Gas or Oil-- POLL

Hi girls. I would like to know how many of you have oil to heat your homes and how many have gas. Also, which is better. I need serious advice. We have oil heat fright now but are considering switching to gas becuase its less expensive (we hear?) and the oil burner is old.

Can anyone please help me to determine which is the best for us. Also, if it is oil, do you have a service contract or not. Is it worth it?

I am lost.

Please fellow homeowners, HELP ME!

Thanks,
Denise

OIL, we just got a new boiler so
staying w/ oil

Denise,
In my search for a home, i asked this to everyone i knew with a house, and overall gas was much better... My dad says gas is much LESS expensive..

Plus i have oil in my house, and EVERY year we loose heat.. it happended last week, and i had to call the oil people and they had to come to fix the problem.. EVERY year, and the boiler is new!!! it is such a pain!!

dont know which is better but we have gas

and we are going to evenutally put in radiant heating Very Cool!

What is radiant heating??

pipes are run under the floor so the heat covers the whole surface of the house

no more going near the radiators to get warm - the heat will be rising up from our feet

it is also good bc with radiant heating each room is a zone and you can just heat the room youre in so as to not waste energy thruout the house

hope that was clear

my hubby is installing it he is very handy

edit to say we will have to pay for costs of pipes etc but if were using pvc its dirt cheap!

you can get a manual about it its really not that hard to do

you just have to turn off the gas and connect the series of pipes to the main

Denise...like you...our oil burner was old and we were told on its last legs...so to speak. We called KeySpan to see if there is gas in the area and we lucked out...its right in from of our house. So we are now converting to gas. Not only was the burner going, but our tank is in the ground and before we have any problems I want to get that cleaned out and closed up! We were going to do that and then put the oil tanks in the back yard.....;arghhhhhhhh...how unsightly huh?

Well, KeySpan is great! My hubby called them, they set up appts with contractors that they back, and then followed up with us.

This is what KeySpan is giving us, they bring the gas line to the house and a new burner. Our plumber then will connect it in the house with the new hot water heater and our new dryer. The whole thing is costing us (not including the dryer) $4000. we had 3 quotes and they were all the same.
Another reason to go with gas, it burns cleaner. the room that our oil burner is in right now is black and gross!! I aslo like the fact that I do not have to have a contract or go and check to see if the oil is low and we need a deliveryl

I cant wait to get it done!! These are the things lately that are exciting me!! LOL

Please let me know if you need any more info.

We have oil.
Gas is definately cleaner and you can get the added benefit of a gas stove.
As far as price goes I know some people who have switched that say its really about the same.

I forot about the service contract part of your question. We do have one we also have level billing. For us this works out well. We know what we are spending each month and we never have to worry about oil delivery.

Oh I know about getting excited about oil and gas! :) Thanks so much for the information. I wonder if it would cost less for us since we already have the gas line running to the house. We have gas for the stoves already and to heat the water (we have a hot water heater). I think we would just need gas for heating the house.

I am going to call and find out about it. Do I call LIPA or Keyspan? Iam confused, like usual!

We also went with the budget plan. We are paying $100 a month till we find out our usage. What oil company do you have? We are using Petro (the oil company from the previous homeowners).

Do you find that you owe a lot of money at the end of the year or is it pretty much right on the money? :)

no you dont rip up floors at all

you should look into it i might save you money and i know alot of ppl are doing it

radiant heating is the latest greatest option other than solar heating

We use Petro too. We actually went with them because the realtor gave us a $100.00 gift cert for oil through them. The day we moved into the house a valve broke and we had no heat, of course it was one of the coldest days of the year so we had to make an immediate decision.

We went with an $80.00/mo plan and were able to lock in at 1.39, so far we are just about on track. I use those receipts they leave when they make a delivery to keep track.