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Home with oil heat?
After heartbreaks of 3 prior contracts falling through (most recently due to a roof we couldn't afford to fix), we finally are back in the game and found a house we love yesterday. The one main "problem" with it is the heating and all of the different things they have running into the house. This particular house has oil heat, electric, and propane gas for the range. We are both unfamiliar with oil heat and that is one hesitation we have putting an offer on the house. We spoke to the owner and she said in the winter months, she buys 100 gallons/month which runs $350ish for 5 months. It seems expensive but its for a 4000 sq ft home and electric bill during these months is about 80-90.
I tried searching online for unbiased information about oil heat but most of the stuff out there is from companies websites. Clearly asking on a forum I am going to get biased answers, but I just wanted to know if anyone has experience with oil heat and what they have been. Would this deter anyone from buying a home?
Re: Home with oil heat?
My parents lived in a 4,000ish sq ft home and in the coldest months it cost around $700/month to heat.
Our current home (which we just sold) is 1200 sq ft and it costs around $300/month in Dec, Jan and Feb. We keep the heat at 68 degrees at all times since I'm a SAHM. We actually just had oil delivered and the current price is $3.96/gal, so 100 gallons a month is closer to $400 right now.
We did specifically look for houses with gas heat since we were looking at homes closer to 3000 sq ft. The house we bought has an oil furnace that is older, and recently had gas brought to the house so we can replace the furnace and tie our heat in to the gas.
If the house you like has a gas range, it may be the same situation. I would ask an inspector or HVAC person if you could switch the house over to gas heat.
Oil about is the only choice around me. Some electric, but not common b/c it is expensive.
People supplement with pellets or wood, but there is no piped in natural gas.
We have bought 100 gals for $3.51/gal a couple weeks ago and that was our first fill up since the end of last heating season. We ended winter last year with 1/4 tank left in April.
We also bought 3 tons of pellets for around $235/ton in Sept.
Pellet stove runs on stove temp continuous at 75 and furnace is set at 65.
I don't know our sq. ft. but we have a standard 4 rooms below, 4 rooms above 110 year old house with settled blown in insulation.
It can be tricky to compare one home to another. I would trust what the owner says and see if I can get delivery records from the oil co. I don't know if they are records you can request like electric usage records.
Oil can be really expensive if your house is lacking insulation, has large spaces to heat, or your furnace is old and inefficient.
There are also many plans that oil cos. offer to help people plan for the expense.
I don't know where you are so I don't know how cold it gets there, but that is insanely cheap and I honestly don't believe it if you;re in a place that gets cold. My parents' home is half that size and in the winter, they have the tank filled more than once - not every 5 months.