Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 21 posts · 4 votes
Hi all, I am considering a single family home purchase in NJ. The house needs to have its oil tank replaced (above ground). There is gas available to the home so an oil to gas conversion is most likely the case here. The house is under 2000 sqft. Also, there is no cooling, so Central AC is something I would consider as well.
I have called a few HVAC professionals that have not been able to give me detailed estimates on the costs of these but was able to have them say that most like $20,000 is towards the top end of this installation. I need an estimate to determine if I take out a 203k loan with the mortgage and for about how much? Does anyone have a ball park figure for a standard cost of oil to gas conversion and for central AC installation?
If all you are doing is replacing an oil furnace with a high-eficiency (95 AFUE) condensing gas furnace and having gas service brought to the house (i.e. assuming the ductwork is all in-place) 20K is awfully expensive. I've converted several oil furnaces to natural gas or air-2-air heat pumps and have never spent more than 60% of that amount (and I live in Canada where things are always more expensive).
Investor · Old Bridge, NJ · Member since 2012 · 30 posts · 5 votes
10y
Ricky, for the ac install, i dont think there is a ballpark. It really depends on the house and how hard it is to run the ducts and the proper electrical. I just had a 1200sf cape cade quoted at 9000 .
Rental Property Investor · Fuquay-Varina, NC · Member since 2013 · 381 posts · 308 votes
10y
Hey @Ricky Hopp I'm not an expert on this but am doing something similar on a flip right now. The property had an oil tank in the basement, and we are converting to gas and adding central air. My understanding is a very large cost is to open the walls and run the ductwork, if there is none already. It also depends on the size of the unit you need. Luckily for us, we had to replace all the drywall in the house anyway, so the walls were already opened up.
Running the gas line only cost us $50 to PSE&G for the permit. They paid for the rest.
My HVAC guy is charging me for the following: adding a 70K BTU gas furnace, a 2.5 ton AC condenser, 40 gal water heater, all ductwork, registers, gas piping, thermostat, permit drawings: $11k
I don't know if this is a normal price, but it's the one we decided to go with. Either way, I recommend you get someone out there to provide you with a written estimate. Hope this helps!
If all you are doing is replacing an oil furnace with a high-eficiency (95 AFUE) condensing gas furnace and having gas service brought to the house (i.e. assuming the ductwork is all in-place) 20K is awfully expensive. I've converted several oil furnaces to natural gas or air-2-air heat pumps and have never spent more than 60% of that amount (and I live in Canada where things are always more expensive).
Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 21 posts · 4 votes
10y
thanks @Roy N. When I threw out 20k to the HVAC people after they said they couldn't give me an estimate, they agreed that it would most likely be less than that number so thank you for confirming. I just want to get a number in my head as to what type of a loan I would need to do that repair, central AC and a few other updates.
Real Estate Agent · Hamilton, NJ · Member since 2013 · 464 posts · 311 votes
10y
Following this post in order to gain knowledge because I'm in a similar situation.
Justin Fraser you say that you only paid $50 for the permit and that PSE&G paid the rest.. Do you mean that PSE&G paid to remove the oil tank?
Rental Property Investor · Fuquay-Varina, NC · Member since 2013 · 381 posts · 308 votes
10y
@Christopher Giannino No, PSE&G has nothing to do with the oil tank or anything inside the property. They are not charging me for any of the work involved in digging up the ground to run the gas line from the street to the property. I will still have to get rid of the oil tank in the basement.
Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 21 posts · 4 votes
10y
@Justin Fraser Thank you for letting me know the details of your project. This is definitely doable and I understand that opening the walls is when the costs begin to get high. Good luck on your flip and it does sound like the work I'd be doing was very similar!
Contractor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
Justin Fraser 11k is light, and I don't think the OP will get that price, if he opens/shuts the walls also. It could be also thousands to open/close them.
Justin Fraser 11k is light, and I don't think the OP will get that price, if he opens/shuts the walls also. It could be also thousands to open/close them.
Manolo:
If the OP is just converting an exiting oil-fired furnace to a gas-fired furnace, there should be little need to open/close walls?
@Roy N. Yes, it also depends on how it is structured, but there was a mention of new AC system also.
Ducting is already in place, so in that scenario we would normally opt for a centralized heat pump (both heat and air conditioning), but have used gas furnaces with a an air-condtioning exchanger coil in the plenum and the compressor outside.