Water heaters

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around here theres the connection fee, even if you use zero gas you still pay 20 something bucks a month.....

Reply to
bob haller
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Or my 3600 sq.ft. 1-1/2 story house with unfinished basement. ...but we live in different climates and have different fuel sources. ;-)

Reply to
krw

Compare away. Never hit $700 per year for my natural gas which heats the house and water and operates the BarBQ. Just put the BarBQ on NG last year, so if we have a good summer it might nudge it up to the $700 this year. A lot better than $30 to $45 in propane

Reply to
clare

innews: snipped-for-privacy@w21g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:

Same is true for electricity

Reply to
clare

The single reason developers put in gas appliances is to avoid the expense of gas piping.

In general, electric ranges are MUCH more expensive to operate (although cheaper to install), do not have the range or versatility of gas (gas heats the SIDES of the pot, too), do not adjust their output as quickly (try turning down the heat on a boiling-over pot!), and, in general, are just plain awful.

Look here:

Reply to
HeyBub

What do they do...leave them disconnected? ;-)

Reply to
DerbyDad03

My bad. Should have read: "The single reason developers put in electric-only appliances is to avoid the expense of gas piping."

The they promote such as a feature. "Visit our new, all-electric, homes today!"

Reply to
HeyBub

Not that long ago, some electric utilities used to offer builder incentives to bulid all electric homes. You'd end up with electric baseboard heating, electric hot water, electric dryers, and electric ranges. The builders liked it because besides avoiding the plumbing expense, electric appliances are a few bucks cheaper which made it possible to sell a cheaper house.

Reply to
Robert Neville

I remember my cousins living in an all electric home built during the late 50's early 60's when nuclear power was going to make electricity so cheap it wouldn't need to be metered. The forces of evil killed cheap nuclear power because cheap energy means a freer people. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

The "all electric homes" promotion pretty well ended 30 or more years ago - but there were several reasons beyond the expense of installing gas pipes in the house. Back in the seventies the gas distribution network was MUCH more limited than iut is now - and there are still vast areas of both Canada and the USA that are not serviced by natural gas, which left oil, propane or electric as the options. Can't cook with oil - or at least no-one in their right mind would choose it over the 2 remaining options, and propane storage tanks are both a pain and an eyesore on a small urban lot - and both oil anf propane tanks require clear access for dilling, year round. Electricity is just so much simpler in SO many cases.

Also, there is no smell, and no CO issues and I've never heard of a house blowing up from an "electrical leak" outside the home - and the risk of electrical fire is significantly lower than either oil or gas.

Reply to
clare

Not only that, but with the rising price of oil at the time, and the "promise" of cheap hydro and atomic power, using electricity made a LOT of sense back then.

It may again some day in the future as well - and the "better" all electric homes didn't have a baseboard heater to be found. Electric central heat was not at all uncommon (and was a lot easier to convert to alternatives when required) and made central air conditioning a simple option. My father was an electrician back in those days and did a LOT of "Gold Medallion" homes. the slogan was "Live Better Electrically"

Reply to
clare

I remember my cousins living in an all electric home built during the late 50's early 60's when nuclear power was going to make electricity so cheap it wouldn't need to be metered. The forces of evil killed cheap nuclear power because cheap energy means a freer people. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Not that long ago, some electric utilities used to offer builder incentives to bulid all electric homes. You'd end up with electric baseboard heating, electric hot water, electric dryers, and electric ranges. The builders liked it because besides avoiding the plumbing expense, electric appliances are a few bucks cheaper which made it possible to sell a cheaper house.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I think that's what he means by "not all that long ago", because there hasn't been anything built that's all electric in the NYC area for at least that long, maybe longer....

Reply to
trader4

And without power your typical oil furnace, propane furnace, or natural gas furnace will STILL allow you to freeze to death.

Reply to
clare

There is a house down the street I didn't consider buying because it was electric.

I buy a house that didn't have gas, used oil. $1500 for gas line. There was

250 gallons that came with the house. I used about 400 gallons that first year, before I switched to gas. I figure gas is not even 1/3 the cost of oil, with that old oil furnace.

My brother saves money using electric instead of oil. He is still paying twice what I pay for gas heat, but his house is bigger.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

A small generator can power the motors and control of a gas or oil furnace. They will not power a heat pump unless you go a lot larger and burn much more fuel that may be hard to come by during a power outage. At around $ 3.50 per gallon for gas you can just about burn money to stay warm... Oil or propane may be much cheaper for the generator if you have a lorge one.

The house I live in has a heat pump, but I have a wood stove in the basement. I do not use it very much unless it is very cold and I want to spend some time in the basement during the winter. I keep enough wood around to burn for a coupld of weeks if I would have to. I also have a 5 kw generator to power other items as needed. Good thing about the wood stove is that I can cook on it if I really need to.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Typical furnace takes 500 watts or so, of electric. Easy enough to wire into a generator.

And without power your typical oil furnace, propane furnace, or natural gas furnace will STILL allow you to freeze to death.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

My furnace takes 300 watts. I measured it. I cold use my battery and inverter for less than 3 hrs continuous run. If I had too, I would skimp on temperature. Or, start a generator.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

Why ? In some places so much electricity is produced that it's a major export item. that puts the price so low that it's actually cheaper to heat with it.

In Quebec for example, many houses have NO gas, propane or oil heat. Maybe a fireplace. But otherwise ALL electric. And any heating and hot water use they do during evening and night qualifies for a reduced rate to get people in the habit of off-peak use. Some houses were designed with huge hot water tanks, holding hundreds of gallons that were heated during the night to be used as a heat sumps during the day At one time people were encouraged to install a sauna in their basements, which acted as a heat sump for day heating.

They're probably still paying less than any State in the US.

Reply to
Attila Iskander

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