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Natural Gas Drawbacks? Delievery issues?

4K views 32 replies 24 participants last post by  pequa1 
#1 ·
Several of my neighbors and I are considering switching to Natural Gas.
I was wondering if there are people here that have had it for a long time and if there have ever been disruption of delivery.

If I had natural gas I could hook up a nat gas generator. I could also install a gas fireplace ( something I've always wanted, convert my BBQ grill so I no longer need to fill tanks and even use it for a clothes dryer which is better than electric.
I have a great electric stove but perhaps I could add a small gas top to augment it?

But in the face of this storm it got me wondering how reliable gas delivery is?
How good are the burners?

What can some of you that have had it tell us who are thinking about it?
Especially about its reliability in natural disasters.

Thanks
 
#17 ·
I PUMPED THE REMAINING OIL OUT INTO A 55 GAL DRUM AND GAVE TO A BUDDY OF MINE, WE THEN CUT THE TANK IN HALF W/ SAWZALL CLEANED IT WITH BRAKE CLEANER AND PUT AT CURB FOR THE TOWN TO PICK UP. SHOULDNT HAVE BOTHERED CLEANING IT. 5 MINS AFTER PUTTING IT OUT SOMEONE GRABBED IT FOR SCRAP. MOST TOWNS WILL PICK UP AS LONG AS CUT AND CLEAN.
 
#8 ·
Garden City. House was oil when we bought it. Switched to nat gas (16 years ago) and abandoned the oil tank. Never had any interruptions. Still, today, have hot water, stove/oven work (need to manually ignite), etc,. I recommend it + no need to monitor deliveries.
 
#9 ·
My house had its original oil furnace when I moved in but it also had gas coming in for the stove, dryer and hot water heater. That's one of the reasons I bought it. I would never by a house that didn't at least have gas available to it. We converted the heat to gas after two miserable winters with oil (i.e., as soon as we could afford it).

Natural gas is better in every way.
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
Nope, won't work. You can heat the water, BUT You need electricity to run the circulator pumps in order for the hot water to be pumped through the base boards. Same goes for forced air heat. Need elect for the fans to blow the warm air.
Hot water works with the water pressure from the street pushing the heated water from the water heater up to the faucets.
 
#14 ·
Got it all. 17kw Generac, pool heater, fireplace and stove run off big gas tanks. Boiler off a full 750 gallon oil tank. Electric dryer. And 5 tanks of propane for the grill, which is 2 years worth. Funny thing is I told my wife that oil might be short soon. She did not realize that the house did not heat itself with magic. Just thought heat came from the thermostat.
 
#18 ·
I've done 3 oil to gas conversions .... 2 residential, 1 industrial.
IMHO its cleaner, quieter & requires less maintenance.
Efficiency wise, I think its a wash when comparing new equipment .
Storage is a double edged sword .... you gain space [if you had an indoor oil tank] but you do not have any storage IF there is an interruption in service.
I am considering installing a 500lb tank of propane as a back-up .... can be used for heating, cooking & power generation.
Also running NG BBQ & fireplace
 
#21 ·
I work for Nat Grid and its funny u asked about disruptions in delivery, as of this moment the entire south shore of LI is without gas to there homes on account of the Hurricane. The South Shore has alot of low pressure mains { less then 1 lb} and they ingested alot of water in the flooding. All in all tho, this is a very rare occurance.
On a dollar for dollar basis, the same amount of heat generated from a gallon of oil costs us $4.some odd bucks, where as nat gas is about 2.25 a gallon, so if u ask me it makes a ton of sense to switch........
 
#25 ·
+1.

Nightday in Amity Harbor just posted today that they are shutting the gas down in his neighborhood which is not too close to the water from what I understand and still has no power.

There were several gas disruptions along the South Shore (they shut it off in Copiague and Lindy as well).

So in a worse case scenario (I would imagine a lot of SHTF scenarios would be worse than Sandy) the potential for interrupted service is a real risk. Don't put all your eggs in one basket (and I am considering a NG Standby gennie, but seeing how many areas had their gas shut down during this storm is making me rethink that).
 
#28 ·
Well it seems that Nat Grid has not run it that far down my block yet.
And my oil burner is getting old. So I know now that I'll probably have gas available after I need to change my burner.
I guess I can look into a propane system until nat gas comes.
 
#30 ·
Natural gas is the only way to go.I have bought several houses over the last 40 years and never had a disruption.I installed a generac natural gas generator.After 30 seconds of outage the generator transfers the load and switches back when service is restored.I just installed a gas fireplace this week.Love it. The best part is gas is cheaper than oil.Your oil burner motor can be replaced with a natural gas head.Could save money there.
 
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