Mike Dobony wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:07:07 GMT, Robert Allison wrote:


SteveB wrote:

I live in a rural area currently with electric only. No pun intended.
There are rumors of nat. gas coming soon, but who knows when. We want a gas
stove. Am considering propane. I have a propane stove at the cabin and it
works fine. Heats fast, bakes good. We don't use it a lot, not nearly as
much as we would at the primary house.

For those who have/have had both propane and natural gas, is it worth it to
wait for the natural gas, or just do the propane thing. And then convert
when it gets there if we choose to?

I certainly like propane for grilling, but can't compare as I have never
used nat. for outdoor cooking. Is there a big difference in that?


Steve



No big difference in using it. There is very little difference between
natural gas and propane as far as using it goes. Natural gas is cheaper
than propane.

The deciding factor may be the initial cost. While the NG company may
charge you a fee for hookup, the propane will be quite a hefty initial
cost. The tank you will probably have to buy. The propane company will
do the install and hook everything up to your gas line. Depending upon
the size of your tank, that will be between 1200 and 1800 bucks
including the first fill of propane.

With either one, you are going to have to install gas lines to your
fixtures. I did my own and only had to pay for materials, so I can't
tell you what it would be for you. I put the stove and the water heater
on the propane. Left the AC/Heat as electric. Materials were about
150.00, not including stove and water heater.

I HATE electric stoves, so the choice was easy for me. YMMV

In addition, there are no inspections here in the country, so I did not
have to deal with that. Again, YMMV.


I don't know about the initial hookup, but it costs me $60 a year to rent a
500 gallon propane tank. It was already here when I bought the trailer.

As far a grilling goes, I have been able to use the NG grill on much colder
days than I could ever with propane. OTOH, the conversion from propane to
NG is fairly inexpensive. I think it cost about $30 for the grill
conversion kit (Great Outdoors grill, no longer being manufactured). For a
stove it is simply replacing the jets.

Mike D.

This is true and if you can get the propane company to rent you the
tank, that is the way to go. For reasons that I don't like, they would
only sell one to me. If I had put my HVAC on gas, they would have
rented me a tank, but I didn't, so they wouldn't. Something about ALL
the fixtures must be on propane for them to rent. That may be different
in other areas.

When I first converted the stove, I just ran off a 60 gallon tank, which
I carried down to the propane place to refill. When I installed the
water heater, I didn't want to have to carry that down every 3 weeks or
so, so I rented the tank. 250 gallon.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX