"Paul M. Eldridge" wrote:

My home here in Nova Scotia is heated with oil. The boiler when I
purchased this home four years ago was then thirty-four years old (so
too the separate oil-fired hot water tank) and I suspect neither were
all that efficient. If natural gas were available, I would have
switched immediately, without a second thought. Since that wasn't an
option, I installed a high-efficiency oil-fired Slant Fin boiler, a
SuperStor Ultra indirect hot water tank and a Tekmar boiler control
system. I chose this particular boiler because it can be easily
converted to natural gas when that happy day comes (it's certified to
operate on either fuel).

Last year, with the addition of a small ductless heat pump, I was able
to cut my fuel oil consumption by more than half (from 1,973 litres to
828 litres). Of the remaining 828 litres, I'm guessing roughly 500
litres or so are related to domestic hot water production (an average
of 1.4 l/day x 365 days/yr). Given the relatively modest space
heating demand, if I had to do it all over again I would have
installed an electric boiler as a backup to the heat pump and
eliminated oil altogether. With heating oil and electricity here in
Nova Scotia running at about par, there would be little or no economic
penalty to going with electric and I could eliminate the need to store
fuel oil on my property.

I should add that the previous homeowners used 5,700 litres of heating
oil in the year prior to my purchase (and that happened to be a fairly
mild winter). By upgrading the heating and DHW systems, careful air
sealing, window and door replacement and adding more insulation (e.g.,
the attic went from R6 to R60 and the walls from R6 to R22), I was
able to reduce my fuel oil consumption by 65 per cent. With the
ductless heat pump, I've been able to cut that by more than half
again. At current prices, I'm now saving over $4,000.00 a year on my
heating and DHW costs.

Cheers,
Paul

Indeed regardless of the fuel source, when you upgrade a decades old
system and more importantly address deficiencies in insulation, windows,
doors, etc. you can make a big difference in total efficiency and
operating costs.

I would suggest that before considering a fuel switch or equipment
upgrade for the same fuel, anyone with oil equipment manufactured in the
last couple decades would be better served to properly address
insulation, window and door issues first and wait a month or two to see
the change. In many cases the non equipment issues can losses 25% or
more.

If you have equipment (oil or gas) that is more than say 40 years old
you should be looking to replace it unless it's a particularly high end
model and efficiency testing shows decent numbers. The 50 year old
boiler that was replaced at my mother's house had been testing in the
79-80% range which while not as good as a modern unit wasn't bad at all
for a 50 year old unit.

Pete C.