replacing buried oil tank or switch to another fuel

[Steven Stone]

I live outside of Orange County, Middletown, NY and heat with oil. The house is 20 years old. The furnace is 4 years old. I decided in April it might be a good idea to replace the 275 gallon buried oil tank before it became a problem. I am seeing estimates for the total job of removing old tank and replacing with an above ground outdoor 330 gal tank (space issue) of around $4k. That includes a plastic "dog house" around the new tank.

Budget plan oil delivery cap price for next season is looking to be around $4.60 per gallon.

Natural gas is not available in my area.

Should I go ahead with tank replacement or have my HVAC guy rip out the

4 year old furnace and change over to another fuel like propane ? Propane is running about $3.90 per gallon. Steve

[salty]

If you stop using the tank, you will have to remove it anyway. Various fuels see-saw in price advantage pretty regularly. Gas could spike in price tomorrow, or in 2 months, or in 2 years. You can't really escape heating costs, except temporarily, by switching fuels in most cases.

[Pipedown]

Can't really compare the price per gallon of propane to oil because each contains a different amount of heat per unit volume. I believe propane contains more energy meaning you need to burn less of it to make the same heating effect (definately true compared to NG but I don't have the specs for oil). You need to determine the BTU per unit volume (BTU/Gal) and compare that for each fuel. At least in the short term, it looks like oil will rise faster than other fuels but in the long term, your guess is as good as mine.

Propane might be a bit more flexible seeing that you could in a pinch, go out with a 10 gal tank and fill it at a gas station if you couldn't get a delivery during a bad weather spell. OTOH, you can buy and store a longer lasting supply of oil at one time and have more predictable pricing. NG is usually preferred for no reason better than you don't have to have anything delivered or stored on site.

I haven't looked but is there a such thing as a multi fuel furnace where you can switch at will depending on price. That sure would be nice.

[Jonathan Grobe]

$3.90 propane is a lot more expensive that $4.60 heating oil.

If a gallon of propane is 91,300 BTU and a gallon of heating oil is 138,800 BTU, then $3.90 propane is equivolent to $5.93 heating oil.

Can't you get a heating oil tank and put it in your basement? I think that would be a lot cheaper.

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

What about a heat pump as primary with oil used only as emergency backup heat?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

This shows propane to be much more expensive at that price difference

Put a fiberglass tank in. Check out other sources as that sounds high to me.

[franz fripplfrappl]

Go geothermal and kiss fossil fuels goodbye.

[mhtankco]

Hello Steve,

My name is Michael Hoensch of MH Tank Co. Inc

I am an oil tank contractor here in Orange County. I'd love the oppurtunity in providing you a free estimate.

Respectfully,

- Mike Hoensch [phone]

[Tony Miklos]

LP gas is very expensive/btu. With gas an oil prices rising, you may be cheaper off going with electric heat pump with straight electric heat backup. Although I didn't see if you mentioned if you have oil hot air or oil hot water? If it's water baseboards then a heat pump is an expensive installation since it will need ductwork.

Tony