Heating fuel conversion

It depends on your rates, your usage and the efficiency of the equipment at each end: the two fuels are priced in different units and per-unit price alone tells you nothing. Ask for the comparison to be run on your actual consumption at current local rates rather than on a general claim.

Frequently, either partially or entirely, but the honest version requires a heat-loss calculation, a room-by-room plan and a statement of what heats the building on the coldest nights. Retaining the existing system as backup is common and costs little once it is already installed.

Usually venting, because different appliances vent differently; fuel storage or supply, because the source changes; sometimes electrical work; and removal of the old equipment and tank. Those items are where a conversion quote quietly grows, so ask for them itemised.

Service exists in parts of this area and not others, and availability at a specific address is a question for the gas utility, not an assumption from the street. Confirm before designing around it.

Converting on your own schedule is almost always cheaper and produces a better result than converting during a failure in January, when the choice narrows to whatever is available. If the system is old or the tank is due, that is the moment to decide deliberately.

It is a heating system with two heat sources and a control that chooses between them: most commonly a heat pump paired with an existing oil, propane or gas boiler or furnace. The control switches to the fuel-fired system when the outdoor temperature falls below a set point, either because the heat pump's capacity drops or because fuel becomes cheaper per unit of heat at that temperature. For Vermont it is often the most practical conversion path: it captures most of the season's savings, keeps a proven heat source for the coldest nights and for power outages, and avoids the cost of sizing a heat pump for the extreme design day.

Compare cost per delivered unit of heat, not price per gallon against price per kilowatt-hour: the efficiencies differ enormously and comparing headline prices is meaningless. The calculation needs your own oil price, your own electric rate including any heat pump rate the utility offers, the seasonal efficiency of the old system and the expected seasonal performance of the new one at Vermont temperatures. Efficiency Vermont has published comparison tools for exactly this. Then weigh the installed cost after incentives, and be honest about whether you are also buying cooling and a second heat source, which have value beyond the fuel bill.

No. A conversion involves a new appliance, new fuel piping or a new electrical supply, new venting, and the decommissioning of the old system: every one of which is permitted work, and several of which are dangerous when done wrong. Where a homeowner adds the most value is in the analysis rather than the installation: getting a genuine heat loss calculation, getting current fuel and electricity prices in your own utility territory, not national averages, and confirming which incentives you personally qualify for before committing to a direction.

It becomes a liability if nobody deals with it, and this is the most commonly overlooked part of a conversion. An abandoned oil tank left with residual oil in a basement is still capable of releasing, and it will be a finding at resale. Proper decommissioning means pumping, cleaning and removing it, with documentation. An abandoned gas line must be properly capped. An abandoned chimney may still be serving a water heater and may now be badly oversized for it. Ask explicitly what the conversion quote does with the old equipment, because quotes differ enormously on this.

Typically two to five days for the mechanical work, with the calendar time longer if a utility connection, an electrical service upgrade or a permit review is involved. If you are converting to heat pumps and the panel needs upgrading, the utility's schedule usually becomes the critical path. The strong advice is to do this in spring or summer: a conversion decided in a January emergency is a decision made under pressure, with no time to compare quotes and no time to verify the incentive paperwork.

It depends on what you convert to and which utility serves you, and the differences are large. Heat pump incentives vary between Burlington Electric, Green Mountain Power and other utilities, with some available to all customers and some income-qualified; Efficiency Vermont administers further programmes including support for weatherisation, which is often the better first investment; and advanced wood heating has had its own incentives. Federal credits change with legislation and should be verified at irs.gov rather than taken from a contractor's brochure or a rebate aggregator site. Confirm everything with the issuing organisation before the installation date.

The new appliance carries its own manufacturer warranty independent of the conversion itself, but the conversion work, new venting, new fuel lines, decommissioning the old system, carries the installer's labor warranty, and it is worth getting those two listed separately since they come from different parties.

Deciding without pricing it against your own actual utility rates and usage. Comparing headline fuel prices per gallon or per therm without accounting for each system's efficiency at your own consumption routinely produces the wrong answer.