Bob,

Well you're probably gonna get a lot of opinions on this, but let me give
you my two cents as a New Englander with experience with a variety of
systems...

"Pros" of oil vs. gas: if gas is not available in the neighborhood, or can't
be brought to the house for whatever reason (rock ledge in the way, etc.),
oil will do a much better job of heating ;^)

Seriously, oil and gas are pretty much comparable, and in both cases your
experience will depend a lot on the quality of the equipment and how it's
maintained. Oil systems tend to be slightly noisier and require a little
more maintenance but having owned both I've never found it to be a problem.
Cost-wise in the long term they're pretty much equivalent. Gas and oil
prices both fluctuate, so gas may be cheaper this year and oil next year.
If your home is inaccessible for whatever reason (dirt road, steep hill),
there's a possiblity the oil truck might have trouble getting there during a
snowstorm, but that's an extreme case.

Oil tank leaks do happen but they're rare, as long as the tank is inside the
house. Some (mostly older) homes have the tank outdoors, where condensation
is more of a problem and the tank is more likely to rust. You definitely do
NOT want an underground tank - it can be an environmental nightmare if they
leak. The house I grew up in (in eastern MA) was built in the 1940's, and
still has the (indoor) tank it was built with - never had a problem. Same
for my grandmother's house which was built in the late 30's.

As far as hot water, you typically have 3 choices with gas and 4 with oil.
With gas heat, you can have electric H2O, gas, or some type of unit that
piggybacks on the home's heating system (some of these have external tanks,
some don't). With oil heat, you have the same 3 options plus the option of
an oil-fired water heater. My personal choice, in order of preference,
would be standalone gas (quiet, cheap to run, moderate $ to buy/replace),
standalone electric (quiet, more $ to run but less $ to buy or replace),
standalone oil-fired (noisier, very expensive to buy/replace, cheap to run,
lots of output), or a unit piggybacked to the home heating system (typically
with hot water heat). Other people probably have different experiences, but
every home I've lived in with a piggyback unit has had insufficient hot
water. Plus it requires you to run the heating system all summer.

Eric Law


"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello:

My present home in New England has gas forced hot water heat, and a
separate gas fired tank heater. Pretty conventional setup.

Looking at new houses, and see some oil fired heating
arrangements, which I'm not too familiar with.

Would like to ask:

a. What are the pros and cons of an oil fired furnace for a home compared
to gas ?

b. Potential oil tank (in basement) leak something to be worried about ?
-how long do the tanks "typically" last ?

c. What type of heater do most folks with oil fired furnaces use for
their
hot water ?

d. Relative to (c) above, I saw one house with an electric hot water
tank. What are the pros and cons of this type of system ?
Besides from a "technical" viewpoint, are they (much) more expensive
to
operate ?

Anything else I should be asking ?

Much thanks,
Bob