About one Massachusetts home in five still heats with oil, and in towns like Reading, Braintree and Lexington it’s closer to a third or more. Clement Boston Heat Pumps converts oil houses to ducted heat pumps, and the heat pump vs oil question usually comes down to three things: running cost, comfort and what the switch takes.
Heat pump vs oil at a glance
A cold-climate heat pump costs less to run than oil on the winter rate, cools as well as heats and earns the largest Mass Save rebate. Oil’s advantage is that it’s already installed.
| Oil furnace or boiler | Cold-climate ducted heat pump | |
|---|---|---|
| Heat delivered per million BTU (derived, below) | About $52 | About $33 on Eversource’s winter rate; about $42 on National Grid’s |
| Cooling | None; a separate AC if any | Central cooling from the same system |
| Fuel on site | A tank and deliveries | None; electricity only |
| Yearly service | Burner cleaning, nozzle and filter | Filters, coil and a yearly check |
| Rebate for switching | None | Whole-home Mass Save rebate, $2,650 a ton up to $8,500 for systems installed through 2026 |
| Cold-night output | Full output at any temperature | Lower output in deep cold; sized for the design night, with backup |
How the running-cost numbers are worked out
Running cost is the price of a unit of fuel divided by how efficiently the equipment turns it into heat. Putting both fuels into dollars per million BTU of heat delivered makes them comparable.
The derivation
- Oil: EIA’s recent Massachusetts residential price of about $6.18 a gallon, at 138,500 BTU a gallon, is $44.59 per million BTU of fuel. A burner at 85% efficiency delivers that heat for about $52.
- Heat pump, Eversource: electricity on the winter heat pump rate works out to $82.90 per million BTU at COP 1. At a seasonal COP of 2.5, that’s about $33.
- Heat pump, National Grid: $104.67 per million BTU at COP 1, so about $42 at COP 2.5, because its winter discount covers distribution only.
These are derived from published prices and an assumed efficiency, not measured bills. They show the order, and the order is stable: oil costs more per unit of heat than a cold-climate heat pump on either utility’s winter rate.
The break-even number
A heat pump beats oil whenever its seasonal COP stays above the break-even point. On Eversource’s winter rate that’s about 1.6; on National Grid’s, about 2.0.
Cold-climate ducted units run well above those figures on an average winter day, and stay near or above them on the coldest nights. What drags a real system below break-even is the installation: backup strips running when they shouldn’t, a starved duct system or a wrong refrigerant charge. That’s why our startup records airflow, charge and the aux heat lockout.
Your own numbers
Start from last winter’s gallons. Each 100 gallons of oil at 85% efficiency is about 11.8 million BTU delivered; on Eversource’s winter rate a heat pump at COP 2.5 delivers that for about $390, against about $618 of oil at $6.18.
Your rate, your house and your thermostat habits move the result. Our heat pump electric rate guide explains the bill side.
Comfort and cooling
Oil heat comes in hot bursts; a heat pump runs long and even. In a house that had no central air, the bigger change is summer.
What changes day to day
- Winter: steadier temperatures, warm rather than hot registers, no burner smell or delivery schedule
- Summer: central cooling and dehumidification through the same ducts
- Noise: an outdoor unit that runs quietly most of the year instead of a burner in the basement
Are heat pumps as reliable as oil?
A well-installed heat pump is a reliable machine, but it works harder than a burner: it heats all winter and cools all summer, so it accumulates more running hours each year.
What decides its life is mostly the install and the upkeep: a clean line set under a deep vacuum, the right charge, enough airflow, and filters changed on schedule. Our lifespan guide and maintenance plan cover what keeps it running.
Oil furnace or oil boiler: two different jobs
The type of oil system decides the scope. A furnace has ducts; a boiler heats radiators or baseboard through pipes.
- Oil furnace: the heat pump usually reuses the ducts, often with a larger return and some sealing. This is our oil to heat pump conversion.
- Oil boiler: ducts have to come from somewhere: an attic air handler for the top floor, a basement unit for the first, or a small-duct system. See heat pump vs boiler and our boiler conversion.
Our typical range for a whole-home heat pump on ducts we can reuse is $15,000 to $28,000 and up before rebates; with new ductwork or a small-duct system, it’s $20,000 to $40,000 and up.
What the switch takes
The heat pump is only part of an oil conversion. The rest decides how smooth the job is and whether the whole-home rebate applies.
- A load calculation at your town’s design temperature, so the system is sized for the house rather than the old burner.
- The panel: two new 240-volt circuits, and sometimes a service upgrade.
- The oil system: burner out, fuel line capped, and the tank pumped and removed. We arrange the Boston Fire Department permit; see oil tank removal.
- Hot water: a new water heater if the boiler made it.
The whole-home rebate needs the old system removed or disconnected, so the burner coming out is part of the plan, not an extra. Call us or send the form to book a first visit, and have last winter’s oil delivery slips handy.