Natural gas?

[DarkBlack]

Not really. Many people that I know don't even have AC. I only have a single room unit for when my dog was staying home on hot days. He's gone and I didn't even put it in the window this year.

You personally may not have AC, but many do, and the NE electric grid peak 15 minute and hour, load always occurs on one of the hottest weekday days of the year, usually between 3-6pm.
On hot days even though you’re without AC, your refrigerator and freezer are running longer cycles.
Factories and businesses are using AC, as well as millions of residents.
Anyway, my previous point was, the generator plants aren’t NG restricted during those days because there’s no residential heating taking priority of the NG

 

[jyoutz]

There was some serious growing pains and major billing mistakes when the local natural gas company was bought out by summit utilities.

People went from a $200 gas bill to owing thousands over night and were having their gas shut off in the middle of winter over it.

The state finally had to step in and freeze the gas companies assets and put a moratorium on their bills until they got their sh#t together.

My suggestion would be to look at what you have for appliances and pick and choose which would be the most beneficial to switch to natural gas.

We're planning on building a home soon. Only two of the appliances are gonna be gas, the rest will be electric.

Central heat and air are gonna be electric as well as the clothes dryer.

Here in Arkansas if the home is insulated right, and with the good windows (with thermal coatings) the heat pump is the most economical.

I'm planning on a pellet stove for supplemental heat and emergency heat via a generator if there's a power outage.

The only two appliances that will be gas are an on demand water heater, and the kitchen stove. For me it will be propane though.

After living two years in a camper, the gas stove and on demand water heater don't use squat for gas. 30lbs of propane last me three months in the summer when the furnace isn't running.

Now the furnace is a gas ****.

So if you have a decent heat pump, I would probably stick with that for basic heat and air.

Maybe it’s different in your location, but anything electric, especially heating is substantially more expensive to operate than a NG appliance. NG heating is very cheap, electric heat pumps are not cheap to operate.

 

[ultrarunner]

What are you guys paying a therm for Natural Gas?

 

[jyoutz]

What are you guys paying a therm for Natural Gas?

 

[ultrarunner]

Tier 1 is $2.46 per Therm

Tier 2 is $2.98 per Therm

Above does not include surcharges or 7.5% Oakland Utility Tax

Gas was reasonable in cost for a long time but at over $3 a Therm the writing is on the wall.

 

[lman]

Maybe it’s different in your location, but anything electric, especially heating is substantially more expensive to operate than a NG appliance. NG heating is very cheap, electric heat pumps are not cheap to operate.

In my location NG is not available in the rural areas so geothermal heating is the cheapest heating here. Maybe one day I'll move to town and use NG. Hopefully that day will not come for a while.

 

[Dftodd]

Maybe it’s different in your location, but anything electric, especially heating is substantially more expensive to operate than a NG appliance. NG heating is very cheap, electric heat pumps are not cheap to operate.

We have a nuke plant supplying our area with power

My gas bill to heat a 900 sqft apartment was $135 sixteen years ago. My electric bill to heat 2000 sqft house with a heat pump was $135 on average up until we sold it 4 years ago.

 

[duffer]

Haven't read all 6 pages, but I won't buy another house without nat gas. I grew up in a propane house, lived in several states with elec only. I've had heat pumps (Carrier's top of the line) and now have Carrier furnace in a different house. Night and day difference in heating. Nat gas heat puts out far higher air temps in the ducts than a heat pump. It's cheaper, cleaner, and when the elec goes out, you can still heat the house with a small portable generator to run the fan in the air handler. Or, just turn on the oven or your nat gas fireplace.

Do every appliance you can in nat gas: Stove, furnace, dryer, tankless water heater, wall oven. Just make sure your plumber or whoever installs the gas lines inside the house runs properly sized lines for each appliance. Had a builder that put undersized lines in one of my houses and couldn't get furnace to run right, until they changed it. Same is true for your tankless water heater.

 

[Sigarms]

My suggestion would be to look at what you have for appliances and pick and choose which would be the most beneficial to switch to natural gas.

End of the day, down the road, would prefer a tankless gas water heater. We have a pump at the furthest run to the master bath in our current home and we've both been very happy with it (and given that it's just myself and wife now, no doubt we shouldn't exceed the flow rate if sized properly and undersize it if we can get away with it).

The issue is for the free gas hook up, I've got to install a gas furnace. Since the future house is slightly less than 1,700 sq feet, would go with a 2 stage 96% and two stage heat pump (used primarily for heating). Luckily with the unfinished basement, I have plenty of room for a up flow system where as in most homes in NC, you're really stuck for space dealing with a crawl space or small attic (have an attic in our current home and it's not even fun to change the air filter).

Gas furnace may not even come on using that heat pump. If I didn't work in the HVAC industry, probably would use a single stage gas furnace. It's not going to cost me a whole bunch more to go with a dual fuel system vs straight heat pump (electric).

Originally my wife mentioned she would love a gas stove vs the old electric counter top she's been using for the last 20 years in the current home. Going to mention about an induction stove as well and she can pick whatever she wants. End of the day though, although the current electric water heater may not come out right away, but when it does come out, we can use gas.

The future home has a fireplace, but that room is laid out separate from the kitchen bedrooms and bathrooms in the home and we're still trying to figure out what to do with the fireplace. Doesn't make much sense to add money for a added fuel source to utilize the fireplace for really only one room.

Probably go with electric on the dryer. Only thing we have to change there is a hall to the room with the fireplace is basically going to be used. That hall is going to disappear and there will only be one way into the room with the fireplace. Both bathrooms are going to be enlarged using that hall space (believe me, master bath is SMALL where the secondary bath is at least twice the space) and we will be using a under and over washer and dryer to use in a portion of the hallway that is going to disappear. Current washer and dryer in the basement in the future home and that is one thing we don't want. Whole idea is to make our lives easier as we get older, and the basement washer and dryer is what finally made my dad come to live with us when he couldn't do his clothes anymore when he fractured his back.

 

[Sigarms]

What are you guys paying a therm for Natural Gas?

When I called, in our area it's currently $1.09 per therm.

Currently our propane is around $3.88 per gallon.

Going from 3,200 sq ft using propane to less than 1,700 sq ft having the chance to use natural gas seems like a no brainer.

Honestly, our biggest mistake when we bought our current home (larger one) was we had no clue what a hassle and headache it would be because the propane company owns the 500 gallon tank on the property (former home owner put it in some bushes so you can't see it, but it's on a slope and a major PITA to take it out, because I've tried).

We knew that whatever new place we bought either we'd own the tank ourselves (if it had propane) or forget it. I started dual fueling the current homes HVAC systems, and everytime I tried to save on LP, it seemed like the LP coming was screwing with me on pricing when our usage went down.

Besides that, just dealing with the current LP company has grown into a PITA on deliveries and basic communication because over the 20 years, it was bought out by larger companies over the years.