(looking to buy a home) Natural Gas vs Oil, please explain this to me?

Question

The homes we are interested in are either Natural gas or oil.

What are the pros and cons in the two?

And if you can, explain this to me...

One home says "heat: Forced Air;oil"

"hot water: electric"

Another home says "heat: natural gas"

"hot water: gas"

Which is financially our best bet? Not only by monthly bills/payments, but maintance and up-keep as well.

Honestly, the heating source is kind of the tie breaker in the home we choose.

(I know, "ask your realtor" lol. I will, I'll discuss it more with her later. But quite honestly, I don't even want to bother wasting time looking at homes that are gonna cost us an arm and a leg in heat alone. So I'd like to know where we stand (financially) before we get our hopes up walking in a home for a showing.)

Answer 1

heating oil is over $4.00 per gallon and when they come to fill your tank - the filup cpuld be anywhere from 100-200 gallons, so you have to be able to pay up to $800 or more per tankful of hreating oil pretty quick and if your hot water is also heated with oil - you will get deliveries year-round and more than one each winter - gas - you get a monthly bill for the gas you've used - just like electric - gas heat can be expensive in cold areas - I have an electric start gas oven, now, so I hardly use any cooking gas anymore ( I microwave more meals than cook - hey, I'm single)- compared to when I had a stove with a pilot light that used gas even when I wasn;t cooking

Answer 2

With oil you'll have to have someone come fill the tanks every so often, but NG is through utility lines.

Honestly, it's a wash in my opinion.  I think heating oil is more expensive than NG.  You can get contracts on both to lock in prices too.