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Old 12-09-2020, 07:04 AM   #90
jeffk
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I had a different reason to switch. Oil is dirty. My oil furnace died when the heat exchanger cracked sending blowback combustion fumes into the house. EVERYTHING was coated with soot. I had to have professional cleaning services come in to clean EVERYTHING and had to wash ALL my clothes and dishes and anything else that was not in a sealed area. The insurance paid for the professionals but it was a BIG hassle. I replaced the oil furnace with a propane furnace.

Propane furnaces might suffer the same problem BUT the combustion fumes have far less soot and would make far less mess.

I also recalled that my parents had gas heat and rarely had to have service done on their boiler (even if it might have been recommended that they do). It ran fine. If you don't service an oil furnace yearly, you are looking for trouble. With the propane furnace I got then and at another house, I got service every 2 - 3 years and never had a problem.

In addition, with oil, the tank is usually inside the building, especially in cold climates. Propane stored outside, freeing up some space in your basement. With the oil tank inside, part of the service is to check the lines which requires they be opened and bled. No matter how carefully it is done, it stinks and oil can drip on the floor.

I believe that calculations I did at one time showed that propane is probably a bit more expensive that oil, which has a higher BTU rating. However, when you factor in the required yearly oil maintenance, the cost is about equal. The mess factor associated with oil tipped the balance to propane.

Also, you can also have on demand hot water heaters with propane. Not sure if that is possible with oil.
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