[Denny]

I notice that fuel oil is the fuel of choice for heating in th Northeast U.S., but do not understand why that is.

It seems from every perspective, natural gas is superior - cost, environment, and even maintenance.

The only other thing I can think of is infrastructure, the extension of gas mains there. But, this does not make sense to me as a rationale, as I know in Canada, natural gas mains flow east as far as Quebec, and that is just due north from the New England states. At a minimum it would only require extending this southward. And, New England is so much more populous, so the cost/benefit equation would make it feasible.

Here in Ontario, where I live, natural gas mains have been extended even though parts of our "cottage country" just south of the Canadian shield, in which a lot of just seasonal use seems to pay the capital cost.

[killJOY]

Oil can be pumped on board trucks and driven down bumpy dirt roads.

Natural gas cain't.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'I') notice that fuel oil is the fuel of choice for heating in th Northeast U.S., but do not understand why that is.

It seems from every perspective, natural gas is superior - cost, environment, and even maintenance.

The only other thing I can think of is infrastructure, the extension of gas mains there. But, this does not make sense to me as a rationale, as I know in Canada, natural gas mains flow east as far as Quebec, and that is just due north from the New England states. At a minimum it would only require extending this southward. And, New England is so much more populous, so the cost/benefit equation would make it feasible.

Here in Ontario, where I live, natural gas mains have been extended even though parts of our "cottage country" just south of the Canadian shield, in which a lot of just seasonal use seems to pay the capital cost.

[frankthetank]

Lack of pipes.

Aren't natural gas furnaces more efficient? Mine is an older Trane and uses PVC for the exhaust, so not much heat is leaving the house.

The problem with natural gas is the Canadians want to use it to heat up their oil sands so they can send the oil back to us Americans so we can drive to our mailboxes

Silly Canadians.

[JoeW]

good idea. we have an infinite supply of natural gas, right?

[Revi]

I think a lot of people in the Northeast went from coal to oil heat. There are still enormous old cast iron heaters that were converted to burn oil in a lot of basements. They are terrible energy pigs, but they keep working. There is an emergency heating oil supply in Rhode Island I think.

It is really hurting people financially around here. To fill a 275 gallon tank now costs around $1000. Most people are buying oil at $3.24 a gallon now. The Liheap funds are down, so there will be a lot of people running out of oil soon. I watched people in my neighborhood buying a five gallon container of off road diesel to put it into their oil tanks last winter. That lasts less than a day with a typical burner that uses about .8 of a gallon per hour.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I')t is really hurting people financially around here. To fill a 275 gallon tank now costs around $1000. Most people are buying oil at $3.24 a gallon now. The Liheap funds are down, so there will be a lot of people running out of oil soon. I watched people in my neighborhood buying a five gallon container of off road diesel to put it into their oil tanks last winter. That lasts less than a day with a typical burner that uses about .8 of a gallon per hour.

[FoolYap]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'O')il can be pumped on board trucks and driven down bumpy dirt roads.

[FoolYap]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'E')ven now as Natural Gas has spread far and wide it is a considerable expense to rip out an oil burning system and install a natural gas system in its place. Sure if you are installing central air or something similer where you are already pulling the old system out then it makes sense, provided your house already has a natural gas line for other appliances. Otherwise you have to get a line trenched to your house from the main, have gas pipes installed, have a new furnace installed.....all that costs a lot of money.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I')t is really hurting people financially around here. To fill a 275 gallon tank now costs around $1000. Most people are buying oil at $3.24 a gallon now. The Liheap funds are down, so there will be a lot of people running out of oil soon. I watched people in my neighborhood buying a five gallon container of off road diesel to put it into their oil tanks last winter. That lasts less than a day with a typical burner that uses about .8 of a gallon per hour.

[Denny]

Did the government tax credit program in the early 1980's for oil to gas conversion include the U.S.A? That was when we converted and it ended up costing me just $900 out of my own pocket. That was for a brand new furnace too. Mind you I also had to pay income tax on about $1200, but I was in a low tax bracket back then.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'D')id the government tax credit program in the early 1980's for oil to gas conversion include the U.S.A? That was when we converted and it ended up costing me just $900 out of my own pocket. That was for a brand new furnace too. Mind you I also had to pay income tax on about $1200, but I was in a low tax bracket back then.

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'D')id the government tax credit program in the early 1980's for oil to gas conversion include the U.S.A? That was when we converted and it ended up costing me just $900 out of my own pocket. That was for a brand new furnace too. Mind you I also had to pay income tax on about $1200, but I was in a low tax bracket back then.

[Revi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I')t is really hurting people financially around here. To fill a 275 gallon tank now costs around $1000. Most people are buying oil at $3.24 a gallon now. The Liheap funds are down, so there will be a lot of people running out of oil soon. I watched people in my neighborhood buying a five gallon container of off road diesel to put it into their oil tanks last winter. That lasts less than a day with a typical burner that uses about .8 of a gallon per hour.

[tecumseh]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FoolYap', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'O')il can be pumped on board trucks and driven down bumpy dirt roads.

[Revi]

Woodstoves are the way to go around here. Unfortunately the price of a cord of dry wood has gone up to $275 around here. That's still half the cost of the oil you would need to heat that much, plus you are only heating one corner of the house so you save a bunch by keeping the rest of the house chilly.

Unfortunately not everyone has a woodstove or access to wood, even here in the most forested state in the nation.

[Roy]

Wood heating is a good option, as long as most of the people in NE aren't doing it.

How long would those forests last if the majority of the people in New England decided, for whatever reason, that heating with wood was a good idea? Or they were forced to go to it due to a lack of availability of heating oil or coal?

I'd say no more than 5 years before the area looked like it did before the advent of coal burning -- ie nearly treeless.

NE is too densely populated (northern Maine excepted) for them to use anything but coal or oil right now. There just aren't enough trees in this country for the majority of folks to heat with wood sustainably.

We've outgrown our carrying capacity for heating as well as food, thanks to hydrocarbons.

So to answer the OP's question, heating oil is used because of its high energy content, portability, relatively clean burn (compared to coal or wood), and low cost for most of the years that it has been used. Coal was too dirty and there isn't enough forest there to supply the millions of people with cordwood for heat. NG is too difficult to transport as other posters have noted.

[FoolYap]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', 'W')ood heating is a good option, as long as most of the people in NE aren't doing it.

How long would those forests last if the majority of the people in New England decided, for whatever reason, that heating with wood was a good idea?

[Kingcoal]

The Northeast, being the oldest part of the country, relied on coal heat for years. Sometime around WW2, home heating oil became cheaper than coal. A huge infrastructure already existed in the coal delivery business. It was a pretty simple switch for the coal guys to deliver oil instead of coal. It's a very similar business model. These former coal guys started installing oil furnaces all over the place. Oil was the cheapest way to go, even cheaper than NG. As recently as the late '90's, you could buy oil for 75 cents a gallon, making it cheaper than NG. Boy have times changed. 2 years ago, I had a NG line run to my house. UGI, the local gas company, installed it for $140 if I simultaneously put in a NG heater. I went wild and installed gas all over the house. My hot water, stove, clothes dryer are all NG now. I've saved a fortune and the switch has already paid for itself at least once. Right now, NG is the way to go. It's still cheap and plentiful, though that might change in the future. The problem with NG is the depletion curve of a typical well is very sharp.

[gnm]

King Coal is running all NG?!

Hehe sounds like you made a good call on that one.

Maybe that paradigm will go this way...

(The coal being too valuable liquefied into fuel)

coal delivery -> oil delivery -> wood/pellets delivery -> wood stripped from abandoned suburbs delivery -> no delivery (customer is dead)

-G