and getting none.