Good morning, My father is an oil burner mechanic (in nyc, so he can't give us recommendations for Philly, alas), and this is what he thinks:
> 1. We had planned to convert to gas. Some people recently commented that > they preferred oil heat. I am curious why? According to my dad (and I suppose his biases are clear) oil is cheaper and more efficient than gas. There are 400,000 btu's in a gallon of oil, and about half of that in a cubic ft. of gas. Oil burners are more efficient than gas burners, though some of the newer, more sophisticated gas burners are close. There's more competition among oil companies, and for gas you're stuck with PGW. Also, if you have steam or hot water heat, you can use the new system to provide hot water for free, as a by-product of heating the house. They put a coil in the boiler, and the hot water gets heated automatically. (I'm not good at remembering this kind of detail, but I do remember thinking it was cool, sorry to be vague). OTOH, I think I'v heard that gas burns cleaner so it's a better choice environmentally. But I don't know enough about the details to say this with confidence. > 2. Is it better to have a plumber put in a new system, versus an oil > company, or some other party? As far as competence of installation, it probably doesn't matter, but if you go with the oil company they're likely to respond better if there are problems b/c they want to keep you as an oil customer. Oil companies make most of their money on oil, service is something they offer because their customers need it. Installing a new burner is one of the few kinds service that doesn't lose the oil company money. You'll usually find an inverse relationship between price per gallon and the speed/quality of service an oil company will offer. > 3. Master Oil quoted us $3k to put in a new boiler, including parts and > installation. Does this sound reasonable? Yes. (Though my dad is in New York, and I don't know if there's any regional difference). > 4. Where do you shop for a boiler? Dad thinks any cast iron tank is probably fine, and you could go with what Master is offering, but you could probably check with Sears or Home Depot for comparison. Good luck, debra __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
