Submitted by infernal_ram t3_11ym5g1 in RhodeIsland
I live in Coventry and was wondering if any of yall have experience with converting to natural gas. Would really like to know how much it would cost upfront and how much yall have saved from the switch. I currently have oil for heating. Thank you, have a day
Is there natural gas in the road in front of your home? How far is your home from the street? These are important questions that need to be known before you can get an answer.
Less important but also needed for pricing: Do you presently have forced warm air, hot water baseboard, or steam heat?
These are important questions. My friend wanted to convert to gas years ago and they were told they'd have to run gas lines with their neighbors doing the same to get the utility.
not really an easy answer on how much you will save, you have to do the math. A lot of times people just save money because they are going to more efficient boilers, or their old systems were oversized (lots of oil boilers installed are much bigger than required for some reason).
Call around and get a quote for the conversion costs. When I was looking it was anywhere from $5k-$10k depending on the installer. RIEnergy has some rebates available for some equipment- https://www.rienergy.com/RI-Home/Energy-Saving-Programs/rebate-programs
Cost per BTU is significantly lower for natural gas than oil or propane. Even before adjusting for system sizing, efficiency, etc… you are paying about half as much per unit of energy. Anything that further improves efficiency in energy conversion to heat or distribution of that heat is just gravy.
It really isn't anymore. It used to be significantly lower but ya know, Ukraine.
I can’t speak to the conversion costs, but our first year of heating with natural gas was about 1/3 the price it had been with oil.
Another option you could consider is propane. You would still have to have it delivered like oil, but I believe the cost is lower (don't quote me on this). Installation costs would be cheaper as you would not have to have the yard dug up to have the line installed. You can also have a gas range however you would have to have an appliance technician convert it to use with propane. Sorry for my Hank Hill noises.
propane is tricky as it has less btu per gallon equivelant than oil. it depends on the costs of each at the moment, and you can get into tank rental fees, and then you are pretty much stuck with whatever propane suppiler you go with. Someone who was locked in at $3.10 for propane noted oil needed to be $4.30 or more for propane to be a better deal. I think that included the propane equipment being a bit more efficient in the calc. Personally, I'd stick with oil over propane.
Fair, it's kind of a gamble whether propane or oil will be cheaper. We bulk bought propane in the $2.80/gal range ( prepaid for 800 gal and they deliver throughout the season) which I know is not an option for a lot of people due to eating an upfront cost. But since we locked in with our propane supplier for a year they waved the tank rental fees. It ended up working out for us. I think my mother ended up paying around the same total amount for 2 oil fill-ups $4 /gal * 2* 300 gal tank.
Converting my house over after our oil boiler just shit the bed. We have forced hot water baseboard heating. Getting quotes right now for $14-$18k and that is without the cost of the unit itself, that's just for labor. RI Energy is also not being convenient about running the lines to the house. They refuse to do anything until June. Normally I get this, but we've had such a mild winter, the ground isn't frozen. They still refuse to come out earlier. It's going to be an expensive pain in the ass, but not having to worry about oil will be nice.
Do you have forced air or radiators?
Radiators
Are you converting for cost or convenience?
If for cost, and depending on your house configuration you might be better off with wood or pellets.
SmargelingArgarfsner t1_jd8cfy2 wrote
The answers to these questions can vary wildly based on your personal circumstances.
Upfront cost will be a combination of new service installation with RI Energy, and installation of new heating system by a contractor. The grids costs are pretty much fixed, whatever they tell you it will cost to get a meter installation is what it is. The new heating system is where the variability lies.
Dozens of questions like forced hot air or hydronic (baseboard/radiators)? What about hot water? Traditional or modern high efficiency? Home size? Number of zones of heat, etc, etc, add to that the physical limitations of your home for equipment locations, flue terminations, pipe or duct runs etc.
I would expect to pay at least $8k-12k depending on the answers to those questions.
Then there is the savings, is it worth it?
Depends on what your doing now, and what you decide to do in the future. Absolutely impossible to predict actual ROI or anything like that without actual data and decisions on equipment to be installed.
Feel free to ask more specific questions and I am glad to help as I can.
Source: RI Master Plumber who has done hundreds of conversions in the last 20+ years.