<p>My D is about to buy a house and would like to replace an old oil tank with gas. Anybody know how much this would run on an average? I’ve no experience with this so I’m asking CC!
She’s in the northeast.</p>
<p>About 8K where I live (upstate NY) My neighbors did something I didn’t know was possible and had their oil burner converted to gas. It was fairly new (about 10yrs old) so in very good shape. It cost them about 5K.</p>
<p>Is there already a gas line into the house? Is gas available in the neighborhood?</p>
<p>BC…perhaps they are considering propane. If so, they will need a large tank installed.</p>
<p>Yup, that’s a possibility. More details are needed as to the exact situation.</p>
<p>I think that a lot of people would do NG conversions if it is easy because NG is so cheap relative to HO these days. I haven’t looked at propane prices in many years but it used to be relatively pricey compared to NG.</p>
<p>Propane IS expensive.</p>
<p>I would be very concerned if there is an underground oil tank. If so, she should have the seller pull the tank and take care of any environmental remediation. </p>
<p>Many people have tank insurance, but you need to replace the underground tank with a basement tank and keep oil for a year in order to keep the insurance valid. </p>
<p>If the seller claims there is no underground tank, she should pay for a sonar scan. Many tanks are lurking in odd places, including under driveways and gardens. I know several homes in our town that have remediations costing over $100,000, including one home that need to be jacked up so the soil under the basement could be removed. </p>
<p>Be very afraid of underground tanks!</p>
<p>thanks for your responses! Wish I knew more about this stuff but it’s foreign to me where we live.
Okay–not a big house (1300 sq ft).
It presently has an above ground oil tank that sits on a stand that needs replacing but she’d like to go natural gas. Gas is available in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>I grew up in a house with natural gas, and have lived in homes with oil heat.</p>
<p>I prefer natural gas. Plus its cheaper these days. Oil probably is marginally safer, but we never had any natural gas leaks, nor any interuptions in service. </p>
<p>I’m not too keen on propane in houses, but maybe that’s out of ignorance. Propane is heavier than air, so if you ever have a leak, or an unignited release, the propane invisibly runs “downhill” and accumulates at a low point.</p>
<p>You’ll need a new furnace for natural gas, probably.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s not a probably. Putting in a new furnace will probably cost at least $4K and there’s the matter of integrating the method of heat transmission (hopefully the old system is easily compatible with a new system). Another consideration is putting in an HVAC if it gets warm there.</p>
<p>I have had propane, natural gas, oil, and electric…and wood. I liked natural gas the best. Never needed to worry about it being filled (electric was the same, but way too costly).</p>
<p>Even though the tank is currently above ground, she should ask the history of the tanks. If the seller can’t assure them there is no underground tank, they should do a sweep. </p>
<p>I grew up with gas forced air and did not find it a warm heat, plus the air handling is noisy. Our first house in NJ had gas steam and I was amazed at how warm the house stayed. We now have oil steam and find the house heats up very quickly (quicker than gas) and stays warm longer. The downside in the past few years has been the cost. We needed to replace our boiler 10 years ago and we kick ourselves that we didn’t convert to gas at that time. (our tank is in our basement)</p>
<p>Even if there is gas in the neighborhood they will still charge you for running the gas line to your home and installing the gas meter, etc. In my current home we converted from oil to natural gas and installed gas for the first time in the house. Subsequently, converted to a gas water heater as well (might make sense to do at the same time - the old electric water heater was probably the most expensive way to make hot water). Still have electric stove and dryer but makes sense to consider converting those once you get gas in the home.</p>
<p>When we put a gas line in, the gas company was fighting with the town over curb cuts and digging up the street. So the gas company dug up part of my neighbor’s yard and tapped a connection off of their feed. They were not too happy about it… that cost about $1500.</p>
<p>Sometimes if you are converting to gas heat, the gas company will waive the charge to run the line to the house, you need to check with them to see if they are running any programs.</p>
<p>We put in a reasonably high efficiency (87%? I forget) Buderus with a 42 gallon storage tank for hot water that sits underneath of the boiler. The boiler heats the hot water as well as heats the house, we have a forced hot water system. We <em>never</em> run out of hot water, and believe me DD has tried. We got the fancy controller, too. After rebates, this all cost around $6K.</p>
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<p>I didn’t want a super-high efficiency unit because in my experience they break down more often, cost a lot to repair, and are more expensive to boot.</p>
<p>ETA: We also had an oil tank in the basement, we paid a company a few hundred bucks to remove it.</p>
<p>We converted from oil to gas about 13 years ago in a previous house in the NE. The house already had a gas line, and all the gas company had to do was put a larger meter in. The conversion, including a high efficiency furnace, HVAC, some upstairs ductwork, and oil tank removal from the basement, ran about $8K.</p>
<p>Wow. No idea it would run quite so much. Thanks for the replies! I’m sending your responses and thoughts on to DD.</p>
<p>The major things are the cost of removing the tank(s) and associated hardware, putting in a new furnace, mating the heat transmission method with the new heater or replacing the old heat transmission method with a new one, and running lines.</p>
<p>Welcome to home ownership!</p>
<p>In some instances it’s possible to convert an oil system to gas without replacing the entire furnace. You just replace the fuel injection. It will not be as efficient as a new system, but would save $ up front. She should check with a plumber who works on furnaces. (what sort of heat is it - forced air, steam/open loop, or hot water/closed loop?)</p>
<p>PS - oil heat was foreign to me when we moved to NJ nearly 30 years ago. It’s not really ‘oil’, rather it’s very close to diesel fuel.</p>
<p>Heating Oil is mostly diesel without the road taxes. Yes, some additives are put in for the winter to prevent it from gelling.</p>
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<p>“In some instances it’s possible to convert an oil system to gas without replacing the entire furnace. You just replace the fuel injection. It will not be as efficient as a new system, but would save $ up front.”</p>
<p>Yes, this is what my neighbors just did. I’d only recommend if it’s a fairly new boiler, no point if it’s 30 years old. </p>
<p>Removing an oil tank that is above ground, like one in a basement, isn’t very expensive at all. Likely no more than $500. It also doesn’t have to be done right away if money is an issue.</p>