OT: Oil vs Electric Heat

[dr.mel_PT]

My BF and I are talking about moving in together after 3 years. His father currently rents a 2BR home out to his aunt, but she has neglected to pay her bills for the past 4 months. His father said if she can't repay him by the end of the year, he will let us rent the place for a reduced price. The catch is we have to pay all utilities, including heat which is supplied by oil. I'm concerned about the costs; being in the NE, the winters get pretty brutal here and I've heard horror stories about oil heat. Does anyone have oil heat and can you give me a roundabout # as to what you pay? I'm worried it'll tack on a hefty amount to the monthly expenses we'll have already with rent/electric/cable/etc.

 

[LauraMax]

Melissa, I think oil heat is much more efficient than electric heat. Having lived w/both, I've found the benefit to oil heat is that once the radiators heat up, they stay warm & keep heating after it shuts off. With electric, when it shuts off it's c-c-c-cold immediately.

I don't think I can give you a good comparison b/c I live in a much larger place. But from what I've heard, the cost is about the same & oil heating works better.

If you could talk your BF's dad to converting to gas--or better yet propane--for your sake AND his sake, that would be the ideal.

 

[morningstar]

This is the Open Discussion forum - it's not humanly possible to be OT!

 

[carres1973]

Melissa - you should be able to get a good idea if you know the size of the tank and the price of oil per gallon. I had oil heating a long time ago when home heating oil was less than $2.00/gallon. I only had to fill up once a year. You don't have to fill it all the way but most companies charge a delivery fee so it may be better to do it all at once.

Carrie

 

[PhyllisG]

Oil heat is generally less expensive than electric. However the price of oil fluctuates so it is almost impossible to give you an estimate. We were always on automatic delivery with a monthly budget payment but I recently changed that when oil skyrocketed from 2.40 a gallon to 4.70 a gallon. Now I call and ask for a delivery when the price of oil is down. I believe now it is back down to about 2.70. Energy costs in the NE are high.

 

[Evie]

I would suggest that you find out who the oil provider is in the unit now and contact them to find out what the cost per year is - I believe that they should be able to give you this information. I live in NYS and I know that utility providers must provide this information. I work in public housing, and we actually get this number for prospective tenants to find out what their current costs are to live in private housing. Also, I have gotten this number when renting or purchasing in the past for myself so I know what I'm getting into before moving. It is possible, though, that you may not be able to get this information in your state - but check to see - it will give you a solid basis for making this decision. You can get this information for electric usage also, and I would suggest doing that.

Also, you should know that many oil furnaces do not use radiators, but regular forced air systems like natural gas furnaces. It depends on what is in the apartment.

 

[Gayle]

Mel - I live in VT with very brutal winters, and oil heat (and wood heat) is the norm here (we've had it forever). Electric heat is ridiculously expensive here.

What type of heat system do you have and how old is it? Forced hot air furnace, boiler with radiant baseboards? How well is it cleaned and maintained? How well is the house insulated? Those factors all mean a lot more than what the fuel type is.

We upgraded our boiler a few years ago, and the new stuff out there is a lot more efficient than what it used to be.

 

[dr.mel_PT]

Evie, thanks for the info! I live in NYS too and I've been researching utility costs online and all say what you said above: to request the avg price of utilities before the move in, which I definitely plan on doing!

Gayle, I'm not sure what type of heating system this place has. From what I understand, it isn't very old. It's still a prospective rental since we won't know what's going on until the end of the year with the aunt, but I plan on asking A LOT of questions and of course visiting the property before we make any promises. I guess the good thing we'll get to see it in Dec/Jan so it'll be nice and cold so I can test out the insulation

 

[syzygy314]

I live in N.E. and I HATE oil heat! Of course, up here, it is the most efficient form of heat. We get ours by the month and we shop for the company with the best price and stay with them for the season. Our house only uses oil for heating. Everything else is gas and electric, so we only buy oil from around October to April. The reason I hate it, is because we have to check the water level all the time to make sure it doesn't get too low and because we don't have a contract, we have to keep an eye on the tank level and order when it gets low. We usually only order 100 gallons, which is the minimum, and can get through a month on that. The price varies, but it has stayed around $2 per gallon most of last winter for us.

I hope that helps!