"Pete C." wrote:
wrote:
George wrote:
Pete C. wrote:
The problems with gas is you get locked into a monopoly that charges you
even when you aren't using the product,
Explain how big oil isn't a monopopy. They are all in lock step with
each other. Most people who use gas tend to use it for hot water,
cooking and clothes drying so you tend to use it year round.
Actually, the major oil companies are clearly not monopolies. A
monopoly requires one single supplier. In the case of the major oil
companies, you have at least five. OPEC, a key component of the
equation is an oligopoly.
Right.
But clearly this whole argument against nat
gas heat is all based on emotion, rather than fact. The price of
heating oil varies. The price of nat gas varies. Over the past, in my
experience, they have been similar enough in their total cost that it's
not a major difference.
Completely false. This argument against nat. gas is based on facts about
it's safety, reliability, cleanliness and the service life of the
equipment.
Yeah. Decades of living with natural gas and never one service interuption. Real
unreliable. Houses are just blowing up all over the place that have natural gas
too. I guess everyone is keeping that a big secret from the home insurance
companies. Service life? My furnace has a lifetime warranty on the heat
exchanger. How many oil furnaces have that? The blower of course will die sooner,
but I believe oil furnaces have a blower too.
I have ignored price per BTU since that is constantly in
flux.
You mean your argument. A FUD one at that.
Price is the only argument made in favor of nat. gas that has even short
term validity. All other arguments in favor of nat. gas have been based
on either myths, or comparisons of brand new gas equipment to 50yr old
oil equipment.
That's nonsense. Where do you come up with this crap, now you are claiming "50 yr
old oil equipment" comparisons. Compare an average highest efficiency gas furnace
with an average highest effiency oil furnace. Which is more efficient and wastes
the least amount of energy so that it can heat your house instead?
is subject to outages and is far
more dangerous than oil.
With oil you have multiple suppliers in competition that you can choose
from,
Who all have to buy from the same source yielding little difference in
price.
you have an on-site fuel supply that is not subject to outages
No outage here in 35 years.
I've asked several times where Pete lives that he thinks nat gas
interruption is a big concern.
And I've mentioned several times that I'm referring to the northeast.
It's CT in particular where I lived for 36 years before moving a couple
years ago.
How many gas interruptions did your neighorhood have in Connecticut?
It obviously isn't for 95% of us who
use it. I've had nat gas service for 25+ years, that has never gone
out once. I live in central NJ, 50 miles from NYC. But I've sure had
electricity go out.
Indeed I did as well and when it did I simply started my generator and
went back about my normal business without more that a few minutes
interruption.
Good for you.
And it;s the nature of the two systems that's key.
An underground piped system is immune from much of what can halt
electric service. A thrunderstorm, snow storm, car hitting a pole,
all are common electric system weak points, that gas generally is
immune from.
You are ignoring the fact that it is possible and economical to provide
backup for the electricity, something that is not possible with the gas.
Are you nuts? You have never heard of automatic standby generators connected to a
gas line? If your electric service is crappy enough to warrant it, that's the way
to go. No fuel to have to worry about storing and engines last a long time with
nat. gas, maintenance is very low too.
Additionally time to repair a damaged electric line is significantly
less than time to repair a damaged gas line in most cases. You also
don't have to spend additional time purging a repaired electric line
before returning it to service as you do with a repaired gas line.
Purging a gas line takes seconds or minutes.
Again, when you put this in perspective, the gas outtage
thing is another red herring.
Tell that to the folks who lived within 10 miles of me that had to spend
several days in a shelter due to a gas outage.
When was that? Where was that? What was the cause?