Greetings, I live in an old home. My furnace is a 16 year old, oil fired hot water heating system. Is it possible to re-fit the furnace to use gas instead of oil. I have two 275 oil tanks in my basement,that need to be replaced. Because of home renovations they will be difficult to remove and replace. There is gas piped into the home already, so I'm looking at all my options. Thanks
Yes you can purchase a gun burner to replace the oil unit. But you need to understand some things before you do.
1. The National Fuel Gas Code book requires that the chimney be lined if you convert to gas. A liner must be metal. Not masonary.
2. The efficency of this new gun burner system is not nearly as good as one that comes built to use gas. It will cost you more to heat your house.
Why not relocate the oil tanks to the garage, or perhaps under a deck on the outside? You could always build a small attached shed on the outside of the home and install them there. Many years ago when there was a big diffrence between gas and oil fuel costs it made sense to convert. But with the extra costs involved with liner, gun install, gas piping costs. You would be better off relocating the tanks.
Posts: 1123 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
replace the whole system with an on-demand gas hot water system. This can do the hot water and heating, if heating with hot water. 95-98% efficient compared to your old system which if 16 years old is most likely 82% at best. this system one takes up a small amount of space less than 6 cu/ft. Oh yea, no storage tank means, no stand by heat loss.
I agree with Eco-builder but with one thought. You must weigh the cost of the conversion with what it would cost to put in another oil system. While I agree the gas system does burn cleaner and the cost of fuel stays fairly constant. The diffrence in the price to change over may end up costing more then you may save over a long period of time. Thus no payback. You need to do the math on this one. And consider how long you plan to stay in the house. If its only for a few years, you will never get your monies out of the conversion.
Posts: 1123 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006