Looking for feed back to guide me in the selection of a oil fired furnace in my 2500 sf single zoned home in the boston,ma area also looking to couple it with an AC unit as well. Any info is appreciatred

Any reason you're going for an oil-fired furnace? Those are pretty rare nowadays thus you're likely to pay more for it.

I was looking to replace the existing with the same type. There is no ng near by and I am not familiar with lp. Please advise with regards to any other type and I will be grateful. I would like to put a good unit in

Oil furnaces are by no means rare. just put in a new one myself. Also, despite the price increase these days for oil, it is still the best value as far as BTU/dollar. Natural gas and LP have both also increased drasticly, andthe only real advantage I can see is the availability of high effic. units that don't utilize a chimney. My wife and I own several rental properties and they are all natural gas, due to the availability, and low maint factor.
For my own home which like yours has no ng available I have stayed with oil. hope this helps

Thanks for the input. What manuf did you end up using?

ELS,

Oil furnaces are not really rare in the northeast but that still doesn't mean its your best option. I'm not really sure how oil has the best BTU/dollar in today's market either. Oil has the highest heat content of any heating energy, but that's probably only useful if you like the air coming out of your registers to be 150 plus degrees! I don't know of any homeowners that want their homes to be above 80 degrees (hence oil furnaces tend to cause more temperature swings inside homes, not a plus).

Some other downsides to oil furnaces are manufacture warranties. Usually manufactures will only put a standard 1 year parts warranty on oil furnaces versus 5 years on lp and natural gases.

Oil also tends to be extremely dirty (especially if your tank is inside your home).

Oil is obviously not as efficient as the other fuel types (there are no 90% plus oil furnaces).

If if was you, I'd probably look at switching to lp. It won't feel extremely different and you'll save money on utility bills and get a better furnace.

Hope this helps.
-GWC

Good info thank you. I had just started looking into LP as well. Once again thanks

I hapenned to use a Clare furnace. but I have also had luck w/ other types. Check with your local HVAc guys to get their opinions and to see what your local distributor carries

I have a Peerless boiler with a becket burner and superstor tank for hot water. I have had it since 1993 and have been very happy with it. I get it cleaned once a year and burn 500-600 gal. for a 1700 sq. ft. house.

I am pulling out the last of my propane appliances. I originally had elect hot water and dryer, oil furnace. Due to the great advertising of the propane companies, I swapped to LP dryer,hot water, and furnace. My bills more than doubled. Later I found out that I had unplugged an electric hot water which I had a contract on for 20 years for fixed rate elect(I didn't know about it). I was .04/KWH.

My propane prices fluctuate with the company that owns my tank, No one else will fill it. I have been charged over $3.50/ gallon for LP

It is really just simple calculations. LP is about 84,000 BTU's / gallon. Oil is about 136,000 BTU's/gall. Oil at the time was $2.20/gallon, Propane at 2.50 to 3.50/gallon. Propane appliances would have to be more than 160% efficient to meet oil at my prices.

I ran through the numbers and ripped my furnace out and went back to oil. I am now swapping my gas dryer and hw tank to electric. It is about an even tradeoff considering the propane heater vents, and the electric HW could be better insulated.

Also, Oil is safer in my mind. If you spill oil, you will have to clean it up. If you leak propane, you will have to build a new house.

I have a friend who had a 20 lb propane tank leak in his basement (about 2.5 gallons) The fireball traveled up 2 stories up the stair well and melted the A/C at the end of the hall. The pictures on the wall were not touched. It lifted the house off the foundation, blew the insulation out of the basement. Offset the top floor from the bottom, so you could look inside the upstairs from the ground. The deck was blown across the street. They both lived. Some broken bones.

If you are worried about oil spills, then try biofuels. They are safe and biodegradable.

diyer

quote:

Also, Oil is safer in my mind. If you spill oil, you will have to clean it up. If you leak propane, you will have to build a new house.

HA! I like that one. Oil burners are in the 80% range for efficiency. And like diyerNH said, oil burners hotter than LP. Oil is dirtier but if you maintain your furnace and tank the way it should be, it won't be too dirty(if very much at all). I always make sure that the filters and any oil parts on the burner are bone dry before I leave. It helps with finding leaks and it just looks better.

Oil burners will also usually give you signs if its running bad or if something is wrong, unlike gas. If the fumes leak from a gas furnace and you don't have a CO detector, kiss your butt goodbye. You can usually smell the exhaust from a oil burner because it has a certain smell that gets your nose going.

I can only recall one oil burner that caught on fire BUT it wasn't the oil that caused the problem. It was a steam furnace and the low water cut-off switch wasn't working right so it caught fire. I can, however, recall a gas furnace that almost killed two people because they didn't know CO was leaking into their house.

I would go with oil any day. Almost all US made furnaces have all standard parts that every repairman has in his/her truck. There is no need to go chase down parts, unlike with some gas furnaces. Higher BTUs, good efficiency and much safer to operate. Also, there are chimneyless furnaces that vent out a wall instead.

todaysoilheat.com
Not the best site but has some good info.