Oil or propane furnace ????

[ijbelair55]

Well I'm looking to sell my house and want to install new furnace before I put on market (have oil now,which I do not use ). My current set up is running two wood stoves for heat used the flue for oil for second stove , so was thinking of goin to propane for direct vent option . What do new home buyers prefer oil or propane ?

 

[maple1]

Do you have propane there now for something else?

Propane itself may or may not be desirable - but being tied to one LP company by a contract & their tank, likely not.

 

[ijbelair55]

No propane now if I changed over I would buy tank

 

[NaturalCauses]

Propane opens up the option for also running the range, cloths dryer, and water heater from the tank if the next owner chooses. Also venting the second stove through the flue for the oil furnace isn't up to code, so that could affect the ability to sell easily. If it were me, I'd go with LP personally.

 

[ijbelair55]

Sorry the furnace is disconnected from flue.that's why I was leaning towards lp options and still can have to working wood stoves

 

[rwhite]

How hard is it to remove the 2nd stove and hook the furnace back up? It would personally worry me if central heat has been disconnected.

 

[ijbelair55]

Very easy .. why would it worry you? If I go lp I can run central heat and both stoves if I wanted too

 

[velvetfoot]

How much are you going to spend on something you'll hardly use since you're going to sell the place?
I think I would personally spend as little as possible, and factor it into the price of the house.
There's probably some study somewhere about cost effective improvements for selling, and somehow I doubt that a shiny furnace with one conventional fuel source or other is on the top of the list.
Is your existing oil tank good? If you went with propane, you'd have to get rid of that.
If it needs a new furnace, and the oil tank is good, I think I'd just replace the furnace.

 

[ijbelair55]

The tank is 5 years .. there's about 4 grand difference in price just thought it would be nice to have to working fireplaces when I sold house .. just doesn't look right having a nice fireplace you can't use

 

[velvetfoot]

Oh, I thought it was a wood stove, not a fireplace.
You never know what a buyer would like. You might think, "they could hook up a gas stove", but they might hate gas and love electric. You might think a standby generator would be great, but who knows what a buyer would like.
I remember cleaning a bunch of stuff for the new owner, thinking it was a good thing, and he ripped it out anyway, along with the nice flower gardens I put in. So , who knows.

 

[ijbelair55]

I have two fireplaces one has Hampton insert in it other has nc-30 sitting in that

 

[velvetfoot]

Well, I guess you've kind of boxed yourself in there.
You can direct vent an oil boiler, but I don't know if you want to do that or not (don't have any specific knowledge on that).

Oh, I forgot to mention that my old house's new owner removed the Quadrafire 2700i insert and got rid of it. Hah.

My point is, don't go hog wild with the improvements.

 

[ijbelair55]

Yah I guess I did .. didn't plan on leaving house anytime soon that's why I went that route .. thanks gotcha

 

[blades]

Most loan companies under writers will require a conventional heating system, operational, before signing off on a loan. Therefore if you are selling the place and the current oil furnace in your possession is functional why spend money on a new one of either type. If the new owners agree you could just knock off some of the purchase price for replacement of the furnace if needed, they can pick and choose which way they wish to go- in the long run this would be in your best interest and cost nothing out of pocket. Like bathrooms and kitchen remodeling- clean it up and make it presentable/ operational anything more than that is a waste of money if you are planning on selling. Both of these can be negotiation points in the sale as everyone tastes are different, and again keeps your pocket from bleeding.

 

[ijbelair55]

Furnace is old and useless would like to have a heating system put in till the spring when house goes on market.

 

[rwhite]

Very easy .. why would it worry you? If I go lp I can run central heat and both stoves if I wanted too

Like blades mentioned; most lenders will not approve without a conventional system but they will with an inoperable fireplace. Not sure what it would take to reroute the oil furnace vent. But if it were me I'd make use of the existing furnace somehow if it's good. My other worry is that when I see that something was made inoperable in order to make something else functional, what other short cuts have been made.

 

[ijbelair55]

No shortcuts were made I didn't want oil anymore and was goin lp route so dissconected furnace had chimney cleaned and dropped liner inn for wood stove.just figured I ask what homebuyers prefer.. I know what I would do if I was able to stay here

 

[rwhite]

No shortcuts were made I didn't want oil anymore and was goin lp route so dissconected furnace had chimney cleaned and dropped liner inn for wood stove.just figured I ask what homebuyers prefer.. I know what I would do if I was able to stay here

Were it me I would prefer L.P. or NG just because of the possibilities got hot water heat and cooking. But which one is historically cheaper in your area? I've never known anyone that didn't but a home based on heating fuel so I would install the cheapest method.

 

[firefighterjake]

I think a lot depends on where you are and the average price of that fuel . . . here where I live in Maine I would guess that very few folks use propane as a fuel source for heating (although many do have it hooked up for cooking, dryers, etc.) Fuel oil is mostly seen . . . namely because propane prices seem, or rather have been in the past, much higher than propane.

That said, in the city where I work, natural gas has a nice toe-hold thanks to the spike in heating oil prices back in 2008. It seems as though natural gas is currently as popular as fuel oil in the city.

As someone said, it's hard to second guess the future owner. If you put in an oil furnace or boiler the future owner may decide they don't want to deal with a potential leak of all that fuel or the dirtier nature of the exhaust, maintenance, etc. and eventually put in a propane heating unit. If you put in a propane heating unit, they might want to replace it with an oil heating unit if they are used to that type of heating system.

I think the main thing a future owner will be looking at is that a) there is some sort of central heating system in good order, b) if the heating unit has been regularly serviced and c) when was the heating unit installed. The actual fuel source and name brand of the heating unit (assuming it's not something like the Acme Furnace or some fly by night no name company) would most likely not be as much of an issue.

 

[Highbeam]

What do new home buyers prefer oil or propane ?

Propane for lots of reasons. That's your question I think. Oil is dirty, high maintenance, stinky, expensive, and can't be used for other things like dryers, ovens, or gas fireplaces.

 

[begreen]

Very easy .. why would it worry you? If I go lp I can run central heat and both stoves if I wanted too

How so if one stove is using the oil burner flue?

 

[begreen]

If you do decide to go propane start a new thread in the It's a Gas forum for help with heater selection.

 

[rwhite]

How so if one stove is using the oil burner flue?

Wondered that myself. Whether propane or oil it needs to be vented. So it's probably 6's when it comes to cost of venting if you don't remove the 2nd stove. When you say direct vent your not meaning ventless are you? If so I don't know of a ventless central system. And I don't think I'd trust a ventless appliance to heat with.
Another option could be electric. Either baseboard or heat pump.

 

[ijbelair55]

Easy meaning pull out stove and liner attach piping for furnace and start furnace back up ..direct vent meaning lp now gets vented with 1.5 pvc pipe

 

[blades]

with a new gas furnace of around 93% on up venting of exhaust is done with plastic pipe ( these are all forced exhaust units), which can be run vertical up the flue without removing liner just needs to be capped top and bottom around plastic pipe. Not a difficult deal. or piped out a side wall. Specs are available for horizontal runs pipe sizes for the length of run. Gone are the days of $5 k or more for a gas appliance flue system . I do not know where the current oil burners are at as I have not looked at them. OIl and NG are some what regulated price wise where as LP is not as witnessed a couple winters back when LP prices went through the roof. Some of that was gouging of course. I also do not know how much CNG is being applied to the heating fuel market, The infrastructure for CNG is lacking as opposed to LP.