"Steve Ackman" wrote in message
rg...

I don't even have to look at an enegy calculator.
Just got #2 oil last week for $2.99/gal. and propane
is coming this week for $3.12/gal.
HUH??? With propane only yielding... what, ~70% the
heat content of oil, propane is a REALLY BAD deal right
now.

--

Oil burning units are typically at best 80% efficient, LP can run into the
mid 90% range. I popped the numbers in quick and fuel oil at 80% and $2.99,
and LP at $3.12 and 92%. Cost per million BTU, $26.95 for oil, $37.13 for
LP. So at first glance oil seems cheap!

Now one thing to consider is to operate at its highest efficiency and oil
unit needs attention at least every two years. Most oil burners I see get
attention when they quit running! A typical tune for oil is a new nozzle,
filter, adjust the spark electrodes and run, Forest, run. I have tested
quite a few oil burners and have yet to see one running close to 80%, unless
I had just done a GOOD tune which includes cleaning the heat exchanger
besides the fore mentioned. One residential oil burning furnace I worked on
lately I removed 5 gallons of sot from inside the heat exchanger!! Most I
see are running around 50% efficiency because lack of maintenace! (I worked
on a boiler the other day that was running 40%!!) Plug in the numbers at 50%
efficiency and the cost per million for oil jumps to $43.12! Plus consider
the maintenance oil requires where a high efficiency LP burner will require
little to no maintenance and oil gets worse yet.
For me to do a good tune on your oil burner I would spend 3-4 hours, at $90
an hour, plus parts, add that to your heating bill!

Lucky for me I have natural gas, and even adding all the taxes, and any
adjustments my cost per million BTU at 94% is $21.28.
Greg