PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

I'm still running the original boiler from the late 60's. It's a Burnham I believe. I have it serviced anually and my service tech always says "hold on to this...they don't make them like this anymore". It's still averaging in the high 80% for efficiency. I only burn 650 gallons of oil per year for both heat and hot water. My baseboard units are cast iron (not like the tall steam kind), but more like the typical baseboard heating unit. They heat up nicely and hold heat for a long time.

 

I've never seen ones used here in a new installation, they all dropped off the face of the earth on the western US around late 1970s and early 80s. The only houses around here that have oil heat have never been renovated and were built pre 1960s. Propane and Natural gas make a lot more sense and the units are less wasteful too

 

My step-grandma's house in Nee Jersey was built in 1947 and has the original Thatcher oil boiler that still works great!

 

Oil heat sucks. There’s a reason they don’t put them in new construction.

my old place had an almost century old oil furnace and we just ran electric space heaters in each room because it was MUCH cheaper to pay the high electric bill than buy oil. That thing went through $400-600 of oil per month to heat a 1200 sq ft house in Portland OR where it doesn’t even get that cold in the winter (daytime temps in the 40s and 50s).

 

Yes, agree - a couple things

Pretty much new in ground home oil tanks are banned. Unsure about above ground.

I grew up in CA, most all areas have NG. And most all areas in the south need a straight up AC. Although I could argue many areas could have dual source and be better off. My brother in So Call has an over abundance of solar panels. Works really nice with his AC. He really doesn't need heat.

I owned a home in southern OR. Built in 1971. Had oil heat originally. Not sure what happened but was removed by the time we bought the place in 1988. It had heat pump and wood heat. We did OK. But that heat pump was a real POS.

 

I agree; Oil itself as a fuel source is what sucks! It's messy, it smells, and it's expensive! A properly maintained oil boiler can heat a home very efficiently; It's keeping the thing fueled up that's expensive!

 

Heat pumps, especially older ones, are about as powerful as a fart in a hurricane when it comes to efficiently heating a house once it gets below about 40 degrees? 1988, you say? That thing probably spent more time defrosting than it did actually heating the house!

 

What's up with SpongeBob?

 

He is grumpy

 

Grumpy that I started this thread about oil heat?

 

Oil heat for garage only or the whole house...remember, I live on the bedt(west) coast.

 

Do you have one of those waste oil heaters?

 

Nope. Natural gas and water.

 

Natural gas and water...? For the garage? I'm a bit confused...

 

We live in different areas, but there are only a few ways to heat a garage or house.
Propane, natural gas, or wood fire.

 

Don't forget the poors with their electric baseboard or single room forced air haha

 

I still heat with coal. If your money is green you can heat with whatever you want

 

Saw this house while doing DoorDash today; Absolutely huge house, but only one relatively small central A/C unit...

 

@ColoradoTJ

Your house is fairly big right, but only has a 3.5-ton?