From: "Pete C." 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: Oil to Natural Gas Conversion Costs
Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2006 15:31:36 GMT

Robert Gammon wrote:
> 
> John wrote:
> > "Pete C." wrote:
> >
> >
> >> John wrote:
> >>
> >>> "Pete C." wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >> 
> >>
> >>
> >>>> Completely false. This argument against nat. gas is based on facts about
> >>>> it's safety, reliability, cleanliness and the service life of the
> >>>> equipment.
> >>>>
> >>> Yeah.  Decades of living with natural gas and never one service interuption.  Real
> >>> unreliable.  Houses are just blowing up all over the place that have natural gas
> >>> too.  I guess everyone is keeping that a big secret from the home insurance
> >>> companies.  Service life?  My furnace has a lifetime warranty on the heat
> >>> exchanger.  How many oil furnaces have that?   The blower of course will die sooner,
> >>> but I believe oil furnaces have a blower too.
> >>>
> >> A lifetime warrantee on one component is not necessarily a good thing if
> >> you keep replacing the components around it.
> >>
> >
> > Well the warranty gives some sort of an indication of how long things are expected to
> > last.  And if one thing is going to last a damned long time, I'd want it to be my heat
> > exchanger, which is what separates my house air from my combustion exhaust.
> >
> >
> >
> >> That mid range Weil-McLain WTGO4 boiler I just had installed in my
> >> mother's place has a comparable warrantee:
> >>
> >> "Limited Lifetime Warranty
> >> Covers cast iron sections. "
> >>
> >
> > And what is the efficiency of that unit again?
> >
> >
> >
> 85% according to the web site
> 
> But keep in mind, this thing heats water that get circulated to
> radiators in each room, and or to radiant flooring.    This is a boiler,
> not the same as a gas fired forced air heater.   Wall thickness in the
> heat exchanger is much higher as a result of immersion in water, and
> this also lowers efficiency.   But 85% is nothing to sneeze at, pretty
> darn good.
> 
> Someone with radiant heat will always stick with radiant heat. Switching
> to forced air is very expensive. The installation disrupts the house
> enormously while the vents are installed and radiators removed.  In 90+%
> of cases, a faulty boiler will be replaced with a similar product.

Right, the only time hydronic heat is likely to be replaced with FHA is
when the owner also wants to add central air.

Pete C.