So we're in the position of having an oil-fired boiler that runs the hot-water heating in our house. It's getting old, and less efficient, and it may be about time to replace it. I think. We already have gas in the house, running the water heater, the stove (both cooktop and oven) and the dryer.
For those of you not in the northeastern US, a home oil heat setup consists of a furnace, fed by oil from a tank elsewhere in the basement. It's essentially diesel fuel, but there's some kind of a dye in it. It's taxed differently (like, not at all, I think) so it's illegal to use it in a vehicle, and they need to be able to identify untaxed oil. Anyway, I think our oil tank holds 200 gallons, so at recent prices it's a bit of a stretch to pay to have it filled.
Anyway, one presumes there are differences between oil and gas heat. The prices both fluctuate wildly, so I'm not too concerned about that unless there's a systematic, long-term, advantage to one or the other. If one is more efficient, or substantially cleaner than the other, or requires less equipment maintenence or makes less corrosive exhaust, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Alas, my google-fu has failed me, finding only some very anecdotal, non-technical, homeowner experience kinds of things. And a bunch of advertising.
Oh, and I'm also trying to get a guy who made an estimate for replacing the shingles on our roof to return my calls so we can get started on this.
And then there's the hood over the stove, which presumably will bring an electrician into the house, and we'll have to get the electrics up to code.
Also in today's (well, tomorrow's) news: The first direct images of extra-solar planets. Where "first" means, essentially, the first ones most scientists will actually believe.
For those of you not in the northeastern US, a home oil heat setup consists of a furnace, fed by oil from a tank elsewhere in the basement. It's essentially diesel fuel, but there's some kind of a dye in it. It's taxed differently (like, not at all, I think) so it's illegal to use it in a vehicle, and they need to be able to identify untaxed oil. Anyway, I think our oil tank holds 200 gallons, so at recent prices it's a bit of a stretch to pay to have it filled.
Anyway, one presumes there are differences between oil and gas heat. The prices both fluctuate wildly, so I'm not too concerned about that unless there's a systematic, long-term, advantage to one or the other. If one is more efficient, or substantially cleaner than the other, or requires less equipment maintenence or makes less corrosive exhaust, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Alas, my google-fu has failed me, finding only some very anecdotal, non-technical, homeowner experience kinds of things. And a bunch of advertising.
Oh, and I'm also trying to get a guy who made an estimate for replacing the shingles on our roof to return my calls so we can get started on this.
And then there's the hood over the stove, which presumably will bring an electrician into the house, and we'll have to get the electrics up to code.
Also in today's (well, tomorrow's) news: The first direct images of extra-solar planets. Where "first" means, essentially, the first ones most scientists will actually believe.
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