Over the past few year numerous homeowners on Long Island converted the household heating systems from oil to gas. Unfortunately many contractors completed installation the did not meet Nassau/Suffolk code requirements.

It is not uncommon for local utility companies to do an inspection of your burner system and shut your heat down because of non code compliance. Some of the common issues involve gas appliances that were vented directly into the old oil flue which would be unacceptable by today’s requirements. While the chief by product from an oil burner is soot, a gas appliance’s primary by product is water vapor when these two mix, the sulphur from the oil soot mixes with the hydrogen and oxygen from the water and create and acidic mixture in your chimney. This corrosive mixture will then be absorbed into the clay lining of the chimney and will cause the break down of your clay chimney lining.

Other common problems involve improperly sized chimneys standard oil burner may require an eight inch chimney flue, a similar gas appliance may only require five inches. An improperly sized chimney will result in poor draft and will allow the by products of combustion to sit in you chimney flue.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. -Benjamin Franklin