I'm having natural gas run to my house from the gas company for free as part of an agreement to convert my oil-fired furnace and electric water heater to gas.

I had used a state of PA program before on our old house that had favorable rates and payments, but it doesn't look like that program is doing any new loans.

We just moved this past November and tapped a lot of our savings to make the closing costs, I don't think we have enough equity in the house to cover the project and I don't want to touch my 401k.

Any ideas? Don't the equipment manufacturers themselves do financing? My HVAC guy is working up a formal quote which is going to be around $12,500- $14,000 depending on what I go with but I plan to get a new gas furnace, new AC, whole home humidifier and gas water heater. He's going to run all the gas piping and set it up for future gas appliances like range, dryer and fireplace insert as well as fix some ducting issues on a room that is not getting heat and remove the two old oil tanks.

I'm ideally looking for something with a long repayment period, like 8-10 years and not 3-4

Sometimes the gas company will also finance gas appliances. I know ours does. Have you checked with them? I know you said you did not want to touch your 401-K but some companies have programs where you can take a loan against your 401-K and pay yourself interest, and do not have to make a taxable withdrawal. If nothing else works, you might check into that.

Unless you live in a really cold place, you need to look at paying the cost of reading the meter each month for two services.

An in-the-ground heat pump is the way to go with a wood stove for back up heat.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
Unless you live in a really cold place, you need to look at paying the cost of reading the meter each month for two services.

I don't know what you mean here?

In PA, heating oil is much more expensive than natural gas and I don't want to screw around with wood, I've got a 3 year old and a 9 month old and am busy enough trying to keep them alive and their mom from tearing her hair out.

8-10 yrs... I'd check to see if an equity loan was an option/available.

I'm not sure a gas company or HVAC dealer will offer a payment plan for that length of time. You could try a personal loan from your bank or credit union. One thing about loaning off of your 401k, you pay yourself the interest. I realize that there are reasons not to want to do it though as well.

A geothermal system would be at least twice as much money. If you have the room and access for the well driller in your yard.

Is there any work you could do yourself to reduce the bill?

Most reputable hvac companies offer financing through a 3rd party arranged by the manufacturer.

How many people can come up with 10-15k cash, or even cc for that matter?

I work for Carrier, commercial not residential, but rest assured a sizeabke chunk of the residential work is financed.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
I'm not sure a gas company or HVAC dealer will offer a payment plan for that length of time. You could try a personal loan from your bank or credit union. One thing about loaning off of your 401k, you pay yourself the interest. I realize that there are reasons not to want to do it though as well.

A geothermal system would be at least twice as much money. If you have the room and access for the well driller in your yard.

Is there any work you could do yourself to reduce the bill?

.Gov just reinstated a 30% tax credit on geothermal, I think it had been defunct for a couple years

Might want to get a separate quote from a plumber or Plumber’s on running the gas and a couple HVAC estimates. Home equity loan might be worth looking into.

quote:

Originally posted by ElKabong:
Most reputable hvac companies offer financing through a 3rd party arranged by the manufacturer.

How many people can come up with 10-15k cash, or even cc for that matter?

I work for Carrier, commercial not residential, but rest assured a sizeabke chunk of the residential work is financed.

Yes, I'm looking at what Lennox (the brand I'm going with) offers now.

Will you realize a true savings making the switch?

How long will it take to recover the $14,000 installation costs, without factoring in the better operating system performance.

Is your current equipment failing?

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I plan to get a new gas furnace, new AC, whole home humidifier and gas water heater. He's going to run all the gas piping and set it up for future gas appliances like range, dryer and fireplace insert as well as fix some ducting issues on a room that is not getting heat and remove the two old oil tanks.

Probably not what you want to hear, but my suggestion is to reduce the scope of your project. I would look at only doing the furnace at this point. That will solve your heating oil issue. I had an electric water heater...I know it sucks. Have him stub out the gas line for the new water heater, which you can do next year, or the following.

If it makes sense to stub out at other locations (range, dryer, fireplace), have him do that as well, but he doesn't need to do the entire run.

Have him fix the bedroom ducting, but possibly hold off a year or so on the oil tanks.

I don't have any idea on what your floor layout is, but analyze what you have and try to reach a balance between what you really need and want.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:


Probably not what you want to hear, but my suggestion is to reduce the scope of your project. I would look at only doing the furnace at this point. That will solve your heating oil issue. I had an electric water heater...I know it sucks. Have him stub out the gas line for the new water heater, which you can do next year, or the following.

If it makes sense to stub out at other locations (range, dryer, fireplace), have him do that as well, but he doesn't need to do the entire run.

Have him fix the bedroom ducting, but possibly hold off a year or so on the oil tanks.

Well, the removal of the oil tanks which I think may be a hazard in the future as they are very old and don't look to be in that great of shape, is not a really big cost out of the whole quote.

My AC is 30 years old this year, it's a Trane but I don't really want to run the chance of the thing dying on me right in the middle of a 95 degrees and 95% humidity PA July day.

He's just putting T's on the main gas line for the future stuff, not running the lines to each location.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Will you realize a true savings making the switch?

How long will it take to recover the $14,000 installation costs, without factoring in the better operating system performance.

Is your current equipment failing?

I haven't done all the numbers yet as I don't know how long a term of loan I'll have but I do know that gas cost for 1 year is estimated to be $700 or so while oil at the current rates would be over $2,000 a year. The break-even will come faster than you think especially if heating oil prices go way up in the future which they very well may do.

quote:

Originally posted by lee40215:
Might want to get a separate quote from a plumber or Plumber’s on running the gas and a couple HVAC estimates. Home equity loan might be worth looking into.

Why do you suggest getting TWO companies to do the work when ONE can do the whole job?