Propane to Oil Conversions
This fall, Hart & Iliff completed several propane to oil conversions. Why, you might ask, would a propane customer spend a significant amount of money to convert to oil heat? There are four main reasons.
1 Economy of Operation.
One gallon of propane contains 91,300 British Thermal Units or
BTUs (a measure of heat content). Heating oil, on the other hand contains, 140,000 BTUs
per gallon. As a result of this significant BTU difference, it takes 1.53 gallons of propane to
generate the same amount of heat as one gallon of heating oil. In addition, propane usually
costs about 20 cents per gallon more than heating oil. If you combine these two factors, it’s
easy to see that it costs approximately twice as much to heat a home with propane as it does
with heating oil.
2 Cleanliness
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, modern oil heating systems burn
equally as clean as natural gas or propane.
3 Hot Water Production
Since an oil flame is hotter than a propane flame, it can produce hot
water faster. The average recovery rate (amount of hot water that an be produced in one
hour) of a gas or propane fired water heater is approximately 40 gallons per hour. The
average recovery rate of an oil fired water heater is approximately 120 gallons per hour.
Therefore, oil can produce three times the amount of hot water as propane for less money.
4 Safety
Since propane is highly flammable and explosive, it is illegal to install a propane tank
inside a home or building. Heating oil, on the other hand, is combustible, not flammable.
This means that heating oil will not burn at room temperature. In fact, it must be heated to
140° F before it will burn. Therefore, it is legal and perfectly safe to install a heating oil tank
in a basement, garage or storage area of a home or office.
Our new customers who converted from propane are thrilled with the results and are very happy to be heating their homes with economical, clean, dependable and safe oil heat.
