time frame oil to gas
I’m wondering how long the process is taking for people to convert from oil to gas. A neighbor said he had this done within a week of consulting with national grid. How long are permits taking for others? Are people going with plumber recs from national grid, or going with their own plumber? What are…
I’m wondering how long the process is taking for people to convert from oil to gas. A neighbor said he had this done within a week of consulting with national grid. How long are permits taking for others? Are people going with plumber recs from national grid, or going with their own plumber? What are people paying? What plumbers are people using? Thanks
You need to make sure that your plumber is licensed and another good criteria is to see if they are certified with the boiler manufacturer that they will be installing.
Prices vary on what type of system you have – steam or hot water and what kind of system you are interested in – high efficiency or standard.
Oil to gas conversion typically takes 2-3 weeks for a permit and 1 week for an installation. If you are interested in converting to a high efficiency direct vent system then you don’t need to do a chimney lining.
While high efficiency systems are more expensive they save you in the long run, typically about 40% over converting to a standard efficiency gas boiler. There are also new micro CHP systems that will provide electricity for the home as a byproduct of the heat. This system is the freewatt which is 97% efficient plus provides electricity. But you need to have a hot water system or be willing to convert to hot water from steam to get the benefits of high efficiency.
Brucef, meter pans are for electric meters, not gas…
I just converted. The process took about 2-3 weeks, from applying with national grid, getting the permit, getting a quote on relining our chimney, and doing the work. It was a very very messy job though. We used Parkset Plumbing (http://www.parksetplumbing.com/) and they were not the cheapest out of everyone we got quotes from, but they were towards the cheapest, and they were very helpful. They are located on Atlantic, so nearby to our home. After the work was completed, we scheduled an inspection about a month later, and DOB didn’t show up. We had to schedule another inspection about a month and a half after that, and DOB didn’t show up again, and so the plumber self-certified and the permit was closed out. All has been fine so far – we completed the conversion in november last year, cut our heating bills by half.
it took my plummer a couple of months. He had to replace most of the gas pipe. As brucef said, you will need to reline chimney, do something with asbestos and remove old oil tanks. Each of this will need a paperwork to close on the boiler permit. And Natural Grid will need the boiler permit to switch you to the “Heating” rate.
The licensed plumber can get an expedited permit if you are broken down and have no heat.
You will need various trades, asbestos cert, oil tank removal and cert, chimney cert, and boiler dep’t inspection.
This all assumes that the gas meter is there already. if you need new meter pan(s), then it will take some time to file plans, install piping, and pass Plumbing Div. pressure test before Nat’l Grid will install meter.
So the answer is, it depends.