Heating fuel options.

Why do you guys use fuel oil in the Northeast US and most other areas of the US use Natural Gas or LP?

I just read on another forum where a guy in the NE put in a new Fuel Oil furnace. Why not LP with prices the way they are.

For several years now the cost per BTU for lp has been 2/3 the cost per BTU of fuel oil. Using 1.70 lp and 3.50 per gallon fuel oil. 125,000 btu per gallon of Fuel oil and 84,000 btu for LP.

Natural Gas is cheaper per BTU yet, but I realize it is not piped to all areas.

I am not scorning anyone for using fuel oil. I figure there has to be a reason I just don't know what it is?

Availability maybe?

I live in NNY and use fuel oil. Brand new oil fired boiler to boot. I had my choice of guns but went with fuel because thats what i was used to. If it breaks i can fix it or if i run out i can get some out of the farm tank or go to a gas station. I sell wood and buy my oil. It used to be more cost effective. I'm planing on adding a wood boiler for next year. Unless fuel stays down.I think a lot of it is supply. Our local provider only offers those 100 lb cylinders of propane. I do cook with gas. There are a few outfits around now with the bigger tanks that deliver. My brother a mile away uses propane.

With all the horror stories posted on this site about fighting with LP suppliers over prices, contracts, tank ownership, adding wet lines, inspections, changing suppliers, manufactured shortages... not to mention the big pressure vessel filled with highly explosive fuel out in your back yard where anyone can get at it... I don't know why ANYONE would want to deal with LP.

Fuel oil, you own your own tank and any supplier can just stick a nozzle in there and pump away.

Just a wild guess Gary,but there are not a lot of Gas furnaces being made today that will heat larger older homes without doubling them up.125,000 BTUs Max. vs oils 150-200 and bigger available.Plus it seems like with the 90-95+LPs,you need the repairman on speed dial.

Good question. It must have something to do with location. All I knew was fuel oil, until a crop dryer was installed at the farm in the 60's. Some folks around had "gas" stoves, but that was about the extent of propane.

When I built my first house on the corner of the home farm in 1978 I put in a dual fuel- wood/oil furnace. In 1985 I bought a small farm a mile west. In 1988 I installed a drying bin with 1000 gal. propane tank. In 1992 we built a house there, and went with propane as much as possible.

Indeed, there are many horror stories around here recently about propane tank ownership/deliveries/ cost. But for any source of heat propane is still my choice. Fuel works well in the heavy equipment. And gasoline works well in the antiques and small vehicles.

I've had LP heat for the 25 years I've owned my homestead and never had any of the issues you describe.

I own my own tank and never had an issue with a supplier filling it. LP is the predominate fuel in my area and it's a very competitive business, so it works pretty good for the consumer.

I use LP to heat my home, my workshop, for my kitchen stove, clothes dryer, water heater, fireplace and I even have my gas grill hooked to the main LP tank.

One tank, one fuel, clean, versatile, just some of the reasons people choose to go with LP.

I will take exception to the "highly explosive" comment. LP or natural gas is highly flammable, but not explosive. Explosions only occur when the gas is trapped in a confined space with sufficient oxygen to allow rapid combustion and expansion.
High explosives like nitroglycerin, C-4, and many others provide their own oxygen, as it is contained within their chemical makeup.

Can't get natural here and lp has never been as cheap to operate as fuel oil here. I reckon it all depends on your location.

I'm in Ohio and I have two good LP suppliers I use depending on price.
I have used fuel oil to heat the shops and I hate having to mess with those furnaces all the time.

fuel oil cost per btu has always been less costly than LP in my area on LI
a few years ago natural gas was piped down my street so i have switched all heating units to NG which is cheaper than fuel oil

There are a few NG pipelines in the northeast now and they are being utilized much more than in the past. We have three or four suppliers of propane around here. One of them is a PINTA to deal with. The others seem to be okay and you see their propane trucks on the road fairly often. The suppliers don't sell anywhere near the fuel oil they used to around here. Those pysically able to do so cut and burn wood. If you already have a fuel oil furnace, it is not feasable to just rip out a perfectly good furnace and pay $3000-$4000 for a new one just because you feel like it. The horror stories of carbon monoxide poisoning scare a lot of people away from gas, also.

I heat with wood. Always have. I remember when folks started switching from oil to lp. That was when lp was much lower in price. Price of lp in this area in Sept. was $2.49-$3.25. I got some for $2.29 because I own my tank. I only use lp if the power goes off and just long enough for me to get the generator hook to the tractor and running running. So 110 gal. will last me years.

Natural gas lines in many places but they were sized from years past. So the home owner may have a line in their front yard supplying a hospital or plant but can't get use of it for there home. Some towns have ng. I get heating oil on my account for my Mom. This past summer I got the tank filled and was $3.49, so you can look at the figures and see why folks stick with oil.

We have 3 pipe lines proposed to come north and south of me. They will supply NG for power plants and such. One closest to me is being fought to stop it in Nelson co. Va. Buckingham co. is for it. Folks can fight all they want but those pipe lines will be installed. We have city buses on NG and truck fleets changing to it plus all the growth east of us. New power plants will get NG. BTW we have one of the few clean burning coal power plants in the nation at Clover Va. It came online in the late 90's. Sure is a sight to see with no black smoke out the stack. Just see a vapor or steam cloud at times.

Lots of folks here use just a heat pump with oil back up. Electric is still cheap enough to go that route with the lp and oil price being what it is in this area.

Coal was king for a long time and still had strong support till Duke power put off cleaning up coal ash just over in NC. Leak came in the bottom of a ash pond and it made it's way to the Dan river. Down stream near Clarksville Va. we pump millions of gallons of water to the east coast for drinking water. The coal ash spill will cost Duke millions if not billions.

And while I'm at it we have a very large deposit of uranium under ground about 16 miles sw. of me. Plans are to mine it but hasn't gotten approval. This deal with Duke power may wind up sealing the fate of the uranium mine too. Sloppy work can sure sour the public preception. And we sure don't want radio active water from here down in to NC and to the east coast out of that mine. Sorry for getting off topic but it's still energy.

Depends where you live. When I left New York last year - heating oil was $3.29 and propane was $2.99. Heating oil was cheaper to heat with even if the oil furnace was 85% efficient and ,the propane furnace 92% efficient.

Right now here in northern Michigan -heating oil is $3.39 and propane is $2.31 (where I buy). Tractor Supply is selling propane right now for $2.79.

Heating fuel options, heres what I did for this year. Had wood with oil in the house, installed a new wood burner two years ago and had to do some sheet metal work so decided to incorporate an electric plenum heater into the mix, just got it hooked up this fall and using it now, it's on off peak at 4.9 cents a kw. From the time the fire goes out till morning it costs about a $1.50 to keep the house at 65 till morning. In my shop I have wood with propane backup to keep it from freezing when I'm not in there, installed a 5000 watt electric heater on off peak at 4.9 and it will keep it 40 or so for about $3.60 a day, that set of low and run continuous. The fuel burner in the house has not run in a month and I haven't even lit the pilot in the shop. I'm more than happy with my new set up and that rented propane tank is going by by in the spring along with the unstable prices.

My previous house had an old fuel oil furnace, it had seen its days so I switched to LP 98% efficient, I burned 1/3 less gallons at half the price. Two years later we bought a bigger house that has natural gas, I love it same heat as LP, since then I've added a furnace to my garage/workshop and plumbed the BBQ grill into it. Last winter was much colder than normal even for North Dakota and the cold hung around a lot longer as well, average cost to heat my house to 72 and garage to 50 was $192/month ($30 of that is fees/meter charge which is there every month whether I use any gas or not)

My father-in-law on the other hand, delivered fuel oil in the winter as a supplement to his starting up farming so his mind set is to heat with fuel oil, I showed him my heat bill and he damn near tipped off his chair!!

I've heard many arguments that oil heat is hotter than LP which I don't dispute, but with the price of LP or NG being a fair amount cheaper than oil it doesn't cost much more to keep the house a degree or two warmer than you would with oil in my opinion.

I got rid of oil heat in all my rentals. Number one, the expense of filling a 275 gallon tank when oil is around $4/gal. Number 2, I got tired of tenants calling saying the furnace isn't working when they ran it out of oil. Number 3, when they ran furnace out of oil, I would have to replace nozzle, filter and sometimes the oil pump. Number 4 reason I got away from oil is the expense of replacing the blower motor, injector motor, ignition transformer.

For me, oil was a BPIA. I remember when oil was $.11/gal. Then it was worth all the hassle, but now, I have gotten rid of oil, natural gas, and LP, and gone with simple baseboard electric. I never get a call to come fix the heater. KISS, keep it simple.

Number 5 reason, tenants may not have enough money to pay gas bill, fill the tanks, but they always seem to have enough money for electricity.

Wouldn't be surprised if some of your renters were selling the fuel oil out of the tank, George. At least the low-lifes around here sure would have.

Almost on oil heat around here because of the low cost of electricity.

Northeast Ohio I own my LP tank and buy a years supply in mid summer. $1.69 / gal. They store it for me till I need it. Not a bad deal.

Down in IN, there are very few now. Had one in a rental, but changed it to natural gas so they could pay monthly. Some people have a hard time budgeting. I did like if the oil tank got low I could put some in off my service truck. I still have the tank, what should I do with it?

I am thankful every day for the natural gas company that heats my home and provides my hot water for $41 per month, average billing, in Wichita, KS.

Actually while not an explosion technically, it deflagrates very well. Air provides sufficient oxygen. A single 1 lb propane cylinder leaking its contents then ignited will remove all the windows and doors from a house, or if there aren't many windows, it will remove the exterior walls.

Availability here, its $7,000 to bring in natural gas on this lane, and there is a main across the state road. So the 3 of us on this lane would have to get together on it if it was agreeable or I'd have to foot the bill. All are on oil. I vehemently dislike oil given the huge increase in price. In '98 I could get heating oil for .69 cents a gallon, give or take in those years and it cost about $75 month to heat the place, though I was not here except weekends. Oil will be phased out as soon as I can make the transition, just too costly. I am extremely fortunate to have ample amounts of firewood provided by the land connected with the place. Heating the basement and first floor, it does reduce the cost of oil, by keeping that thermostat happy, and the fact that the place is well insulated. I have started with solar, back up power, plan to expand that and implement any other options that will pay off over time, oil simply has to go at some point, sooner the better.

Probably it just depends on what folks are used to and who recommends what in an area. Just before my dad died he put in a fuel furnace because it was 75 cents a gallon. The trouble is that no one around here knew how to work on them including the installer. We were lucky to find a retired guy from up north that knew about them. Most around here have LP, NG or wood. a few have ground source heat pumps. It's funny that more don't have them here because a local company was one of the pioneers. Hopefully in the next couple of years we will convert to a GS heat pump, we had one in the last house and there is nothing that I've seen that is cheaper to operate. If I were to truthfully add up everything I put into my wood furnace I would bet the GS heat pump is cheaper to operate.

No, tenants paid for the oil. They just wouldn't keep tank full. They had to pay in full each time the oil was delivered too.

In 1977, my first house was oil heat. There were two 275 gallon tanks in the basement so I could use #2 and it wouldn't jell. It would take a minimum of both tanks for a heating season. I soon replaced the oil with natural gas.

If I had oil today, two tanks would be north of $2000. My entire electric bill for a total electric house almost twice the size of my first house is less than $2000 per year.

I will never return to oil, not to mention it stinks up the house when you have to work on it. Many people in the HVAC business where I live don't want to work on oil furnaces. I did my own work.

The first house I bought back in '88 had a propane furnace. We filled the tank which ran about $350.00 at a time when I was making $17K a year. The tank was empty in 3 weeks. End of Propane Part 1.

I listened to a friend and bought a propane hot water heater. Ran that thing for several years, an average of $150.00 a month, till it finally died. Then I bought an electric because I wasn't about to put another $900.00 into a propane, power vent WH. The electric WH runs me about $40.00 a month. End of Propane Part 2.

Propane is just too darned expensive where we are. Looking back through my bills for 10-12 years I've never paid less than $1.63 a gallon. I've paid as much as $4.23 a gallon. Fuel oil is almost as bad. I can buy farm diesel from a neighbor and put it in my tank for almost a dollar less a gallon than some of the local companies charge, so that what I do. At the moment farm diesel is down around $3.00 a gallon and fuel oil, according to neighbor, is still pushing $3.50. It's crazy IMO.

I burn wood. I use a little fuel oil and one storage room in an old part of the house has a wall mount propane unit. We also cook with propane because I can't stand electric ranges. My dream is a wood boiler. Someday...

When I bought my house 3 years ago it had a fuel oil furnace that was about 18 years old wasn't terribly bad to operate kept the house pretty warm. We had a flood in April of 13 which cause my basement to be knee deep in water that killed the oil furnace installed a 96% efficiency propane in the fall the house seems a little cooler than it use to be but it is cheaper to operate. Everything else in the house is electric

ng and lp are a much cooler heat in my opinion no matter what the stat. says fuel oil is warmer to me but the best by far is wood,which is what I heat with strictly.used to burn lp but just didn't keep you warm enough and what outrageous bills,and yes we did pre-buy in summer we just used a lot.also have to figure cost of electric to run the lp furnace.

I quit burning fuel oil 10 years ago. I switched to coal (Anthracite). Coal is the cheapest heat per BTU. I am in the coal region in Northeast PA, so the price is lower than other areas.

I paid 200 dollars a ton delivered.

Reading the posts below is interesting. We live in North East Colorado and it is either electric, propane, or natural gas. Nobody here uses heating oil anymore that I know of. I'm sure there are a few that still do in rural areas. When I built my house 20 years ago I had a choice of LP or NG. I darn near put in LP due the cost of getting a NG tap to the place, but after talking with the utility company that provides NG we went with it. The utility company paid for most of the cost of having it ran to the house as we were given a construction allowance from them. They paid the first $3,500 of the cost. It ended up only costing me $1,500 out of my pocket so we went with it. we use NG for everything except the clothes dryer. It turned out to be a good thing. We never run out, we don't have to play the price game that the neighbors go through each year depending on who owns the tank and when you lock in for the year, and the price while it goes up a little each year has been pretty stable.
Our electric is really high here and people don't heat with it unless it is low use and not the primary source.
We can heat our small house (1,300 sq ft) for $70 or less a month and keep the house 68 to 70. Neighbors that are using propane are spending around $200 a month to do the same. Some get by with lower heat bills, but don't heat the house above 60 to 65.
Another thing that is popular in our area is heat pumps. They seem to work good until it gets really cold and then they won't keep up. To get them to keep up they use an electric boost or propane boost. In this case the propane boost is the most cost efficient way to do it. A friend of mine had a house on a heat pump with an electric boost and his electric bills were unreal in the winter. He showed me his bill one month and it was over $400 during the winter.
I like NG. Clean, low maintenance and is by far the least costly way to heat and cook.

Greg

Until 2009, the BTU cost of fuel oil, Nat gas and propane were roughly the same. In the last five years, the price of Nat gas has been less than half of fuel oil but requires a pipe which doesn't go everywhere. Propane has fluctuated between the two and some in the northeast have switched from fuel oil to propane. In combination with a lot of propane used for grain drying last fall, propane prices ran up and was on allocation in some areas this spring. Currently, propane and Nat gas appear in good supply, with a glut in PA. Nationwide the current price of Nat gas is $ 4. Per MCF. In PA, it's $2.50, In New England, close to $ 8.

(quoted from post at 16:59:48 12/02/14) Number one, the expense of filling a 275 gallon tank when oil is around $4/gal.

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I have twin 275s in my basement, try looking at that bill with out fainting when oil was 3.88 a gallon! Luckily we are on a level pay plan. Our supplier was usually pretty good at estimating when we were down to about 1/4 left in the tanks, but the weather got bad and snowy and they couldn't get out. I estimated that I only had a few hours of run time left when they finally showed up. My backup is a heat pump, but not much good when the temp was near zero.

Twelve years ago when we bought the house it had an oil fired "boiler" (actually a hot water system, no steam) with radiators. Unknown to us there was a major clog in the heat exchanger, that was badly deteriorated, and it was an old old system anyway. I went down to the basement and it was blowing exhaust out of the inspection port. $3,500 later we had a new boiler and a broken step on the stairs (three guys and the weight of the boiler). We didn't think anything of using oil since the previous owners said they typically paid about $800 a year for oil. That didn't last long at that price and we later put in a heat pump for when the weather is milder to replace a standard A/C unit we had put in about the same time. We did resell the A/C unit which was only 5 yrs. old at the time. Our HVAC guys said it's still running good for the new owner and we have the "new" boiler cleaned and serviced every year, so no problems with it at all.