Oil tank giving out, LP a good Option?

[terryjd98]

Hi all
I am in Ontario, My oil furnace quit working, had water in the oil. Had 2 companies look at it and both say tank will be a problem soon, rust from inside out and furnace is about done. Both recommended a new furnace but not oil said to get an LP furnace and get away from oil. Claim LP is cheaper, less maintance on furnace, don't have to rent the tanks, one company will give them to you to use as long as your buying the propane from them ( Levac ). Also said insurance companies are getting tough on oil systems. My house is about 100 years old so a bit drafty, 15 year old 20 X 15 addition added to it, story and a half house about 2000 sq. ft.
A new fiberglass oil tank installed is $2,200.00, new Coleman 2 stage furnace installed and old oil tank about 1/4 full and old furnace removed $3,500.00. Waiting to hear back from a second dealer with a price.
I also have a wood pellet stove, not working at the moment, might need to get a repairman in for that, I haven't had any luck getting blowers to work. Mainly use pellet stove except for really cold weather and when I need a little extra heat furnace comes on. Also the insurance company wants me to have a main souce of heat, won't take a pellet stove as a main source.
Anyways I was wondering if the information they were giving me was accurate or not. The cost of electricty here is high so thats out, can't get natural gas out here in the country. LP Almost seems like my only option. I soon need to decide, getting cold out there.
Thanks for any info.

 

[Donl]

Don't rule out electricity so quickly. I currently use oil as backup to my wood boiler. I too have been looking into alternates to oil because of new insurance issues. My analysis has shown the following for Ontario:

Per kwh. Oil = $.1352. propane = $.1154. electricity = $.1368. Ng =..0970

With "time of use billing" soon to be introduced and my existing use of available storage (500 gallon) i think i can significanty reduce the cost of electricity even further using an electric boiler and storage.

An electric boiler is not very expensive, no annual cleaning or costly inspections. I'm thinking this may be a good candidate for backing up the wood boiler.

 

[maple1]

What part of Ontario? Have you checked out mini-split heat pumps? If you're in a moderate part of the province, I'd be sure to evaluate those - their efficiency goes down when it gets real cold out, but if it does get real cold out for a few days you could just use your pellet stove a bit more. Plus you get very efficient A/C with them in the summer.

That seems like a bit of a high price for a new oil tank - but even still, I think I would agree with getting rid of the oil either way. Other factors to consider: what else (if anything) would the oil or LP get used for (hot water?).