Oil vs propane heat

[RichZ]

Thanks for all of the responses!!! I'm going to see the house this Saturday, and we expect to make an offer on it right away, as it seems to be just what we want. I'll know more about the heating system then and I'll post what I find out.

LouNY and CoryRupert, we lived in Cambridge, NY for 14 years until 2014. We had a small goat dairy farm. In 2014 we moved to Cherry Valley NY to get much more land (went from 10 acres to 102 to start a horse rescue.) I've since had 3 back surgeries and we just have to downsize,(I just can't maintain 102 acres and produce hay, stack hay, etc.) so we're moving back to our beloved Washington County, NY (White Creek) to get a small place with just under 9 acres. Interesting to see more Washington County people here.

 

[coobie]

I wouldn't want anything Propane. I just like the flexability of oil. If push comes to shove, I can buy it anywhere and fill up my tank. I like that. Or, if there was a supply issue, you can call every oil dealer around to see if you can get some. Nobody will fill someone elses propane tank.

If you own your own propane tank anyone will fill it.The reason I purchased 2 tanks 500 gallon.I just filled up last week at 92 cents per gallon pretty cheap IMHO..

 

[LouNY]

Thanks for all of the responses!!! I'm going to see the house this Saturday, and we expect to make an offer on it right away, as it seems to be just what we want. I'll know more about the heating system then and I'll post what I find out.

LouNY and CoryRupert, we lived in Cambridge, NY for 14 years until 2014. We had a small goat dairy farm. In 2014 we moved to Cherry Valley NY to get much more land (went from 10 acres to 102 to start a horse rescue.) I've since had 3 back surgeries and we just have to downsize,(I just can't maintain 102 acres and produce hay, stack hay, etc.) so we're moving back to our beloved Washington County, NY (White Creek) to get a small place with just under 9 acres. Interesting to see more Washington County people here.

Good luck with your house hunting

 

[BoylermanCT]

My grandparents lived in Boston all their lives, and they went through a 250 gallon tank of oil a month in the winter. It wasn't until they sold their house that they found out there was no insulation in the walls of their 2 story house.

 

[shooterdon]

I like propane but not the cost. I have seen it over $4.00/gal....currently at $1.39.

NG is the best if it is available.

I cannot risk being dependent on electric heat where I live even if it was cost effective.

I heat with wood and propane.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I wood (would!) not have a wood burning anything in my home. Read up on it. My parents installed a Fisher wood stove in 1973. Both parents had long-lived parents. Dad (rip) passed away 5 years ago, Mom lots of health problems from the stove. Neither parent smoked, drank, and ate a good diet, perfect weight, lots of exercise.
They were always careful using stove properly, chimney cleaned every year.
Wood burning in home not good. As I say...research it.

 

[LouNY]

I wood (would!) not have a wood burning anything in my home. Read up on it. My parents installed a Fisher wood stove in 1973. Both parents had long-lived parents. Dad (rip) passed away 5 years ago, Mom lots of health problems from the stove. Neither parent smoked, drank, and ate a good diet, perfect weight, lots of exercise.
They were always careful using stove properly, chimney cleaned every year.
Wood burning in home not good. As I say...research it.

Well it's good that we live where you can have your opinion and others can have theirs.
For a few hundred years all people had was wood or coal, they seemed to have survived.

 

[Kingsqueak]

I replaced the coal/wood/oil hot air furnace (firebox had not been maintained and was destroyed) with a heat pump AC system. Now it's primary electric heat pump and LP gas (96% furnace) as the aux heat. I haven't been through a winter with it yet, but the bills for running the AC heavily through August were very low compared to my expectations. So far the heating keeps up well too but temps are only just now hitting frosts overnight.

I offset the heating when possible with a wood burning fireplace insert that heats the whole house pretty easily (open plan to second floor allows for great convection).

The reason I did this was no access to natural gas and the crushing momentum to go after people burning oil. The new ultra low sulfur requirements are hard on equipment and will hurt reliability. I figured for the long term, oil will be problematic. Also LP makes a convenient generator fuel source.

My one tip, with any of the modern systems having all the sensitive control boards (expensive too) in them, add a whole house panel mounted surge protector like the Siemens model. With rural power fluctuation it can be an issue with blowing control boards.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My GF lived to 90 burning wood and coal. My dad is 95 and uses wood.

Wood is good for you.

 

[jbrumberg]

Some of our old wood burning stove were real in-house smokers & stinkers. Our new high efficiency wood stove burns much more cleanly. It smokes & stinks only if I do something stupid. Spring and Fall I only need to burn small hot fires to get the house heated up and let other heating systems take over afterwards.