I'm buying a house in CT the house I'm buying will have an electric
stove and no clothes dryer. The heat is oil but they have a gas line on
the block. I'd like to cook with gas and I hear that a gas powered
dryer could save me up to $50 a year in energy costs. I'll have to pay
to bring a gas line from the street to the house. Does anyone have a
round figure of what it will cost me vs. the energy savings to convert
both the stove and clothes dryer to gas?

"Dwayne Hoover" wrote:

I'm buying a house in CT the house I'm buying will have an electric
stove and no clothes dryer. The heat is oil but they have a gas line on
the block. I'd like to cook with gas and I hear that a gas powered
dryer could save me up to $50 a year in energy costs. I'll have to pay
to bring a gas line from the street to the house. Does anyone have a
round figure of what it will cost me vs. the energy savings to convert
both the stove and clothes dryer to gas?

You'll need to call a few local plumbing companies. Regional variations in labor
and the amount of work to run gas lines in your existing house make that
impossible to answer.

The dryer and stove are not the prime consumers of energy though. In CT, home
heating followed by hot water are. If you don't convert these two, you probably
won't ever see a payback.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. My heat and hot water are both powered by
oil. Right now the owners are using electric from both their oven and
clothes dryer. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to purchase a
gas powered dryer and sell the new electric range they are leaving us
with and buy a gas stove since that is what we are used to. I know The
gas stove and dryer are more expensive initially than their electric
counterparts but it's my understanding that Connecticut pays the
highest electric prices in the country so I think I want to avoid
paying electric where I can.


Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote:
"Dwayne Hoover" wrote:

I'm buying a house in CT the house I'm buying will have an electric
stove and no clothes dryer. The heat is oil but they have a gas line on
the block. I'd like to cook with gas and I hear that a gas powered
dryer could save me up to $50 a year in energy costs. I'll have to pay
to bring a gas line from the street to the house. Does anyone have a
round figure of what it will cost me vs. the energy savings to convert
both the stove and clothes dryer to gas?

You'll need to call a few local plumbing companies. Regional variations in labor
and the amount of work to run gas lines in your existing house make that
impossible to answer.

The dryer and stove are not the prime consumers of energy though. In CT, home
heating followed by hot water are. If you don't convert these two, you probably
won't ever see a payback.

"Dwayne Hoover" wrote in message
ups.com...
I know The
gas stove and dryer are more expensive initially than their electric
counterparts but it's my understanding that Connecticut pays the
highest electric prices in the country so I think I want to avoid
paying electric where I can.


It depends on where in CT. There are 4 or 5 towns covered by Municipal
Electric Companies (the town I live in is one of them) which pay less
(15-25% less) than areas covered by the 'big' power companies, UI and CL&P.
Areas that are serviced by United Iluminating pay higher electric rates than
CL&P (Northeast Utilities), at least as of the last time that my municipal
electric service provided us with a comparison chart .

And I'm not buying the idea that CT's rates are the highest in the country,
I believe the rates we pay at our property in Vermont are significantly
higher than the rates here in CT.

In article .com, Dwayne
Hoover says...

I'm buying a house in CT the house I'm buying will have an electric
stove and no clothes dryer. The heat is oil but they have a gas line on
the block. I'd like to cook with gas and I hear that a gas powered
dryer could save me up to $50 a year in energy costs. I'll have to pay
to bring a gas line from the street to the house. Does anyone have a
round figure of what it will cost me vs. the energy savings to convert
both the stove and clothes dryer to gas?


I think you're asking the wrong question, though.

My understanding over the years is that gas goes up and down, and trying to
chase a few savings based on current gas vs. oil (for those thinking about heat)
vs. electric prices is a bit like rainbow-chasing. Except that consistently
electric heat is pretty steep. Other than that, I'd make my decisions based on
lifestyle factors and expense to install factors.

If you really like cooking with gas, that's significantly a different thing from
cooking with electric - so I'd go with gas if I were you. Regarding the dryer,
I'd base that more on what you decide concerning your stove and what the ease of
conversion for the dryer is. Time to get some quotes.

Banty (sticking with electric for both since I can't smell mercaptan well)


--

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5222154.stm

Dwayne Hoover wrote:
I'm sorry I wasn't clear. My heat and hot water are both powered by
oil. Right now the owners are using electric from both their oven and
clothes dryer. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to purchase a
gas powered dryer and sell the new electric range they are leaving us
with and buy a gas stove since that is what we are used to. I know The
gas stove and dryer are more expensive initially than their electric
counterparts but it's my understanding that Connecticut pays the
highest electric prices in the country so I think I want to avoid
paying electric where I can.


Keep in mind that many (or maybe all) gas suppliers charge a base fee
whether you use any gas or not. For a light user this can make the gas
more expensive than electric. For example, when my house in NC was
built several owners ago, the builder put in a heat pump with gas
backup. Over the course of this past winter I only used like 10 therms
of gas but had to pay $10/month plus the per therm cost of the gas, so
the gas ended up costing like 4 times as much per kWh as electric would
have.

Check out the base charge for your supplier. I am guessing there is a
good chance the gas may actually cost you more overall.

We cook just about every night and I'd say our oven and stove run well
over an hour every day. I think that the price of using electric for
that many hours per month is going to be much more expensive than
electric. Anyone have any guestimate on how much more it will be to use
electric as opposed to gas?

I'll be buying my house in Monroe CT if that makes any difference as to
the electric utility.

Banty wrote:
In article .com, Dwayne
Hoover says...

I'm buying a house in CT the house I'm buying will have an electric
stove and no clothes dryer. The heat is oil but they have a gas line on
the block. I'd like to cook with gas and I hear that a gas powered
dryer could save me up to $50 a year in energy costs. I'll have to pay
to bring a gas line from the street to the house. Does anyone have a
round figure of what it will cost me vs. the energy savings to convert
both the stove and clothes dryer to gas?


I think you're asking the wrong question, though.

My understanding over the years is that gas goes up and down, and trying to
chase a few savings based on current gas vs. oil (for those thinking about heat)
vs. electric prices is a bit like rainbow-chasing. Except that consistently
electric heat is pretty steep. Other than that, I'd make my decisions based on
lifestyle factors and expense to install factors.

If you really like cooking with gas, that's significantly a different thing from
cooking with electric - so I'd go with gas if I were you. Regarding the dryer,
I'd base that more on what you decide concerning your stove and what the ease of
conversion for the dryer is. Time to get some quotes.

Banty (sticking with electric for both since I can't smell mercaptan well)


--

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5222154.stm

Dwayne Hoover wrote:
We cook just about every night and I'd say our oven and stove run well
over an hour every day. I think that the price of using electric for
that many hours per month is going to be much more expensive than
electric. Anyone have any guestimate on how much more it will be to use
electric as opposed to gas?

I'll be buying my house in Monroe CT if that makes any difference as to
the electric utility.

I poked around a little bit and found an energy analysis of my house
that estimated that most homes in my area would use about 5% of their
total energy for cooking. For me that would work out to about 1000
kWh/yr.

Assuming approximately the same usage for yourself, electricity at
$0.16/kWh, and gas at $2/therm, you would save about $90/yr going with
gas. You may be able to save about the same with your gas dryer, but
you also need to pay about $120/yr in service charges for the gas which
leaves you about $60/yr.

Then there is the issue of getting the gas lines installed which could
cost much more than you will ever recoup in savings unless you plan to
live there for a long time.

In article ,
Tracey wrote:
"Dwayne Hoover" wrote in message
oups.com...
I know The
gas stove and dryer are more expensive initially than their electric
counterparts but it's my understanding that Connecticut pays the
highest electric prices in the country so I think I want to avoid
paying electric where I can.


It depends on where in CT. There are 4 or 5 towns covered by Municipal
Electric Companies (the town I live in is one of them) which pay less
(15-25% less) than areas covered by the 'big' power companies, UI and CL&P.
Areas that are serviced by United Iluminating pay higher electric rates than
CL&P (Northeast Utilities), at least as of the last time that my municipal
electric service provided us with a comparison chart .

And I'm not buying the idea that CT's rates are the highest in the country,
I believe the rates we pay at our property in Vermont are significantly
higher than the rates here in CT.



http://www.neo.state.ne.us/statshtml/115_200409.htm


Highest: Hawaii (14.15 cents/kwh)
Lowest: Kentucky (4.41 cents/kwh)


You are right that Vermont is higher than Connecticut, but only slightly.


Dimitri

Also, I wouldn't switch the oven from gas to electric. Most pro chefs
prefer gas range and electric oven, which is what I would go with.

IMO. I'd view this whole thing more as personal preference rather than
a $$$ factor. The big incentive of gas vs electric is obviously if the
house is being heated with it. If it's only the dryer/stove and the
existing ones still work and you don't have a strong pref in the
cooking fuel, then all the costs of running gas, new appliances, etc
aren't goning to be worth it.

On 4 Aug 2006 10:18:58 -0700, someone wrote:

IMO. I'd view this whole thing more as personal preference rather than
a $$$ factor....

This time, I agree with "trader4".

If you need to rationalize doing thousands of dollars in plumbing work
to save 100 bucks a year, by all means do so if it helps you sleep
better. Selling the used stove likely won't bring in jack ****.

Although it wasn't asked about, the goose chase is to try and figure
when it is worthwhile to swap from gas to oil or vice versa. Both
prices fluctuate and the long term trend of both is in the same
direction.

EITHER of those fuels vs. electricity is generally a better deal to
use to produce heat on site. However, with only an hour or two a day
of use for the typical stove or dryer, the conversion cost can
outweigh the operating savings. To REALLY save $$ on drying clothes,
put up a clothesline.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.