Kitchen range-switching from gas to electric 240v ?

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Bob F" wrote

Not easily done these days. Tanks have all sorts of devices to prevent that now.

[Doug Miller]

Odd, then, that you still harbor the delusion that a burner on an electric stove will cool off in ten seconds. Like someone else said, you must have magic burners. Or else you're full of, ummm, unreasonable optimism.

[Doug Miller]

Wrong. You obviously haven't ever lived with gas appliances; you clearly don't know *anything* about them.

A gas water heater and clothes dryer certainly consume enough gas to avoid minimum monthly service charges. Stop talking about things you know nothing about.

[Pete C.]

I'm always amazed by the folks who think storing a 5gal can of gas out back is some huge risk, and then park a car or two with 15-20gal of gas each in their garage. Get a grip folks, storing a can of gas is not a big risk.

[Pete C.]

Perhaps if you are one of those wacko religious nuts with 43 kids. I'm one single person, I don't use enough hot water or do enough loads of laundry for the water heating or dryer consumption to be of any significance. As I said, A/C and refrigerator are the primary power consumers. My server rack in the garage is next in line.

I have not lived in a home with all gas appliances, nor would I want to due to their inherent safety hazard (my LP cooktop is about all I can tolerate and I have an LP detector in the kitchen). I have however done an extensive analysis of a years worth of utility bills from two comparable homes, one with gas appliances and one with electric and found that the much hyped "savings" simply didn't exist.

[Pete C.]

Not N. TX. for the more northern locations with more cold days and colder temps on those days, you just switch to a ground source heat pump instead of an air source one. Here with few really cold days, the cost of using the backup heat those days is minimal and the cost premium to go ground source isn't worth it.

When I lived in CT, A/C wasn't needed much on a reasonably insulated, shaded house, but a dehumidifier definitely was. Even here in TX, the "neutral" month or so between heating and cooling seasons tends to need a dehumidifier. I hate humid.

[Pete C.]

I never ran into such an issue, the region just wasn't likely to experience anything that would take more than a week to recover from. If I were in a higher risk area I would have simply added a second 300gal tank (max 600gal per fire rated space). I also had a 55gal primary tank for the generator and only switched to drawing from the big tank if that

55 was getting low.

Ask the folks killed in those nat gas explosions. As for leaks, secondary containment for indoor tanks is pretty trivial, and the containment only need to match the largest individual tank, so for two

300gal tanks, you only need 300gal worth of containment which equates to only a foot or so dam around the tanks.

[aemeijers]

Not a BIG risk, no, but gas cans don't have vapor recovery canisters to catch any fumes outgassing from the tank on a hot day when the garage gets close to 100 degrees inside. Not to mention, gas cans are a lot more prone to getting leaks, or getting knocked over by short people, sometimes with less-than-tight lids. For people without backyard sheds to keep the gas can in (along with the mower), I recommend they build a little 3-sided box with a roof, or something, to keep the rain off the can and the mower. IIRC, at one house my mother had, we used stacks of concrete block, a few pavers for for a floor, and a hunk of corrugated roofing that was laying around. Think farmer's equipment shed, just real small. And if they want pretty, Rubbermaid has a nice line of trash can enclosures that work well for the task.

[HeyBub]

No, the business charges me a modest amount for utilities (water also). Our coporate tax attorney told me to forget about it inasmuch as it is way below the de minimus rule, but I, being as righteous as a disciple, said "Render unto Caesar..." and so forth.

[krw]

Well, that's cookin'.

[krw]

You still need electricity to run the furnace. Gas isn't any more of a problem.

I absolutely *hated* it. I had all sorts of reliability issues in one house (out of heat for three days, once, with all the niceties like frozen pipes). The other wasn't perfect, but better. It stinks, too.

You've been reading the funny papers again. Try spilling a tank of oil and get back to me.

[krw]

You're either a liar or simply stupid.

[krw]

Five gallons isn't going to get you vary far into a three-day outage.

[Bob F]

I'll have to say, after living in Detroit and Boston, I don't miss hot and humid weather on bit.

[The Daring Dufas]

Aye, yer an honest lad, Slàinte mhòr agad!

Nope, it's not Klingon.

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

If you hate humidity, stay away from Bama. When I lived out in the middle of the Pacific ocean, the humidity wasn't as bad as my home.

TDD

[Doug Miller]

Nope, just two. We do wash our clothes and bathe regularly, however. YMMV.

[Doug Miller]

That's quite obvious, actually, since you appear to know nothing at all about them.

You mean "due to your irrational fears"...

(my LP cooktop is about all I can

Uh-huh. Right.

[hallerb]

LP is far less safe than NG.

Natural gas is lighter than air and will escape out a high spot in a leak.

Whereas LP will hang around like in a pool till BAM it finds a ignition point:(

Oil furnaces appear to need much more service than NG..

[Pete C.]

Nope, but people who think these poor linemen were killed by some careless person with a generator are irrational and emotional.

The procedures for working on lines in the field state that *every* line must be tested and grounded before working on it without full protective equipment. If that procedure is followed, it is not possible to be electrocuted regardless of whether a power co generator is online or a home generator is online.

Every single lineman fatality related to a home generator is the result of their own carelessness in not following procedures.