Can I Change My Propane Furnace to Natural Gas?

Natural Gas Limitations

• Natural gas is an ideal heating fuel for furnaces. It is inexpensive compared to other sources, it does not need to be heavily purified before being used, and the furnaces that use natural gas can be very efficient, transmitting close to 100 percent of the energy received into heat. But natural gas has one important limitation: it can only be used in areas where natural gas pipelines have been installed and connected to a primary source.

Propane Use

• Because of the limitations of natural gas, you can use propane instead, a similar type of fuel that is shipped out in trucks as a liquefied form of the gas and then pumped into tanks that you keep on your property. This is a workable solution, but the processing and transport of propane makes it much more expensive that natural gas. This is why switching can be an ideal option.

Switching

• If you want to move from propane to natural gas once gas pipelines are available in your neighborhood, you may be wondering how difficult it will be. For other fuel switchings, such as oil to gas, you would need to get an entirely new unit. But for propane furnaces, the two are so alike that you will only need to switch out a few parts for different gas intake. Usually the gas valve is the only part that needs to be changed and you buy kits to make the change.

Considerations

• Since you can switch so easily between propane and natural gas, you can also choose to plan ahead. If you know that natural gas will be available in your neighborhood in coming years, you should consider buying a propane unit that is designed to easily switch over to natural gas. This helps make the actual transition easy when the time comes.