Someone told you propane is cheaper. Maybe it was a neighbor, a mailer, or a salesperson who stopped by. And on the surface, the per-gallon price does look lower. So it's a fair question — should you be switching?
The honest answer is: it depends on which numbers you're looking at. Most comparisons use national averages that have almost nothing to do with what Nassau County homeowners actually pay for propane. And almost none of them account for the fact that propane and heating oil don't deliver the same amount of heat per gallon.
Here's the full picture — no spin, just the math.
Oil vs. Propane Heat Cost: Why Per-Gallon Price Doesn't Tell the Whole Story
When people compare heating oil and propane, they usually start and stop at the price per gallon. Propane often runs lower, so it seems like the obvious winner. But that comparison skips the most important variable: how much heat each fuel actually delivers.
A gallon of heating oil contains roughly 137,000 to 138,700 BTUs of energy. A gallon of propane delivers around 91,500 BTUs. That's a significant gap. In practical terms, you need about 1.5 gallons of propane to produce the same amount of heat as one gallon of heating oil.
So before you compare prices, you have to adjust for that difference — otherwise you're not comparing the same thing at all.
Home Heating Costs: Oil vs. Propane When You Do the BTU Math
Here's where the comparison gets interesting for Nassau County homeowners specifically. The national average propane price used in most online comparisons hovers around $2.50 per gallon. At that price, propane looks reasonably competitive with heating oil once you factor in the BTU difference.
But that national figure doesn't reflect what people on Long Island actually pay.
According to EIA data, the East Coast average for residential propane was $3.421 per gallon as of January 2024. New York's statewide propane average runs even higher — around $3.75 per gallon during the 2025/26 heating season, which is $1.07 above the national average. That's not a rounding error. That's a meaningful difference that completely changes the cost calculation for Nassau County residents.
Let's run the actual math. If you're paying $3.75 per gallon for propane and you need 1.5 gallons to match the heat output of one gallon of oil, your effective cost per unit of heat from propane is equivalent to paying $5.63 per gallon of heating oil. Even during periods when heating oil prices are elevated — EIA data shows a New York residential average of $4.037 per gallon in January 2025 — heating oil still delivers more heat per dollar spent when East Coast propane prices are used rather than the national average.
This is the math that most propane comparisons skip. They use a national propane price that doesn't apply to Long Island and a per-gallon comparison that ignores BTU content entirely. The result is a conclusion that sounds compelling but doesn't hold up when you plug in real local numbers.
None of this means propane is always the wrong choice. If you're building a new home, or your oil system has failed and you're weighing your options from scratch, the calculus can look different. But for a Nassau County homeowner who already has a functioning oil heating system, the financial case for switching is a lot weaker than it's usually presented.
Oil vs. Propane Furnace: What It Actually Costs to Convert
Even if propane penciled out cheaper on a per-BTU basis — and as we've shown, it often doesn't in this region — there's still the matter of what it costs to convert. This is the part of the conversation that propane companies tend to move through quickly.
Converting from oil to propane isn't just swapping a fuel. It typically means replacing the burner or the entire boiler or furnace, removing your existing oil tank, installing a propane tank, and paying for labor throughout. A new propane furnace or boiler runs $2,500 to $7,500 for the equipment alone. Purchasing a propane tank adds $400 to $2,000 (or $50 to $250 per year if you lease). Oil tank removal can run $500 to $3,000. Labor for the full conversion adds another $1,000 to $4,000.
That's a wide range, and real-world quotes from Long Island homeowners suggest the upper end is more common than the lower.
One homeowner on a heating industry forum reported being quoted approximately $20,000 to replace their oil burner, oil tanks, and hot water heater — and around $35,000 to do a full conversion to propane for a 3,000-square-foot home. Those aren't outliers in Nassau County, where labor costs and local permitting add up quickly.
Now consider the payback period. If you're spending $20,000 to $35,000 upfront, and the annual savings from switching fuels are modest — or nonexistent, once East Coast propane prices are factored in — you could be looking at a payback period of 15 to 20 years or more. For most homeowners, that math doesn't work.
There's also a structural issue worth knowing about before you sign anything with a propane company. In most cases, the propane company owns the tank they install at your property. That means you can only buy fuel from them — you can't call around for a better price the way you can with heating oil. With oil, you own your tank, and you're free to order from any supplier in Nassau County. That competitive market is one of the reasons heating oil pricing on Long Island tends to be more transparent and more negotiable than propane.
Cost of Propane vs. Heating Oil: What Nassau County Homeowners Are Actually Dealing With
Nassau County's heating fuel market has been shifting. Propane use across Long Island has grown roughly 69% since 2019, while heating oil use has declined about 14% over the same period. That trend is real, and it's being driven partly by propane marketing, partly by homeowners with aging oil systems looking at their options, and partly by genuine interest in cleaner-burning fuels.
What's less often discussed is that many of the homeowners who made the switch are now paying more than they expected. Forum sentiment from Long Island heating communities reflects a consistent pattern: people who converted to propane often report higher heating costs, not lower ones — especially after accounting for East Coast pricing.
Is Modern Heating Oil More Environmentally Friendly Than It Used to Be?
One of the reasons homeowners consider propane is the environmental angle. Propane burns cleaner than older formulations of heating oil, and that reputation has stuck. But the heating oil available today is a different product than what was delivered to Nassau County homes 20 years ago.
Since 2018, New York has required ultra-low sulfur heating oil (ULSHO) with a maximum sulfur content of 0.0015% — a standard that Brookhaven National Laboratory research has confirmed is comparable to the sulfur content found in residential natural gas. The "dirty oil" reputation is based on older, higher-sulfur formulations that are no longer legal to sell in this state.
Beyond that, there's Bioheat® fuel — a blend of conventional heating oil with biofuel derived from renewable sources like soybean oil or recycled cooking oil. Bioheat blends burn cleaner, leave fewer deposits on heat exchangers, and reduce carbon emissions without requiring any modifications to your existing equipment. We offer biofuel-based blends for Nassau County homeowners who want to reduce their environmental footprint without the cost and disruption of a full system conversion.
It's a path to cleaner heating that doesn't require you to spend tens of thousands of dollars and lock yourself into a single propane supplier. For homeowners in Garden City, Manhasset, Plainview, and across Nassau County who are weighing the environmental dimension of this decision, the gap between heating oil and propane is much narrower than it was a decade ago — and Bioheat blends close it further without the conversion cost.
What Should Nassau County Homeowners Look for in a Heating Oil Supplier?
If you've done the math and decided that staying with heating oil makes sense — or if you're new to Nassau County and figuring out how home heating works here — the next question is how to find a supplier you can actually trust.
Nassau County has an active, competitive heating oil market. Sites like CheapestOil.com, FuelWonk, and HeatFleet track local prices and let you compare suppliers. NYSERDA's Heating Fuel Prices Dashboard tracks Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties) as a distinct region, so you can benchmark what you're paying against the regional average. That level of price transparency is one of the structural advantages of staying in the heating oil market — it's a competitive space where suppliers have to earn your business.
A few things worth prioritizing when you're evaluating suppliers: look for a company that doesn't require a contract for on-demand service, that offers transparent pricing without a registration wall, and that has a track record in the area — not just a regional call center that happens to cover Nassau County.
We've been delivering heating oil to Nassau and Suffolk County homes since 1976. That's nearly 50 Long Island winters, and we hold an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. We offer both automatic delivery — which uses predictive computer models to monitor your usage and deliver before your tank runs low — and on-demand will-call service with no contracts and no extra fees. You can order online, specify the exact number of gallons you want, and pay without picking up the phone.
We also have a mobile app available on the App Store and Google Play if that's more convenient. And for homeowners in Baldwin, Bellmore, Mineola, Old Bethpage, or anywhere else across Nassau County, our distribution network is local — not stretched thin from somewhere far away.
If you're currently on a propane plan and feeling locked in, or if you're an oil customer who's been wondering whether the grass is greener, we're happy to walk through the numbers with you honestly. Sometimes switching fuels makes sense. Often it doesn't. Either way, you deserve a straight answer.
Heating Oil vs. Propane Prices: The Bottom Line for Nassau County Homeowners
Propane's lower national average price per gallon is real. What's also real is that East Coast propane prices are substantially higher than that national figure, that propane delivers significantly less heat per gallon than heating oil, and that converting from oil to propane can cost tens of thousands of dollars with a payback period that stretches well beyond a decade.
For most Nassau County homeowners with a functioning oil system, the financial case for switching doesn't hold up once you run the actual numbers with actual local prices. Modern heating oil — especially ULSHO and Bioheat blends — has also closed the environmental gap that used to make propane a more compelling alternative on that front.
If you want to talk through your specific situation, OK Petroleum Distribution is a straightforward place to start. No pressure, no contracts required, and we've been doing this long enough to give you an honest answer rather than just the one that benefits us.
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