On Tue, 20 May 2008 12:04:48 -0500, Chris Hill
wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2008 07:03:30 -0700 (PDT), Dairy Godmother
wrote:

Hi there,

Just bought a house in CT and am navigating options (my first house).
The house has an oil tank (which I find hard to wrap my head around,
I'm from CA and we didnt have oil tanks) which works fine, though it
has been patched and the inspector told me it could not be insured as
a result. So it got my mind to thinking about the options and I
realized I had no experience to even begin to have an opinion, so here
I am. Here are the facts:

-- Stamford, CT house built in 1925
-- gas lines run into basement but not used
-- oil tank and boiler (not sure of boiler age, I'm thinking not that
new but not too old)
-- radiators in each room
-- electric appliances (but would love gas one day)
-- no central a/c (would love that one day too)

I'd like to know what scenario would make the most sense if I want to
be economical in the long run. Here are my questions if anyone is
interested / can help:

-- If we put in central air, would it require gas or is electric
possible?
-- if C/A requres gas, does that mean the heat should be gas as well?
I prefer radiator heat, but is it lame to have a sep. system for
cooling and heating? (oil heat and gas a/c)
-- can you run radiators with gas (vs. oil)? seems inefficient
-- given that we dont like it too warm (60-65) and are happy to heat
only those rooms as we need them, is there an electric-based option
that saves money (short of portable space heaters)?

Lastly, anyone from the area able to comment about price of oil vs.
gas vs. electric?



I'd see if a gas burner couldn't be installed in the boiler, and use
window units or mini splits for ac. Oil is likely to continue its
upward trajectory, and the liability of an uninsured tank is something
to be taken seriously.

What liability for an uninsured tank?
I beleive he's talking about a basement tank, typically 275 gallon
capacity, not an underground tank that could indeed offer
environmental hazards.

When small basement tanks leak it almost always starts as a pinhole
leak giving on a drip onto the basement foor. I've seen people go for
an entire heating season with a bucket under the drip, or a temporary
patch.

Replacement of such a tank, as long as there is easy basement access,
is a simple affair. At wholesale equipment outlets around me, new
steel tanks cost only about $300. Installation costs may bring a
replacement up to about $1000.

By insurance I suspect that he meant an annual burner/tank service
policy. When oil companies see advanced age on burners or tanks, they
won't insure it for a service contract.

To the original poster:

With Connecticut making a dumb experiment with electric rate
deregulation (as did California under Gov. Gray out Gray), electrical
rates have skyrocketed. Connecticut, except perhaps for Hawaii, now
has the highest rates in the nation. Don't even consider electric
heat.

Electric heat pumps are also generally a poor choice here in CT. There
are simply too many winter days that are cold enough to make the
backup electrical resistance heaters in the heat pump come on,
spinning your service meter and drving up your costs. Heat pumps only
are efficient down to about 35 degrees. Most CT winter days are below
that.

Doug