Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 21:10:23 -0400
From: John 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: Oil to Natural Gas Conversion Costs

"Pete C." wrote:

> Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
> >
> > "Pete C."  wrote in message
> > > The problems with gas is you get locked into a monopoly that charges you
> > > even when you aren't using the product, is subject to outages and is far
> > > more dangerous than oil.
> >
> > >
> > > With oil you have multiple suppliers in competition that you can choose
> > > from, you have an on-site fuel supply that is not subject to outages
> > > from a back hoe miles away, and I think you'll find the ratio of peoples
> > > houses that have been destroyed by gas leaks compared to those destroyed
> > > by oil leaks astonishing.
> >
> > In spite of all your "cons' of gas, if it was available to me tomorrow, I'd
> > change tomorrow.  Do you honestly think oil is competitive in price?  The
> > dealers in this area are doing rather well for themselves and price between
> > them varies a couple of pennies at best.  Gas remains competitive to oil
> > when priced in therms in most regions.
>
> The last time I looked (not this year) there were significant
> differences in oil supplier costs on the order of $0.15+/gal. They also
> give senior discounts that my mother takes advantage of that are another
> $0.05/gal and a COD (really 3 day) discount that is a few more cents /
> gal.
>
> Do your gas price comparisons include the amount that the gas monopolies
> charge you every month even if you use no gas? There is no such thing
> with oil companies and maintenance contracts are a separate thing
> applicable to both oil and gas.

The price differences between oil suppliers are negligible, as they are all buying
their oil in the same local market from the same common carriers, unless your oil
company also has a terminal to import the middle east crude and refine it.    Or
some distributors are jacking up the price. Last year, oil companies jacked up
prices for non contract customers in a hurry and they went down very slowly.  Our
NG prices rised a little a few months later and then tapered back significantly
mid way through the winter.  Our gas service is still cheaper than the "cheap" oil
companies, and our furnace is a lot more cleaner burning and efficient too.

If you are against regulated monopolies, than your argument is also the same for
opposing electricity service (and maybe water too).

>
>
> >
> > I've lived with gas for many years in previous houses and we still use it at
> > work. In all of those years, I've never had an outage, but my oil dealer did
> > run me out twice.  In my lifetime (60 years) the score is Gas 0, Oil 2.
>
> Sorry I don't have 60 years of experience, but in 36 years I have never
> experienced a single oil outage. Even if I did have an outage, all it
> would mean is a trip to my local gas station for a couple 5gal cans of
> diesel which would last several days until a regular oil delivery,
> something that is not an option with gas. No need for "emergency
> deliveries.

Hope you're around to do that and not on vacation.  Oh by the way, if we do have a
power failure, we can still take lots of hot showers and cook on our stove
indefinitely.

Oil is a great choice if you have no natural gas service available and your
climate is too cold for heat pumps.