Heating Oil prices have us looking for ways to reduce the cost of heating our (built in 2021) 2,000 sqft home in North Pole AK. We have Radiant Floor Heating from a Toyo Boiler in the garage currently. I'm trying to scope out if converting to Natural Gas (pipes installed on our street before winter hit) is going to save us money over the next 4 years, or if we wouldn't recover the costs of converting within that timeframe... What information do I need to provide to give you experts & intelligent people what you need to make a decent guesstimate?
Researching Oil to Natural Gas in North Pole AK
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You need:
- Oil consumption in gallons, preferably for the last 3 years (bills)
- Cost of oil for same period
- cost of NG per Therm.
1 Gal of oil is 138,000 BTU's
1 Therm of NG is 100,000 BTU's
Any delivery fees or other hidden cost for NG
Approx efficiency of your oil burner
How old is oil boiler
Approx efficiency of NG boiler
- Oil consumption in gallons, preferably for the last 3 years (bills)
- Cost of oil for same period
- cost of NG per Therm.
1 Gal of oil is 138,000 BTU's
1 Therm of NG is 100,000 BTU's
Any delivery fees or other hidden cost for NG
Approx efficiency of your oil burner
How old is oil boiler
Approx efficiency of NG boiler
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My guess is since there are no refineries in Alaska making heating oil (?) that it is being hauled up from the 48 so you are on the very edge of the supply chain. Alaska on the other hand is sitting on decades of natural gas that has been reinjected into the oil fields to produce more oil, if the gas is in the street, I would be hard pressed not think that natural gas is a safe bet in the logn run. Its highly likely that fossil heating oil is going to be diluted with biodiesel by law as a means of reducing greenhouse gases, and that is going to be a rough transition for those with long term oil heating systems as the biodiesel tend to dissolve long term deposits built up in storage tanks and cause dirty filters and plugged nozzles for a few years until everything is cleaned up. In many cases folks are having to replace their tanks which is not a bad thing for someone with an older tank but still and out of pocket expense.
The big trade off is if you are in high seismic zone (sorry not familiar with AK geography), is that underground distribution is more subject to supply interruption after an earthquake. With oil, as long as the tank is properly restrained with seismic bracing, you may have weeks before you need oil while if the gas supply piping breaks in an earthquake, you will be out of heat immediately and it may take some period of time before it can be repaired and back in service.
One big plus with natural gas is gas burners require far less service, sure they recommend annual inspections but many folks go many years before having service done while heating oil does require service.
The big trade off is if you are in high seismic zone (sorry not familiar with AK geography), is that underground distribution is more subject to supply interruption after an earthquake. With oil, as long as the tank is properly restrained with seismic bracing, you may have weeks before you need oil while if the gas supply piping breaks in an earthquake, you will be out of heat immediately and it may take some period of time before it can be repaired and back in service.
One big plus with natural gas is gas burners require far less service, sure they recommend annual inspections but many folks go many years before having service done while heating oil does require service.
There is still a refinery in Alaska, used to be one in North Pole. The North Pole one was turned into just a storage site.
There is the added chance of catastrophic house explosion with NG, plus the seismic issues of Alaska makes it even higher.
I would want the best NG detector you can buy,having the boiler in the shop would protect the house from initial explosion, but a house just exploded in Whitehorse and the neighbor was killed so just being near a house explosion is bad enough
There is the added chance of catastrophic house explosion with NG, plus the seismic issues of Alaska makes it even higher.
I would want the best NG detector you can buy,having the boiler in the shop would protect the house from initial explosion, but a house just exploded in Whitehorse and the neighbor was killed so just being near a house explosion is bad enough
Natural gas is nothing to be feared. I'd much rather have natural gas than a tank of diesel in the basement or just outside the house. I live in a city of 77,000, we all heat with natural gas, and I know exactly how many natural gas explosions we've had in the past 10 years, exactly zero.
If you know the full delivered costs of the gas we can easily calculate what would be cheaper. I can guarantee the cost of energy with Natural gas is cheaper, its just how the cost of the install and conversion is going to work into that.
If you know the full delivered costs of the gas we can easily calculate what would be cheaper. I can guarantee the cost of energy with Natural gas is cheaper, its just how the cost of the install and conversion is going to work into that.
Personally i would never have NG after seeing house explosions. i can say that pretty easy as i will never have that option here.Propane is in the same boat,to dangerous for its purpose.
Cleaning up fuel is a zero issue here.So that makes propane defiantly a deadly hazard compared to oil.
Cleaning up fuel is a zero issue here.So that makes propane defiantly a deadly hazard compared to oil.
FWIW, Natural Gas is lighter than air, propane is heavier than air. Although both can be hazardous, propane is a bit more as it tends to leak and fill up the basement until it finds an ignition source. Natural gas tends to want to rise so there is chance it dilutes itself.
Thank you for that list, I'll do some math and see how long it would take to recover the NG Installation costs.
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