Balls! (oil burner is shot)

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the_bird

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Balls. Balls. Balls. :mad:

Oil burner is shot. Knew it didn't have too much longer. Been having issues, we've had so much work done on it over the years, not even sure everything that we've done but it's been a lot.

Had the plumber over to take a look, and it's all corroded, all the way through, Not entirely sure what I was looking at, but you can see steam coming through cracks and crevices that shouldn't be there. The $400 box that controls the water temp is shot, so the water in the pipes is way hotter than it's supposed to be.

It's just ****. It's 20 or 25 years old, and it's just ****.

Good news is that we've got natty gas on our street, so I'll install a new natty gas burner to replace it. Get a little more real estate in the basement without the big oil tank and the big burner and all of that crap. Going to have to take down a bunch of shelving that I built to house my beer gear, that'll be where the new burner goes but that's alright. Getting a couple quotes, from my plumber and from my friend's buddy, who owns a local company that does this work. I'm sure that I'm going to be out ten large, though.

Balls.
 
That sucks. One of the joys of homeownership, I guess. I don't know anything about the costs as I've always had a natural gas furnace, and replacing one a couple of years ago was $2500.
 
you are going to save money using natural gas vs. oil though. do you have it to your house, or is it at the street?
 
you are going to save money using natural gas vs. oil though. do you have it to your house, or is it at the street?

Natty gas is at the street, which is good enough news for me for now. They'll have to run the line to the house, so the old system's got to get us through until the ground thaws.

I know we'll save money in the end. There are rebates out there, $500 to $1,500 depending on the efficiency. Hell, we'll get enough room in the basement to build a playspace for the kids. Just sucks to have to drop the coin right now.
 
Yeah, that's not even a question. My buddy's folks replaced their oil burner, and the figure it took them two years to break even. I've got to figure I'll get a chunk of the money back in resale value, too (buying a house with a three-year old natty gas burner or a 25+ year old oil burner... hmmm....)
 
The nearest NG line to me is about 300yds from my house, I'm still trying to track down the company to see if I can get a tap, and get a line run to my house. I also heat with Fuel oil. 15 yrs ago when I bought the house it was about 1500 a year to heat it. I think I'm going to go over 4k this year, and that's after several insulation upgrades such as new windows, re-siding the house (with house wrap). I gotta do something different.
 
Yeah, I've re-insulated most of the house, we replaced the windows a few years back... oil sucks. House is only set back maybe 20, 25 feet from the road, so shouldn't be that hard for them to put in the line (plumber was telling me today that the gas company *might* do that gratis, not sure how that works around here).

Still considering whether we install an on-demand hot water system or a traditional hot water heater. Getting advice that the on-demand systems are cheaper, but I'm hearing both from the owner of the plumbing company and from the owner of another company that does burner installs that the groundwater just gets too cold in the winter for them to work really well (apparently they're only designed to raise the water temp by ~60°, making a "hot" shower about 100° in the winter).
 
I just finished going through almost the exact same situation.

Had the service guy out for the anual cleaning and filter change, and learned that my block was leaking (an apparently common manufacturing defect in my 14-year-old oil-fired boiler).

We replaced with gas equipment also. Definitely reach out to your gas company - unless they're really back-asswards, there really isn't a need to wait until the spring for the ground to thaw. My gas company came out with a backhoe, cleared a path through the snow, then dug the trench - in mid February!

We went with a boiler for our heating system (hot-water baseboards) and installed an indirect-fired 40 gallon tank - it basically runs like a second heating zone. Our old boiler had a domestic hot water coil, no tank. The hot water output is night and day better. I'm eagerly awaiting my first gas bill just so I can start comparing it to oil bills from similar timeframes.

The only things I have left to do are to get the old boiler to the scrap yard and to have the oil tank removed - I considered taking care of the tank myself, but decided dealing with the hazmat side of things was gonna make it worth the 300 bucks or so to have someone else do it.
 
I feel for you. We had an old (still NG) hot water boiler in the basement, probably about 50-60 years old based on what our installer told us. We had limped it along for several years, but the cost/month to heat was absurd. Its still probably better than oil, but in the cold weather was getting out of hand. We tore it out after a few things that were already repaired started to fail again (only a year later) and put in a new one. $4,500, and our utility bills aren't too much smaller, but we're not heating with a time bomb, and not coming home to a cold house because the pilot blew out and refused to relight... Electronic ignition now :)

Good luck!
 
Yep, we bought our row home with all gas, and it's 2x the size of my old apartment and my heating/electric went down by half. Also it doesn't have the oil quirks. My only recommendation is to get carbon monoxide detectors for the basement and by the stove in the kitchen should you switch that as well
 
I'm surprised no one has recommended installing a big-ass natural gas stove in the basement yet!

One of the side benefits to this is that we might free up enough room, with the old boiled and oil tank out of the way, to put in a little playroom for the kids. It's an unfinished basement now, but clean up the floor a little, install a couple walls, maybe a drop ceiling, get a couple new lights installed, and maybe we can squeeze out a few more feet of living space. Daughter would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have room to do gymnastics in the house.
 
See if your natural gas company will give you some cash for going with gas.
Ours does. Say you're thinking of converting

Well, there are rebates out there, $500 for an 85%-efficient system, $1000 for 90%, $1500 for going higher. That's $$ coming back direct from the gas company, plus it sounds like there's a $1,000 tax credit. If they'll put in the line to the street at minimal/no cost, that'll be good enough for me.
 
Good thing I'm getting to the retirement age.. looks like oil is on the way out here. I repair oil burners and business is slowly going green with heat pumps. No natural gas around these parts yet as I guess it is cost prohibitive with the low population my province has along with relative isolation from the mainland.
 
Anyone familiar with Lochinvar heating systems? This is what's being recommended to me.

Met with my buddy's friend today, guy who owns one of the local propane companies and does these kinds of installs. He's proposing to install one of these and run it on propane until the gas company can connect me to the street, apparently the conversion to natty gas is a 15 minute job (I'm assuming they just change out the orafices).

Anyone know anything about these?
 
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