jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'd need a big tank in the back yard for propane. I had one removed last year when my fireplace gas insert stopped working. Since I wasn't using much gas, they were charging me $5.00/gal. They also started charging me $85/year for tank rental. Putting on a jacket is cheaper. : )

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

WE jut had an oil burner go bad during the last cleaning, didn't pass the monoxide test, heat exchanger burn through, switched to gas, about the same $$, have you considered a gas on demand water heater, or adding a coil to the wood furnace?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Jeremy Clarkson: "How hard could it be??"

TonyBot

While natural gas is certainly the cheapest way to go, it may not be available to you. Your ancient furnace, fired by oil, is probably using an equally old burner unit. You can check on top of the round tube entering your furnace (between the blower unit and the body of the furnace) and see what the "gph" - gallons per hour - is. If it is over 2.0 its probably older dirt. It should be about 1.2 or less to be more efficient. You could change out the burner unit and save money (because it will use less oil) on fuel, and the efficiency of the burner would actually help make the actual heating unit last longer. But, that said, you're much better off with a newer unit with a "tankless" water heater if you want to use it for heat as well. If you're going to depend on the wood stove for heat, get a stand-alone water heater. The in-line, "on demand" heaters are good, but not cheap (probably four or five times the cost of a tank style water heater), and take up very little room.
Whichever way - good luck!

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

It is not as easy as it sounds but possible. I always think a stand alone water heater is a good idea, you need hot water year round and heat only a short time so you don't want it keep firing the heater. I use wood also, and every year I hate spending the time to cut, split and stack it. If you had to purchase the wood, I would rather purchase fuel oil and not spend the time and effort of wood - but there is nothing more comfortable that a good wood fire!

malawibob Loc: South Carolina

I got tired of paying for a tank to continue heating whether we were there or out, so replaced it at Ace hardware with a tankless. Electric bill went down and we always have immediate hot water. Cheaper than a new tank. Solar is probably even cheaper to run. Not sure of the original cost though.

tracs101 Loc: Huntington NY

Great suggestion! On demand water heaters work very well. We have one at work and 70 employees use hot water every day for a small kitchen and for washing in the restrooms without any issues.

TonyBot

Good point. Newer water heaters can be "shut off" when going away (if electric) or put into "vacation" setting if gas (only the pilot light running). But, as you state, the on-demand units only are working when you need them, so there is no "away" setting needed.
BTW, I know of an individual here in the northeast that installed solar hot-water heaters and dumped all the hot water into a rather large 5,000 gallon insulated tank - well insulated with about six inches or more of expanded foam. Then he installed a heat exchanger to heat the household water and his heating system in a super insulated house. No more heating bill. Just a 75-year ROI!

mwoods222 Loc: Newburg N.Y,

Look into gas saved lots over the long run

Don W-37 Loc: Bangkok, Thailand

Hi Jerry,
We have 6 instant water heaters in our house and they have lasted 15 years. Just starting to replace them now. We have Stiebel-Eltron units (German) and have been happy with them. Ours are electric. One word of advice if you buy them: be sure that they are powerful enough and a adjustable. Good luck, Don

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I retired from the heating and air conditioning business and here's a idea of how things have escalated over the years. In 1970 we paid a journeyman pipefitter $5.00 per hour. We paid $69.00 per hour to our journeymen pipefitters in 2017 (wages and benefits). In comparison, we sold a 1/3rd horsepower 3-speed blower motor for $17.50 in 1970 and we sold the same blower motor for $188.50 in 2017. As crazy as it sounds, most replacement heating systems would recently sell were in the $6,000 to $10,000 range. Heating and air conditioning manufacturers are subject to ever changing EPA, DOE, and the impact of Global regulations. Currently the largest impact is on the refrigerant phaseout which has the entire industry scrambling to come up with new refrigerants that are environmentally friendly including the use of carbon dioxide, propane, and exotic blends. In closing, for what it's worth, I bought my first new car which was a 1964 Rambler American six cylinder automatic, no AC for $1,920. I recently bought a new 2018 six cylinder no frills car for $38,000.

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

A few things to consider. In order to promote energy savings, our state (Delaware) offers rebates to homeowners who upgrade to more energy efficient appliances. Check and see if your state does. We just replaced our heat pump driven electric heating and air conditioning about a year ago at a total cost of $11,700, but after rebates from the manufacturer (Trane) and the State, the net cost was down to $5,400. In addition, our summer electric bills immediately dropped by over half. Winter bills dropped by about a third. That will be an enormous savings over the life of the new system.

If your primary concern is heating water, however, you could look at the new heat pump electric water heaters. I'm currently thinking about one myself. I've been quoted $3,000 for an 80-gallon Rheem, which would be $2,400 after rebates. Comparing the ratings to my current 14 year old water heater, my annual operating cost would be reduced from $643 to $161, giving me a payback of less than 5 years. While I would guess that the heating/cooling system would absolutely require professional installation, you may be able to legally install the water heater on your own.

Good luck!

napabob Loc: Napa CA

the different prices on WH's may be because they have more anode rod for the buck, the priciest one has two, one regular one with it's own nut, and another one under the hot nipple, and usually a self cleaning feature...........I replace my WH anode rod every year, cheap insurance and fairly easy to do, I've read it lengthens the life by twice at least.............

Swede Loc: Trail, BC Canada

Agreed 100%!

Swede

RichieC Loc: Adirondacks

Two things 1) THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE. 2) they will tell you it is.

He's charging you $3,000 to install it unless its more than just the furnace. Depending on the square foot of your house, they are about $3500. Ask a few people, find someone who works at a building/school and see how much they'd charge as they'd be doing it on the side. Honest it isn't a big deal unless you have to do something fancy. I mean a guy has to earn a buck.. but i have to keep track of mine.

Are you handy? If you can sweat a copper pipe joint, you can do it. You are just replacing the old one. The big thing is the new furnace will be a lot smaller than the the old one. But all the pipes will be similar- you just have to hook em back up. I had a guy who works at the local college do mine. He did it for Christmas money. I helped him... and after i watched the whole thing i realized- i could have done that! Whoop de do! Oh and have your fuel tank cleaned out, there is absolutely sludge at the bottom of that tank- and replace your filter... did you even know you had one? LOL.

Switching over to natural gas or propane will increase your costs, oil furnaces are now efficient enough that you'd never be able to recoup the difference in savings. ( at least when i did all this research) You do need a working furnace though. On demand oil fired hot water heaters are significanly more spendy than gas, and if you have very hard water, any of em can become problematic- like your coffee maker. But hot water is endless with them, great unless you have teenagers LOL . Venting the damn things can be expensive! check what codes say and measure the run. Apparently the low temp of the gasses from the new ultra high efficiency furnaces form condensation that is acidic, and will ruin a normal ceramic chimney... so they call for stainless... damn stuff is made out of gold apparently. One make was like $100 a foot! So check everything you need. Add it all up and decide.