Re: switching heating source - Landlord Forum thread

Re: switching heating source by Bryan (Ia) on March 10, 2012 @11:07

When considering costs to heat you cannot simply use a gallon of this to a gallon of that comparison. You must consider the cost per BTU. A gallon of LP has approx. 92,000 BTU's and a gallon of fuel oil has approx. 138,700 BTU.

Using current nat'l averages released on the 7th of March, Fuel Oil $4.10/gal and LP $2.867/gal, the costs currently are $0.0289/BTU for Fuel Oil and $0.0312/ BTU for LP.

If you want to be more specific you have to consider the efficiency of the specific units providing the heat. Since that varies greatly, I can only provide info based on 100% efficiency.

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Re: switching heating source by Micah on March 10, 2012 @11:53	[ Reply ]

The whole point is to put the cost of heating on the tenant. Sure, you pay for the installation, but then you don't have to pay to heat that unit again... Some tenants are just bad with heat. The people renting an apartment in the building next to mine have had at least one window open every day this winter (so thankful that they are not my tenants!) No thermostat lock is going to help with that. Many propane companies will actually foot the cost of installation of tanks and sometimes the heaters themselves when you sign a contract with them. An average Rinnai apartment sized heater costs between $1000.00 to $1500.00 Personally, I'm going to natural gas this summer. I'm lucky that I have the line going down my street and the gas company will run it to my house for free. I look forward to the convenience of it. I had many a sleepless night praying that the heat didn't kick off because the oil company hadn't made their delivery on time. Not to mention the fact that oil companies up here have been going out of business taking with them the prepaid money from their customers and not delivering the oil!