"D J" wrote in message

I just bought one house with Electric Heat in it and was thinking to
convert it to natural gas heat.

In theory, that is probably a good idea. In most places, gas is cheaper.
Be sure to check that out. There is a web page where you can do cost
comparisons by plugging in some know numbers. A Google search will probably
find it.



House is having four bed rooms, living room, kitchen, one bath room. I
heard from the utility company that the last gentlmen had an average of
200$ in Electric bill for last two years.. Which scared me off.

Scared? That is damned cheap. I pay $200+ in summer with partial Ac. I pay
$100 in winter with oil heat and then pay $160 average for oil. I'd trade
bills with you any time This year, with increased rates and oil prices, I'll
probably average $270 for heat and electric.


I live in NJ, north. Would it be a good idea to convert to natural gas
heat? I heard government is giving some subsidies and also loan
programs are available. But, I don't know what is given to whom and
also which companies are good at it.

First, find out if gas is available. In my case, it would be $10,000 just
to get hte gas line to the house and that was 20 years ago. Until you know
that gas is available, the rest may be for naught.

Changing oil to gas or vice versa is fairly simple. You just change the
burner or boiler and leave all the plumbing or furnace ducting in place.
From electric baseboard to some other form of heat can be very expensive if
you have to run ducts or piping.

Your local utility company will know about any subsidies or loans available.
Check with them and the heating contractors.