Earlier this year, I wrote about how the furnace died and I decided to convert from oil to propane. Little did I know, this was a good idea for multiple reasons. It was good in more ways than I had anticipated. The process of replacing the furnace was honestly the easiest part of it all. The hardest had to do with the oil tank. For those interested, here is an update on how that all played out.
We will start with the logic of converting. I knew the furnace was acting up. I was also having issues with my home insurance provider. Even though I love oil heat and it is the best heating source I have ever had (more on that later), I figured propane was the smarter choice on home insurance. It is very, very difficult to insure a home with oil heat. Converting to propane made sense to me for insurance reasons.
That was my number one reason in converting. However, now that I have converted, I will say that this was a good call for two additional reasons. There is only one negative, which I will get to as well. Still, three positives and one negative for the oil to propane conversion. Even with the one negative, I have zero regrets in my decision.
Positive number two for converting is the price of oil. I honestly never saw it coming. Did anyone? This “war” driving up prices seems to have come from nowhere. Here we are. Winter 2025, I had prepaid my oil and locked in my price for the winter at 2.99 a gallon. Here we are a year later, and the price of oil is over $6 a gallon. It has literally tripled in a year.
The price of oil is positive number two for my oil to propane conversion. I have a contract locked in for my propane for 1.89 this winter. Prices locally for propane are currently 2.40 and rising.
Positive reason number three for the oil to propane conversion has to deal with the oil tank. The oil tank was the most challenging part of this entire conversion for multiple reasons.
First was the oil itself. I had been trying to run the tank out of oil when the furnace died. This was a bit of a hardship, as when the furnace died, we were still getting down to 35-40F at night. We were quite chilly with no furnace for a few weeks before it finally warmed up for spring and summer. This meant that there was a lot more oil left in the tank than I had planned. I was literally planning on running the tank out. The furnace didn’t make it.
I did have money saved as part of my conversion for oil tank and removal. However, the original quote I had for the oil and oil tank removal literally doubled – due to the price of gas. So, before I went down that road, I sought alternatives.
I offered the oil free to anyone who wanted to come get it and could safely remove it. We have people here locally who do that sort of thing. You offer up oil and/or a tank, people respond. People need oil to heat their homes. Some people are looking for a new tank. I offered both for free to anyone who did the labor to remove.
Many local postings here will sell the oil and tank. Here I was trying to give it away for free, and everyone said no. I even point blank asked some people if they wanted it and was told I did not have enough oil to make it worth their time even if it was free.
I had paid roughly $300 for the oil in that tank that I was trying to give away. That same oil is now worth over $900. No one wants a free $1k of oil. It’s too much work.
Their refusal to take the oil and tank ended up being a blessing in disguise because they were both a much bigger headache than I anticipated.
I ended up hiring the professional company and paying double what I had budgeted for the project. Another reason for hiring professionals was again, insurance reasons. The insurance company refused to change me from oil to propane until the oil tank was removed. Never mind that I now have a propane furnace in my basement that is fully functional and heating my home. Sure, mark me as oil because I have an oil tank in my basement not being used.
Due to cost, I was going to put off removing the oil and oil tank until spring 2027. I wanted to try to get more money saved so I wouldn’t short myself on money. However, when doing some of my basement checks, I became worried about the tank. I go to the basement every morning to check the live traps for mice. That way if there is a mouse in a trap, I can get it outside. It was on one of my basement checks that I happened to notice the bottom of the tank was very rusted and I was worried about a leak.
Here is the other thing about that tank. When I bought the house, they said the tank, like the furnace was new within 5 years. Remember how I found out the furnace was really 25 years old, not 5 years old? Wait until you hear about this oil tank.
We will start with the fact that they painted the oil tank before the house was sold so that it looked a lot newer than it actually was. When I viewed the house and the tank and they said “new within 5 years,” it made sense when I looked at the freshly painted tank.
I hired the professional company to do the work so that they could provide the paperwork I needed for the home insurance company confirming the tank was removed. They were hazmat specialists who could remove it safely so that I would not have a leak.
Even though the new propane furnace went in in July, I did not have the oil tank removed until September. I decided it needed to come out before winter and could not wait until spring due to the amount of rust on the bottom. I figured something was wrong with the tank to be that rusted on the bottom when the rest of it (that they painted) looked so good.
Oil tank removal day came, and it was a good call. Here is what we learned about that oil tank that was “new within the past 5 years.”
First, the float on the tank that I was using to judge how much oil was in the tank lied. I thought when it died, I only had about a quarter of a tank of oil left. When the oil was removed from the tank, it was almost half full. Again, almost a thousand dollars’ worth of heating oil down the drain because no one wanted it in this economy.
Second, the tank itself was almost 80 years old.
No, that is not a typo. 80 years old. As in, this house is over 125 years old. Of course, when it was originally built, it had wood heat. That was all they had then. When the very first oil furnace was installed in this house, that was the oil tank, It was the original oil tank.
The metal was stamped with the date. The removal company are oil tank / hazmat experts and even confirmed by the type of hookups it had, that it was an original tank. The hookups it had are not made on oil tanks anymore.
The tank was failing. It was rusted. Part of why the float was not working is because the back part of the tank against the wall was rusted through. It I had filled that tank one more time, it would have failed, and I would have had an oil spill of almost 300 gallons in my basement. That would have meant we would have needed to completely leave the house because it’s a hazmat that is THOUSANDS of dollars to clean up before you can re-enter the home.
New within 5 years, huh? What a lie.
Third, my “walk out” basement has an oddly shaped door. I did notice that because I want to replace the door with one that is better insulated. For me to replace that door, I will need to have one custom made due to size (that is a project for another year when I have more money saved).
Here is the kicker about that door – it was never meant to be a door. You know what that is? They cut a hole in the wall in the back of the basement to get that tank in there when they decided to install central heating instead of just using a wood burning fireplace.
I also learned during this project that my basement originally housed cows, chickens and other animals through the winter. Apparently, that was common in old houses up here. The family farm animals would be housed in the basement in the winters so they did not freeze to death outside because the winters here are so brutal. So the room in the basement that houses the furnace was an addition to the house. They needed a separate room for the furnace since the cows and chickens were in the other room. That was one of the first additions to this house, which was originally built as a one room home.
That basement door was the hole they cut to get that oil tank in here and then just continued to use it to bring the animals to the basement for the winter.
When I called the oil tank removal company, I had measured the oil tank. I measured the door. There was less than one inch clearance. It is TIGHT. I know that hole was cut for that tank, but I wasn’t 100% sure it would go back out through that hole. I had provided photos to the company for the quote as well as measurements. I told them I thought the tank would need to be cut to be removed because the measurements for oil tank and door hole were almost exact (especially with door hinges on there now).
Lo and behold, they got that oil tank out of that basement door in one piece. It WAS an exact fit. It took four men, even when empty, but it came out.
They brought that oil tank out of the basement, showed me the metal where the year of manufacture was stamped, and I kid you not, you could see the hole that was rusted in the tank on the wall side.
The furnace dying was a blessing in disguise. One more fill and we would have had an oil spill. I was good to go with my gut and have it removed before winter even though it made me tight on money. As rusted as that tank was, and as much oil as it had in it, I don’t think it would have been wise to make it wait until spring.
The safest choice was having it out when I did.
The oil and the oil tank are now gone. We are completely on propane. We have a brand-new propane furnace in our basement and two brand new propane tanks on the outside of our garage. We are warm. We have heat. It is already getting down below freezing here at night.
We have a locked in propane rate and automatic refills. I am checking the gauge trying to figure out our usage. We have heat, and that is what is important. We have plenty of carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. Everything works. We are safe.
Now that we are on propane, I will say there was one negative to this process.
One of the big positives of this house last winter was how warm it was. This is the warmest house I have ever lived in my entire life. That says a lot since we now live in the coldest place I have ever lived too.
We were very fortunate to be in such a warm house for Flower’s last year of life. I think it was helpful for her arthritis. She really needed the heat. I had worried about converting to propane if it would be warm enough for Flower. Propane heat is the only type of heating I have not previously experienced in life.
Sadly, Flower passed away in August. Flower never got to experience the propane furnace.
That said, now that I have experienced all 5 major types of home heating systems, I feel like I can rate them on how warm they are. My heat rankings are the one negative of the oil to propane conversion.
- Oil – honestly, last year on oil heat – this is the warmest I have ever been in my life
- Wood – you can’t beat wood heat. It settles in your bones. (It was honestly hard to figure out if I should rank oil or wood as most warm. I may be biased in saying oil, as we just had oil last year, and it’s been a while since I’ve had wood heat. But if you’ve ever had wood heat, you remember how that feels. It’s memorable.)
- Propane – here is the one negative in the conversion. Propane is not as warm as oil heat. However, we are much warmer right now with propane than we ever were at the old house (natural gas) or the apartment (electric).
- Electric heat – Warm enough, but you would still be chilled sometimes.
- Natural gas – by far, the coldest places I have ever lived have had natural gas heat. I love natural gas for the price and because it’s supposedly better for the environment. But as a heat source? It sucks. Expect to constantly be cold – as in, multiple wool sweaters, socks, blankets, hot water bottles, and you will still be cold. You just can’t get warm. You won’t freeze to death, and your pipes won’t freeze, but you won’t be warm.
Even though propane is not as warm as oil heat, I have zero regrets about the conversion. We now have a brand-new furnace that is safe and will last until I die or sell. We are warm and ready for another North Country winter.
Other house projects, like that custom basement door, are on hold until I can get savings built back up to do things. Of course, that’s all part of being a homeowner. We are so grateful to be some place safe where I can keep up on routine maintenance instead of having to continuously repair intentional damage caused by bad neighbors at the old house. I’m using my money here to make upgrades that actually improve the home.
We have heat and we are thankful.
