LEWISTON — When the oil truck used to deliver to Montello Elementary School, Assistant Principal Jim Cliffe could smell the oil. He doesn’t anymore.

In 2010 and 2011 the school converted from oil to natural gas for heat. He’s satisfied. “The building is warm and comfortable,” Cliffe said. He’s making fewer phone calls for a technician to check out a problem with the furnace.

When it comes to switching from oil to natural gas, Montello has lots of company.

As of this fall, all of the schools in Lewiston-Auburn, except East Auburn Community, are heating with natural gas. Both Lewiston and Auburn school departments say they’re saving taxpayers a bundle, about 40 percent in heating costs compared to heating with oil.

In Lewiston, the natural gas conversion means the heating bill this year is projected to be about $600,000 instead of $1 million. “We’ve almost cut the bill in half,” Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said. The savings “is a major contributor to there being no increase in the local mill rate for education over the last several years,” he said.

As far as comfort to students and faculty, “there’s no difference,” Webster said.

Lewiston no longer buys much heating oil. “The central office is the only building that remains oil-fired,” he said.

The story is similar in Auburn. That School Department also expects to see about a 40 percent savings in heating costs, Business Manager Jude Cyr said.

This past summer, five Auburn schools were converted from oil to natural gas. The heating cost for those five schools is expected to be $199,710 this year, instead of $492,700. The five schools are Edward Little High, Auburn Middle, Park Avenue Elementary, Franklin and the Regional Educational Treatment Center.

“Three summers ago, we did Sherwood Heights, Fairview and Walton (elementary schools),” Cyr said.

Auburn schools expect to use 45,000 gallons of heating oil this year, compared to 580,000 three years ago, Cyr said.

Savings to pay for converting to gas can be achieved in two years, according to the Governor’s Energy Office, but administrators say the payback will take longer, four to seven years.

Auburn’s Cyr said the Edward Little High School conversion cost $462,000, but that included a lot of work, “a whole new furnace and hot water system.” If a new high school is built, the new furnace can be moved, he said. Costs to switch to natural gas in other Auburn schools was between $32,700 and $45,000, Cyr said.

Lewiston-Auburn schools are paying for the conversions through the annual heating savings, loans and existing budgets.

Aside from savings, another advantage is that natural gas burns cleaner than oil. Cyr said he’s seen evidence of that.

“Natural gas does not raise havoc on the equipment,” he said. The Washburn Elementary School boiler has used natural gas for years “and has had very little work. Contrary to other oil burners that need annual cleaning. Natural gas is a cleaner burner.”

He also likes that natural gas comes from North America, and there’s a monthly bill for what was used, as opposed to bills when the tanks are filled.

Webster and Cyr said they heat their homes with oil because natural gas is not available in their neighborhoods. “If Unitil was on my street, I would use natural gas without hesitation,” Cyr said.

Natural gas leaks can cause explosions, but Webster said he was confident it is safe. Lewiston has an annual contract with Siemens, an outside energy engineering firm, that monitors schools. At any time of the day, Siemens and the Lewiston School Department can remotely check on and adjust temperatures.

“Natural gas is used across the country with excellent experience,” Webster said.

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Natural gas can mean big savings

AUGUSTA — With oil prices spiking, hundreds of Mainers are switching from oil to natural gas for heating their homes and businesses, said Kenneth Fletcher, director of the Governor’s Energy Office.

Switching to natural gas could save between 30 and 50 percent on heating costs, Fletcher said. “It’s a huge amount of money.” The trick is, homeowners or businesses need to be where natural gas lines exist.

A spokesman for Unitil, the natural gas supplier for Maine and northern New England, said Unitil is expanding service but only to those near existing lines.

In Maine, natural gas service is available along the coast and in the Portland and Lewiston-Auburn areas, Unitil spokesman Alex O’Meara said. Unitil, headquartered in Hampton, N.H., wants to expand, but in a manner that keeps natural gas affordable and without spending a lot of money, O’Meara said.

“Next year we are focused on filling in expansions, finding the folks who might be near gas lines and seeing if they’re interested,” he said. He recommended interested persons call Unitil and ask about service.

There are 27,000 natural gas accounts in Maine. In 2011, the company added 600 new accounts; this year it expects to add 1,000.

According to Fletcher, one reason natural gas is cheaper than oil “is because we found so much in North America.” Projections show the natural gas supply will be sufficient in the next 50 to 100 years to keep the price down, he said. But, he added, price always depends on supply and demand.

The head of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, formerly the Maine Oil Dealers Association, cautioned that the price of natural gas could rise with demand.

Heating with natural gas is significantly less now than oil, acknowledged Jamie Py, president of MEMA. “Clearly, there’s a lot of gas, but there also is a ton of oil” not yet tapped. What will happen to prices in the future, “we don’t know,” Py said.

In Europe, the price of natural gas is three times what it costs here, Py said. As the country exports natural gas, “eventually there will be some parity” in prices, he predicted. Meanwhile homeowners who burn 1,000 gallons a year of oil with an old furnace could cut use to 600 by buying a new, efficient furnace, Py said. 

Other ways to save on heat, according to the Governor’s Energy Office, is with new technology and fuel sources.

One is traditional wood-burning, another is wood pellets which are easier to burn than wood, Fletcher said. “Another is geothermal; it’s more investment” but is cheaper to operate “because you’re using energy out of the ground. There’s also electronic thermal storage or using off-peak electricity.”

For more information, go to http://maine.gov/energy/index.html.

For more information about Unitil, go to http://www.unitil.com/ or call 866-933-3821.