Thanks to all of you who weighed in on the "where to put the $300" scenario.
We had already "decided" to use it toward the gas tap. It is on the To-Do list (the one I made at 4:00am) to call and schedule it. We are hoping that we can have it installed by the end of November.
The boiler isn't going to last forever, and we are concerned that if it goes in January, and it takes us a week to be able to get another one installed....we will be screwed. The boiler controls our heat and hot water. If it goes in the middle of the winter...our pipes could freeze, and then we have an even bigger problem.
The plan....get the tap. Research the boiler and contractors. Get a timeline.
We are trying to time it where we can use up the oil in the tank (in whatever month it is), and then do a switch. Additionally, we are hoping to do another Lending Club loan to accomplish all of this. If the loan falls through, then we will just have the tap....it will wait for us.
I don't really want to spend $5-$7k on this. But this seems to be the average. Of course, once we know what we want and the cost of instillation, we will have a better idea. We are really hoping that we can do it for $3-$5k. But I know nothing about this....so that might not be possible.
Taking on more debt isn't great. But not having heat isn't either. It will take us about 2 year before we start to see the savings. But we will at least know that the savings are coming.
I don't know a thing about boilers (we have all electric heat where I am) but maybe you could have a repair person just take a look at it and maybe there is some "short term" fix they can do to ensure you get through the winter without it going completely and then you'd have more time to deal with having it replaced in warmer weather.
ReplyDeleteEach year we have the boiler serviced. We had the hiccup a few weeks ago, and it has been fine since. But when we have asked the technician...his answer is "there is no way of knowing when it is going to go." And we have already been told that because it is ancient....it could go anytime, or it could last 5 more years. No way to know!
DeleteBut when we spend over $4,000 just on oil...and it probably only runs at 60% efficiency....the upfront cost will eventually lead to savings.
Having no heat in the winter would just be disastrous, not just out of the fact you'd need to get it up and fixed ASAP, but that the work would be so much more expensive because parts are in higher demand, as well as workers to fix those problems. Hopefully you can find the boiler for a lot less than the 5-7k it seems to be averaging as.
ReplyDeleteThe $5-7k cost is for the unit and installation. From our research, the unit is the less expensive part. It requires skilled labor to install, as if it isn't installed right, the house can blow up!
DeletePart of the expense is the hook up from the boiler to the gas line. We have to get the gas tap from the gas company...but the contractor has to hook the house up to the tap.
Good choice! Heat is good thing! Lol!
ReplyDeleteWe have brought our oil usage way down over the past several years, but it is still over $4,000 a year (the current price is over $4 a gal.)
DeleteThe tap is still a responsible usage of the money. I am just not looking forward to the additional debt when we do the boiler.
I will be interested in what you find out. We heat our house and water with oil as well. We had our furnace serviced last month and he said ours was working fine. It's always a worry as we need the heating.
ReplyDeleteGill
I will let you know!
DeleteWe had to do this in our house. We had to take out a loan from the credit union to do it. We have since paid off that debt. One thing we found: our heating costs declined significantly with the new boiler. We're on the budget plan where we pay the same amount every month. Ever since we got the new boiler, we have two and one half months where we don't owe anything to the gas company because we've over paid.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot of money up front, but once you do it, you won't have to worry any more.
I would love to hear about your experience! Overall cost, things you learned, what product you ended up with.
ReplyDeleteE-mail me at mysti1031 AT yahoo DOT com