If you’re looking for a great way to celebrate Earth Day, consider converting your heating oil furnace or boiler to natural gas. Not only will you save money, but you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by nearly 40%. Aside from coal, no other fuel releases more carbon into the atmosphere. In fact, heating oil releases more carbon into the atmosphere than gasoline does! Replacing heating equipment that uses fuel oil can also save you as much as 50% on your energy expenditures each year. Homeowners can borrow as much as $25,000 in the form of a 7-year, 0% interest loan to finance the cost of replacing a heating system with a new, high-efficiency system. You can finance a fuel conversion with a MassSave loan. This program gives you a great opportunity to make a significant reduction in your home’s carbon emissions, as well as reducing the cost of heating your home in the winter.
If you already have a natural gas furnace or boiler, but it’s an older, less efficient model, there is a different program through MassSave that you can take advantage of. This program, the Early Boiler/Furnace Replacement program, cannot be used to help reduce the cost of a fuel conversion, but it can help reduce the cost of replacing working but inefficient heating equipment. This program offers rebates of up to $3,500 on the purchase and installation of qualifying heating equipment. For natural gas furnaces that are at least 12 years old but still operational, this program offers a rebate of $1,000 when replaced by a natural gas furnace with an ECM blower and an AFUE (efficiency rating) of at least 95%.
The Early Boiler Replacement program offers rebates of up to $3,000 on a natural gas, forced hot water boiler with an efficiency of at least 90% for owner-occupied properties. The rebate for a rental property is $3,500. Steam boilers with efficiency ratings of at least 82% also qualify for an early replacement rebate of $1,900. With the Early Replacement program, it’s important to remember that your older heating equipment must be in working condition. Working boilers must be at least 30 years old. Working furnaces must be at least 12 years old to qualify for the replacement rebate.
If you’d like more information about converting from heating oil to natural gas, the MassSave 2016 Heat Loan program, or replacing a working furnace or boiler under the MassSave Early Boiler/Furnace Replacement program, please contact us at Boston Standard Plumbing & Heating at (617) 362-0377
anytime. We’ll be happy to conduct the required energy audit and help you choose qualifying, high-efficiency equipment.
Happy Earth Day!
Photo Credit: Sandor Pinter , via FreeImages.com
Categories:
DIY Blog, DIY Heating
