Heating oil vs. propane
Which costs less to run, heating oil or propane? Pick your state; the calculator uses this week's EIA prices and shows both fuels as dollars per million BTU of heat delivered.
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Prices and efficiencies used (edit to match your bill)
| Fuel and system | Price | Efficiency | BTU per unit |
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When the answer flips
Heating oil nearly always beats propane on cost per BTU, and the reason is physics, not pricing: a gallon of No. 2 oil holds about 138,500 BTU and a gallon of propane about 91,500. For propane to break even against oil at the same equipment efficiency, it has to sell for about two-thirds the price of oil per gallon. At $3.70 oil, that is $2.45 propane. In most of the Northeast, propane sells above that line, so oil wins by 20 to 30%.
Propane's advantages are elsewhere: cleaner burning, no sooting, no annual nozzle-and-filter service, no risk of a leaking underground oil tank, and a condensing propane boiler can reach 95% efficiency where oil equipment tops out around 87%. That efficiency gap closes some of the distance but not all of it.
If you are choosing between the two for a new house, look past the fuel comparison: the resale market, the dealer landscape in your town, and whether you also want propane for cooking and a generator all matter more than a 25% fuel gap. If you are deciding whether to convert an oil house to propane, the fuel numbers above say no in most states, and a heat pump is usually the better conversion.
Full method and sources on the methodology page. Compare every fuel at once in the main calculator.