PV Gap

Brandy Said:

Oil heat vs gas heat for the home?

We Answered:

Natural gas is almost always cheaper and it is also possible to choose a gas furnace that is far more efficient than your existing oil-fire system. A good example of a highly efficient system is a condensing gas furnace (available as a boiler or as a forced-air unit). These systems use a sealed combustion system, meaning that they get combustion air directly from outside the home and have no portion of the system open to the indoor air. These systems greatly reduce the possibility of potentially deadly carbon monoxide contamination of the living space. They are available in efficiency ratings of 94%. By comparison, you oil-fired system is probably in the low 80% or even lower efficiency range.

Below is a link to an article about putting in a condensing gas furnace.

Avoid using a retrofit kit that turns an oil furnace into a natural gas burner. These systems are typically very inefficient. Any savings in initial installation will be quickly lost in much higher energy bills. Also, some gas utilities and some local building codes have forbidden these retrofit kits.

Whatever you do, get the new furnace sized for your home. Many heating contractors want to sell the biggest system they can, but an oversized unit runs very inefficiently and will waste a lot of energy, not to mention wasting money on the initial installation.