Oil to gas conversions have been very popular with customers of Winters Company and homeowners across the country (especially in the Northern climes) for the past couple of years as a result of the dramatic price swings (usually up) in home heating oil. Although, as an expert in home heating, I personally would choose gas as my home heating fuel type, a homeowner has to carefully consider numerous factors before making the decision to convert from oil to gas. Despite the many advantages of gas heat, which currently include fuel prices, I would not automatically prescribe an oil-to-gas conversion for every home. There may be alternatives that could achieve better financial efficiency in the long run. Here are some factors to consider:

As a fan of gas heat, I prefer to start by looking at the many significant benefits of using natural gas for home heating. First, it currently costs up to ten percent less to heat a given home in New England with natural gas than it does to heat the same home with oil heat, based on the cost of fuel and heating systems currently in use. With prices as high as they are, that percentage can equate to a significant sum of money. Given the volatility that exists in areas of world where our oil originates, there's no telling what will happen with oil prices. Many people believe that gas prices could remain more stable because natural gas comes from North America. However, this belief may or may not prove to be accurate in reality, so you have to consider whether you have a personal preference regarding where your fuel comes from.

Second, gas burners are generally more efficient at producing heat that oil burners, meaning gas burners themselves consume and therefore waste less energy in the process of creating heat for your home.

Third, gas burns more cleanly than oil, which creates less byproduct that could end up in the environment or be left behind to cause damage to equipment, necessitating more maintenance and repairs. Operating a gas heating system can be less expensive from that perspective.

There are other benefits that homeowners may consider important, such as the fact that switching to gas eliminates the need for large oil tanks, freeing up potentially useful space within the home. However, there are benefits to alternate solutions as well, so it is important to carefully consider arguments for not converting from oil to gas.

First of all, many experts, including advocates for oil, argue that oil has generally been less expensive than natural gas per BTU or unit of heat. Depending on how you measure cost, either oil or natural gas could come out a winner. At the present time, however, I personally would argue that gas has an advantage over oil when it comes to annual fuel costs, although that advantage may only be slight.

Oil advocates also argue that new oil burning systems are at least as efficient as natural gas systems, and they are by and large correct. If you have an oil burning system that is more than 15 or even 10 years old, you are missing out on very significant advances in efficiency that have been achieved through modern oil heating systems. Compared with gas burning systems, newer oil heating systems can be very competitive when it comes to efficiency.

When undergoing a conversion, there are many costs involved beyond just the new fuel and the new burner. Running a gas line to your home can cost $200 to over $3500, and removal of your existing oil tank can cost $600 to $1500. Furthermore, chimneys need to be narrower for gas burning systems than for oil, since the exhaust from burning natural gas is cooler and can condense in a chimney and corrode it if it is too wide. Installing an appropriate chimney liner can cost $600 to $1500. You can see how the fuel cost savings can quickly become erased by the upfront costs of undergoing a conversion, which is why it is important to find out what your specific conversion would require by collecting estimates for all pieces of your conversion project.

Lastly, and most importantly, keep in mind there are several ways of increasing the efficiency of your home, thereby reducing your heating costs, without doing anything to your heating system at all. Consider the value of adding insulation to ceilings and walls, adding weather stripping, or replacing doors and/or windows. Contact a qualified service provider to perform an energy audit in your home and find out what opportunities exist to waste less energy. Regardless of the type of system you have, you might be surprised at how much energy and money you can save.

Whether you choose to convert your home heating system, upgrade to a better system using the same type of fuel, or make no changes to your system (provided it is not outdated and inefficient), the most important thing is that you maximize its effectiveness by ensuring your home provides an efficient enclosure and does not simply leak your valuable heat outside. Once you consider the true cost of converting from oil to gas and carefully weigh your fuel use needs, you will be a much better position to decide whether a system conversion is right for you, your home, and your family.