Oil is now primary heat...
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Mrr211
Member
Oil at $2.25/gallon at my supplier here in Southern MA. It's still dropping but once it gets below $2.15/$2.20 I'm going to fill. I have had about 1/3 of a tank all season as I haven't used the furnace. I have a single story ranch and the Stove does fine as a primary source. Some of the far bedrooms are about 5 degrees cooler than the living room but since the lovely wife likes it a comfy 70 degrees the rooms are fine.
If I get oil for $2.15 a gallon I will mix the heating source to 50/50. Keeping a ton or so of pellets for next year isn't a big deal.(especially since the price increased).
If I get oil for $2.15 a gallon I will mix the heating source to 50/50. Keeping a ton or so of pellets for next year isn't a big deal.(especially since the price increased).
You have obviously never witnessed a modulating valve furnace with a matching smart thermostat. There is no hot cold cycles, they keep the temperature with in a half a degree. There is no blast, in fact when they are working properly you wouldn't even know they are on!
St_Earl
Minister of Fire
not even close. i can pretty much guarantee millinocket price will be at least as much as the highest (2015) ones listed here.
also, suggestions for oil furnaces that are not currently installed in my house mean nothing to me. but thanks anyway.
(broken image removed)
also, suggestions for oil furnaces that are not currently installed in my house mean nothing to me. but thanks anyway.
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I paid $2.39 back in October and still have a bit over a half a tank left but I'm in no rush to have the oil man come back.. I'll keep burning the stove and stay comfortable.. If my house was kept as warm with oil as the stove keeps it, I would be filling up the oil tank every month to 6 weeks, that would get expensive...if I wanted to use blankets and sweatshirts every night and keep the house at 65 then maybe oil would make sense.
mrjohneel
Feeling the Heat
Started burning pellets three years ago and kept the oil burner just for hot water. But this September I coverted to gas, taking advantage of the rebates, 0% loans. So I've put pellets on hold just so I can get a sense of month-to-month costs of gas vs. pellets. (Gas is cheaper for me.) But tonight -- the coldest night in Mass. -- I'm cranking the pellets very high and sitting by the stove just because I want that deep warmth and didn't want to crank the thermostat and heat the whole house. (One ancillary benefit of getting rid of oil? I no longer have that huge tank in my basement; it's been replaced by a work bench.)
mass_burner
Minister of Fire
UHN closed at its low of 20.09 today. I have a limit order at 19.96. My tank is small so I'll keep my low price reserve in this etf.
bogieb
Minister of Fire
Me too, although electric is relatively cheaper here at .18/kwh. I spent $500 for 150 gallons of propane for hot water and to run the FHW system a couple times a day to keep pipes from freezing. If I used the FHW full time, I would be using twice that amount of propane per month, and my basement wouldn't be heated.
Even using 3/bags of pellets a day (as I probably will use tonight and tomorrow), plus the extra $40 in electricity to run both stoves is half the cost and 2/3 more heating area for me.
LordmetalZ28
Minister of Fire
Just put the stove in this year. Bought and moved 4 tons of pellets. The cleanings and the maintenence and I saved 15$ a month cause the electric usage counteracted the less gas usage. Going back to gas exclusively when the 4 tons are burned off.
Papelletman
Member
I saw $2.19 in Biddeford a couple days ago much cheaper around here. I wont suggest a furnace but its a shame so many folks have oversize heating systems they can really be uncomfortable and cost a lot more to operate. Go big go broke and uncomfortable.
Good for you. I wish I could afford to go to gas.... I called the gas company but the closest gas line to my house is 100 ft away, they tell me it will be $100 a foot just to bring it to the street in front of my house, then they would pay to bring it into the house and of course I would need to pay to have my house converted. Gas is so much less expensive
sportbikerider78
Minister of Fire
sportbikerider78
Minister of Fire
Good for you. I wish I could afford to go to gas.... I called the gas company but the closest gas line to my house is 100 ft away, they tell me it will be $100 a foot just to bring it to the street in front of my house, then they would pay to bring it into the house and of course I would need to pay to have my house converted. Gas is so much less expensive
In many townships, you can do the construction yourself to their specs. Dig the trench. Lay the pipe. Have them inspect...approve and then you pay for them to connect.
It is a fraction of the rediculous cost they give you. I have a friend that did this. The power company quote was $19k. He did it for $2k with equipment rental.
We converted from oil to gas this summer. Put in a high efficinay Rheem 2 stage gas unit rated at 85/63. It was explained that it will only use the amount of heat needed. Gas, to us, is a much different feeling heat, almost cool coming out of the registers compared to the warm oil heat. I had not used the oil heat much since getting our 2 pellet stoves. The last time I filled our 275 gallon tank was maybe 4 years ago and I still had 90 gallons when we took the tank out.
That being said it has proven to be much more expensive to run our pellet stoves then the gas heat, which I knew was going to be the case. One of my stoves is in our family room which we like to keep at 74. I used 6 tons last year and bought 1-1/2 tons for this year only because I've gotten so use to the Quad in the family room. It is a room with a lot of older windows so without the stove the room would be colder then the rest of the house which we keep at 68 day/58 night. I know it is expensive to use pellets when we now have gas but I just don't care as I'm don't need to save a few hundred at this point in my life. I just got our gas bill today, which includes our new hot water heater and it was $128 for a 1900 S/F home. Not bad at all.
We put in the gas system to help sell our home which we hope to put on the market in the spring. Now I'm faced with selling at least one of our stoves and maybe both depending on what we buy. We are planning on moving to SC which does have some cold temps but nothing like NJ. Don't know if I can buy pellets in SC is part of the problem and will make my mind up if to sell both stoves. Problem is they have gotten into my system and I'm not ready to let go yet.
Sorry for the long post as I'm sitting nearby the Quad just typing away. Warm I might add.
That being said it has proven to be much more expensive to run our pellet stoves then the gas heat, which I knew was going to be the case. One of my stoves is in our family room which we like to keep at 74. I used 6 tons last year and bought 1-1/2 tons for this year only because I've gotten so use to the Quad in the family room. It is a room with a lot of older windows so without the stove the room would be colder then the rest of the house which we keep at 68 day/58 night. I know it is expensive to use pellets when we now have gas but I just don't care as I'm don't need to save a few hundred at this point in my life. I just got our gas bill today, which includes our new hot water heater and it was $128 for a 1900 S/F home. Not bad at all.
We put in the gas system to help sell our home which we hope to put on the market in the spring. Now I'm faced with selling at least one of our stoves and maybe both depending on what we buy. We are planning on moving to SC which does have some cold temps but nothing like NJ. Don't know if I can buy pellets in SC is part of the problem and will make my mind up if to sell both stoves. Problem is they have gotten into my system and I'm not ready to let go yet.
Sorry for the long post as I'm sitting nearby the Quad just typing away. Warm I might add.
John, Mind my asking the total cost to convert to gas? I also have an oil system I am using for hot water only. It drives me crazy to keep putting oil in the tank when we do not use it for heat at all. In fact, the thermostat downstairs has been broken for about six years. I've asked the oil man several time to come and fix whatever doesn't work, but apparently I am blacklisted now because all I get are promises. And I used to be one of his favorites..
mrjohneel
Feeling the Heat
It was about $11K but $9K of that is financed at 0% over seven years. Like Bkins above, part of my thinking relates to selling the house at some point in the future. My oil boiler was 37 years old and I was having some chimney issues, so I needed a system aside from the pellet stove. Plus, I tore my kitchen down to the 2 x 4s a few years ago and rebuilt it myself, including constructing my own cabinets. The payoff for saving thousands in a kitchen remodel is that I can afford to buy a nice gas stove (which I haven't done yet) so that's an extra bonus of gas. Bottom line of all this is that I needed a new heating system; the gas deals worked out for me; gas is cheaper (for now at least), and I'm saving money over my pellet/oil combo costs of the past few years. My cost to bring it in from the street was $1600 (included in the $11K above). That's a flat National Grid fee that everyone pays regardless of distance from street. As for laying the line yourself, neither my town nor the gas company would ever think of allowing that. In fact, the biggest regulatory hurdle I had was getting town DPW permission for the street cut as they had repaved my road five years previously and there was a moratorium in effect.
My tank is close to full at a cost of $3.40/Gal. And, I am locked in at $3.30/Gal.
I'm not going to stop burning pellets just because the price is dropping. I will keep things going the way they are and probably decide next year to do the same thing.
I'm not going to stop burning pellets just because the price is dropping. I will keep things going the way they are and probably decide next year to do the same thing.
roadking88
Feeling the Heat
i put in a electric hot water tank in april and shut the boiler off..cost me 20/25 bucks a month to heat the hot water..only 2 of us, tank on a timer plenty of hot water.oil tank is 1/3 full so with the cold weather coming i turned on the boiler and use both..oil @ 2.34 hereand pellets..using 1 bag a day of Lecretes that cost me 289./a month.i know i can heat the house with 100 gals a month.. so it would be cheaper to heat with oil, but mama likes it hot so gonna go 50/50 i guess...
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
doesn't matter what Oil cost for us because to keep it as constantly warm as the pellets do,[ no warm up/cool down/ rinse, lather repeat with baseboard heat]
we would be filling the tank every 6 weeks or less thereby blowing any savings..
twodogs02
Burning Hunk
I've turned up the boiler a little on the north end of the house since the pellet stove is on the south end but I keep the south end much warmer with pellets. My last propane fill up was $1.24 per gallon so it made sense to keep the other side of the house a little warmer.
zrtmatos
Feeling the Heat
Too true. There's no going back now. If I did switch, and go back to keeping the heat at 65 degrees or so, I would never hear the end of it. In fact, I'm not sure my opinion on the decision even matters anymore.
John, Thanks for that response. I may have MassSave come in and do an energy audit. I already have a gas line, so it probably makes sense to convert.
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