From: "Pete C." 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: Oil to Natural Gas Conversion Costs
Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2006 14:45:52 GMT

George wrote:
> 
> Pete C. wrote:
> 
> >
> > Do your gas price comparisons include the amount that the gas monopolies
> > charge you every month even if you use no gas?
> 
> Pretty unlikely not to use gas for cooking, hot water and clothes drying
>   year round.

I have a friend who only has gas heat. I noted to him the like $8/mo
he's paying from about April - October for the zero gas he's using.

> 
> Then there is that tank you have to buy and install and need to
> periodically replace.

Tanks are cheap (at least indoor ones), and indoor ones do not require
periodic replacement, nor do newly installed double wall underground
tanks.

> 
> There is no such thing
> > with oil companies and maintenance contracts are a separate thing
> > applicable to both oil and gas.
> 
> Maintenance is a lot more involved on an oil burner. You need to replace
> nozzles, oil filters and clean the flue passages. When I looked at our
> natural gas boiler after the first year there was no need to clean
> anything and there are no filter or nozzles to replace. This has been
> true for over 30 years. And since it doesn't need a high pressure pump
> to atomize fuel electricity costs are lower.

Maintenance is not "a lot more involved", replacing a $6 nozzle and $2
filter is pretty damn negligible and they really are only needed every
few years. They are commonly done annually simply because they are so
cheap. Cleaning isn't generally necessary annually either with a modern
oil burner that is correctly adjusted as there is very little soot.
Electricity costs to run the burner motor are quite negligible and both
oil and gas systems need electricity for blower motors or circulator
pumps.

Pete C.

> 
> >
> >
> >>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.
> >
> > Pete C.