Recruiter wrote:
I just had someone in from the oil co to give me some additional info.
My burner is running at 78.5-80% efficiency.

That is only combustion efficiency, and not that great at that. A new
furnace would certainly be much better than that. I'll bet you are
running the hig 60's in total efficiency


I probably don't need to
upgrade the burner right now. Even he admitted that, although the
furnace is in good condition, it is using much more oil than it
probably should. Replacing the furnace w/ an internal water heater is
about $5000 and a furnace with an indirect unit is about $6800.

Well, you need to do something, and the only thing with any real payback
is a new furnace, and at 3.00 a gallon, only a 10 percent increase has a
10 year return more or less.

Both
numbers are tough to swallow this year. The alternative is to cap the
lines to the tankless and install a gas Water heater. According to the
gas co, it should cost about $50/ mo to run the HW. On the other hand,
according to the oil co, based on a 1200 gal consumpsion, probably 250
gal is HW. so now we are only talking about the difference of $600/yr
for gas vs $750/yr for oil. On top of that, it will cost about $700 to
install the new heater and cap off the tankless. Then, as a friend of
mine reminded me, if the cost of gas continues to rise, the $150/yr
difference disappears since the oil is capped at that price.



while gas is no cheaper than oil[they track pricewise always], you can
get a more efficient gas furnace than oil and usually cheaper. If you
figure everything being equal[!] the swithc from your probably 70
percent at best to a 90 percent gas could save you 900 bucks a year in
fuel[ at 3.50 a gallon oil]


when you figure in the probable lower service costs of the furnace,
I'll bet it is almost free