OfflineJust bought a 3 family house and i need some advice on weather if i should change the heating system to electric or should i just leave it as oil. Which one would be cheaper for me, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Gas heat or Electric
Posted on: Wed, 02/17/2010 - 05:20
Depends on what part of the country you are in. Here in the northeast gas is cheaper. They always said that electric was the new way to go but it hasn't worked out that way. If the town has municipal utilities, meaning the town owns the services than elec. may be cheaper. I would ask around your new neighborhood.....Jan
My electrician just told me that electric is cheaper then natural gas right now.... But i'm not for sure if it is cheaper then fuel oil or not!!
Something to ask around like Jan said
I would think that if nothing is wrong with the current heating system I would leave it as is. Maybe clean it out but that is all I would do. That way you can free money up that you would have spent on other things that sell houses fast like the kitchen or bathrooms. Now if you want to improve on it I would do my improvements on the existing but if it isn't salvageable I would then and only then consider changing it out completely.
You can't save the world but you can offer a hand up to a few along your way.
I agree with Siana--what's the return on investment and will it return 3 to 4 times what you invest in the conversion.
In most cases, if it's not broke, don't meddle with it.
Just my opinion. The final decision is yours.
If you live in a cold climate section, your best bet would be to move out from oil altogether; I had oil in my investment properties and the cost was killing me.
Go to forced air/gas and stay away from electric at all costs
Hope it helps
i do live in a cold area and i'm really trying to figure out which one would be cheaper for me. Oil is very expensive where i live and for the most part i am not going to get rid of this property anytime soon so i want to make sure my decision is the right one before i go gutting stuff out. Basically the question im trying to ask is what are the advantages and disadvantages of having electric heat compare to oil heat when dealing with a rental property.
I do live in a cold area and I'm really trying to figure out which one would be cheaper for me. Oil is very expensive where i live and for the most part i am not going to get rid of this property anytime soon so i want to make sure my decision is the right one before i go gutting stuff out. Basically the question im trying to ask is what are the advantages and disadvantages of having electric heat compare to oil heat when dealing with a rental property.
I do live in a cold area and I'm really trying to figure out which one would be cheaper for me. Oil is very expensive where i live and for the most part i am not going to get rid of this property anytime soon so i want to make sure my decision is the right one before i go gutting stuff out. Basically the question im trying to ask is what are the advantages and disadvantages of having electric heat compare to oil heat when dealing with a rental property.
I would try to find out if there is going to be a big enough difference between oil and electric to make it worth the upfront costs of having to put in an electric furnace!!
As others have mentioned, it depends where you live. I'm in Vermont, which obviously is quite cold! In general, the houses here have three options: natural gas, propane, or oil. Natural gas is the cheapest and preferred if available in your area. Oil produces more BTU's than propane, so a gallon of oil will heat more than a gallon of propane. The drawback of oil is that is needs to be filled more option and you have to service the boiler or furance more often. In general, no one heats with electric as it's the worst option here.
I rehab houses (side note - I'm always looking for houses in VT), and if there's a good oil system already in place, we leave it as is. If it needs to be replaced, we go with propane or natural gas. Hope that helps.
Tom
TDS, I can completely relate as I have a bunch of rental properties in Maine and I had oil on one of them and the costs were killing me financially.
I changed my whole heating system to propane and the costs have gone down greatly
Elixbrown - I only wish there was more natural gas service in Northern New England. In VT, only Burlington has it. I hear the prices have really been dropping lately. Good luck with the rentals in Maine - always nice to chat with other property owners in the area!
Tom
We have companies out here in California that you can lease the solar panels & equipment, the solar panels produce the electricity and offset a large chunk of the expense. An added bonus is that when you generate more electricity than you use the electric company will credit your account! Win Win!
Good Luck!
I'm a heating and air guy and I would let all my investment properties be electric same as a stove and the water heater. That way everything is on one bill.so the renters have 3 bills: Electric, Water,Rent.....
As a rental agent in mass, clients hate the idea of oil and don't prefer electric as well. Gas is the cheapest way to go! It's amazing how many renters have passed on apartments simply because of the oil/electric Heat situation. That's been my short term experience.
"FAITH is being Sure of what we hope for and Certain of what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1
Like I said I install A\C Installer And near about all the houses I have put heat and air in have all been electric . In the last 3 yrs!
I live in northern indiana and when I moved into this house I'm currently living in it had lp gas. It cost $500/ half a tank (or so they said). I moved in the last week in dec, and by the third week the tank went from 33%9half) to 8% and the thermostat was set at 60! We switched to electric heaters and kept the house between 70 and 76 and it only cost us an extra $100 per month, which beats $500 a month it would have costed us to still be cold anyway. We had regular gas heat at the house we lived in before this one and that bill ran about $300 a month. It may also depend on the house and how well it's insulated too. All I know is this summer we are installing baseboard electric heaters (each room has it's own thermostat)and we have already switched to an electric water heater. The hot water even lasts longer with the electric hot water heater than the lp gas. We definately use the heater a lot more than normal, there are only a few months of summer here and the winters are pretty cold in this area
Well for one reason is the solar panels cost about $10000!I wish they would lower the price!!
solor panels are definately something I would invest in if I could afford it. There's nothing like having free electric! Even though it's expensive it does work out in the long run. You have to figure if you spend an average of $100 a month on an electric bill, that's $1200 a year, and my electric bill actually averages around $149 a month so for me it's more like $2000 a year, so in 5yrs time I could make my money back.