Or outside, next to the patio, sitting on a wood frame. Not practical for most areas, but it worked for my mom in Seattle. Until they switched to electricity. Then a wood-burner. Then natural gas.
Another advantage to natural gas is that the utility can put you on a budget plan, where you pay the same amount each month. Oil dealers, OTOH, want their money on delivery (usually there’s a minimum), and it’s up to you to keep track of how much oil is in the tank. Our tank was underground and we checked the level with a yardstick. PITA.
Hal, why not go ahead and convert now? You’ll have the benefit of cheaper, cleaner heating while you’re waiting for your house to sell. Check with the gas company first and see if there are any deals, rebates, etc.
When our house was built, my father in law put the oil tank in the basement and yes, it was a bit smelly. When my husband and I acquired the house we moved it outside into an unobtrusive area. Any leaks would be found easily, no ground contamination, easy access.
I won’t have gas of any kind in the house. We had a bad scare many years back when we came home to an apartment that had a gas oven, and the whole place was full of the smelly, explosive stuff.
We just replaced a oil burner (for radiators - not a furnace) that was on its last legs with a natural gas burner. The local gas company has a program for such upgrades at 5% interest (which we didn’t use), but requires an energy audit to be done free of charge (which we did use). Their estimated time to recover the cost of the new boiler with higher efficiency (85%) was about three years - and this was before oil (diesel) shot up in price.
Do it - it’s one more thing you can put in your listing description that’ll help you to be able to sell more quickly. (If I was buying your house, and knew that you just replaced an oil-fired furnace with another oil furnace, I’d be pissed and wouldn’t even consider your house - I might wonder what else you didn’t do for me as the potential buyer.)
Hal - I’m sorry about the sale. My mother and step-father are selling their house and the first people who saw the house offered on it. They have a contract and had the inspection, so now all they’re waiting for is the appraisel.
Since it’s on the market, can’t you just put the furnace in the disclosure and let the potential buyer pick what they want?
I’m trying to decide now what I’m going to do to heat my house when winter comes. It’s 160 years old, too. With the original windows. I’ve insulated part of it, and I need to do more before winter. Basically I close off all but a couple rooms and I heat with propane heaters, but it’s expensive and likely to get more expensive by this winter. It has no ductwork. Do I buy a wood stove? I work during the day and they tend to die when you don’t feed them. Wood pellets? Corn? Only corn has gotten more expensive, too.
Thanks for the feedback all. It’s decided – we’re going the natural gas route.
To address a few things that came up – first off, we have to replace the furnace. Our town has an ordinance that you can’t sell a house without having the heating system certified, and there’s no way in hell any HVAC guy on the planet would certify our current furnace (this all became an issue a few weeks ago when I noticed the big, gaping hole rusting through the side of our current unit).
Because of this ordinance, this all has to be done before right away. We could have a signed contract, but it couldn’t go to closing the way it is now.
Like many have said, it’s a good plus in advertising the home. I know when we were looking to buy here, we initially passed up on this place specifically because it had oil heat. It wasn’t until we had already looked at all the gas-heated places without finding one we were really interested in that we finally saw this place.
If it lets us sell a month early, that’s a mortgage payment we don’t have to make – hell, that’s nearly the price difference right there. So, all in all it should be worthwhile. Thanks for the input, everyone!
Close…it was Grow A Fucking Pair Already. Ironically, that buyer was very happy I hadn’t switched yet, because he very much preferred oil.
In answer to both you and MLS - I’ve honestly never seen an outside tank like that here in Toronto. Here, I’ve only seen either in-basement or in-ground systems.
Dunno if I just wasn’t looking and they really do exist here, or whether some quirk of regulation requires it to be so (or whether the winters being colder here rule out such a solution).
Malthus, I bet it’s the cold winters. Doesn’t diesel freeze up? Is that why semi drivers leave their rigs running in the winter, when they stop for short periods?
Hal, good luck with the sale. “New furnace” will be a plus to buyers.
Having had oil and gas heating, I would say pick gas and avoid oil if at all possible. I can remember dad having to start the furnace in the middle of the night , because it went out. The oil would fill the combustion chamber, and he would have to soak up as much as he could with rags. By the time the furnace was running nobody had gotten sleep for hours, and the whole house was full of the smell of fuel oil. The smell was in the house for days.
Ah yes…that’s one of the reasons the price is so close to oil in this case – we already have a gas line running into the house. In fact, our water heater is gas, and we have a gas fireplace in the dining room.
Home fuel oil tanks are commonly inside, in the basement, where freezing isn’t an issue.
And diesel trucks are often left running for several reasons. One, they can be hard to start in very low temps. Two, they are sometimes powering refrigeration units where the internal cargo temp must remain constant and low, like for frozen foods. Diesels are designed to run continuously, not stop and start.
Why not just go whole hog and extend that gas line to the kitchen and back patio too?
My new house has gas, which is used for the hot water tank, radiators, and kitchens. Since I’m removing the stove downstairs, I’m thinking I could extend that line outside and pick up a gas barbecue.