The "Pills" do not work. The most common ingredient to any of these "gas savers" are napthalene, moth balls for a better, more common description. Oh, they have a little dye in them to color them too. I saw a tent at a local flea market selling these things just Friday. They sounded so sincere, and they had a photo copy of an emissions test claiming how much cleaner the car ran with their product. Now their first problem, the emissions test readings were perfectly normal for any car that is working correctly. The numbers were not excessively low as they tried to claim, they were normal. Tough luck for them that I can actually interpret the readings since that is a significant part of what I do everyday. They showed me a Bosch spark plug that had a reddish tint. This is supposedly the coating that their product is putting on the combustion chamber. Sorry Charlie, if you put enough of a coating of anything on a spark plug you will create an alternate path for the spark to follow, and you'll end up with a missfire when the spark jumps through it instead of across the gap of the plug. aka "a fouled plug" The guy told me how he bought the "franchise". The franchise includes a video tape, and some brochures, and some bottles of the "product" and I use that word loosely. The difference between a manager and an area manager is whether a person buys about $150 dollars worth of this stuff VS $500 dollars and how many people they can talk into trying to sell it under them. They call that MLM, Multi level Marketing. See AMWAY for a descritpion of how that works. The bottom line is state attorney generals in several states have been shutting down most of these "busineses". Testing of the materials has shown them to not be what they are claimed, napthalene is not non-toxic, in fact it's VERY TOXIC. The MSDS sheets for these products are at the least wrong, if not completely false. Search "freedom fuel" on google and start reading. You'll uncover quite a story. All of the details I have written here are from the Texas State attorney generals office and (just from such a google search), when they shut down a similar company earlier this year. It's just a matter of time before they get this one, and the next one after that. When I told the guy selling this stuff who I was, and what I did, and then that the emissions test he had in his had was perfectly normal and was not a result of his magic pills and that I knew this product didn't work he really didn't know what to say. He had no clue he was falling for and passing on a rip-off.

What are your rates for electricity, propane, and oil? In most areas, even ones with more expensive electricity, a heat pump usually works out to be the cheapest of the three. Your best option is probably going to be either heat pump with electric backup, heat pump with propane backup, or heat pump with oil backup. Where I am, oil is more cost effective than propane. No matter what fuel you go with, you will need to get answers to these questions: What size equipment do you need? What is your ductwork situation? Will any modifications be needed?

Yes. Get someone that knows how to do it. #2 heating oil is just this side of diesle. Winter diesle. #1 heating oil and kerosene are almost the same. What is your definition of expensive ? WARNIG. don't anyone tell me #1-2-3 heating oils are the same. They are NOT. I'll stop the argument right now. #1 heating oil has a carbon chain of 6-10 #2 oil has a carbon chain of 9-15. #3 is 12- 17, i think, don't remember. So if all heating oil is the same why are the numbers different ? Kerosene is lower than 6 but don't remember, been too long. Bottom line is the B.T.U. is different between the oils. You could go from kerosene to # 2 oil and notice a difference. Kerosene to #1 and not notice the difference. What is the difference in the cost between the to ? ( #2 heating oil is purple diesle ) Number one heating oil is the color of beer.

Furnace or boiler? Depending on what model, 20 years may be nothing. Replacement with something more efficient depends on a lot of things. How long will you have the house? Assuming boiler/hydro-air, Is there excess capacity in the hydro-air so lower water temperatures can be used for a significant time? How large are the hydro-air units compared to the low end of a new modulating-condensing boiler? If you really want a condensing boiler, propane may price out better because they can be made more efficient, condense more. Combination boilers (instant hot water + heating) tend to be larger and it is difficult to match them to smaller heating loads. (The zone is relevant here more than the whole house.) Compared to oil and propane, electric water heaters may cost you less in the long run. That would solve your leaking indirect tank problem cheaply too. If your boiler is not a modern, cold-start boiler, it will save you a lot in the summer too since you can shut the boiler off. If I were in your shoes, I think that I'd hire a local energy rater to help you pick the low-hanging fruit with respect to saving your coins. You might be best off switching to electric hot water, and keeping the boiler for now while making improvements in the house envelope. In the intervening time, you can think about what to do about heating and hot water. Heat pumps, air sourced, are working in colder and colder weather all the time. Ground-sourced have been there for some time, but are a costly investment. You might be able to keep your boiler and use it for back-up for the next 30 years in that role. Someone has to look at some numbers based on your fuel costs to make any rational decision.