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1. lnxw48a1 (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Friday, 19-Feb-2021 22:10:28 EST lnxw48a1
   Interestingly, there's a move to switch major indoor appliances (stove, furnace, water heater) from natural gas to electric. I guess the #Texas experience says that may not be a good idea.
   1. GeniusMusing (geniusmusing@nu.federati.net)'s status on Saturday, 20-Feb-2021 09:49:31 EST GeniusMusing

      in reply to
      @lnxw48a1
      And the circle makes another revolution.
      My folks went all electric on a house they had built in 1973(?) because electric was so much cheaper at the time than natural gas. Somewhere in the mid 80's they switch to gas because the bill was 2X-3X that of the next door house built at the same time. Not to mention the furnace was just a giant "toaster" and liked to eat fuses on a regular basis.
      
      Switching to all electric appliances (furnace/water heater would be later) was something we considered with out current house but decided not to in part due to the cost to add all the additional wiring for stove/dryer. After our brief +8 hours without power a week ago (there are still some in Portland without power) it will probably be off the table until there is a alternative way for backup power at a house level, maybe power-wall type thing or gas generator. When your only heat source for the coldest night of the year (20F/-6C, not really bad when compared to Chicago cold) is a nat-gas fireplace that requires 2 D batteries to operate, you start to think about these things.
      1. lnxw48a1 (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Saturday, 20-Feb-2021 21:18:41 EST lnxw48a1

         in reply to
         @geniusmusing because of some combustion products, some agencies are trying to move US to electric. But the US will need to provide nearly every home with self-generation capability, so that people are not dying of hypothermia in their dwellings.
         1. lnxw48a1 (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Saturday, 20-Feb-2021 23:22:50 EST lnxw48a1

            in reply to
            Because of gas appliances, many residences have air quality that would be considered "smog alert" levels if it was outside. US-EPA wants US-CPSC to require new appliances to use electricity instead of gas.
            
            But having people die in their homes because the electricity was off (and now hearing that some of those plants shut down because the price of natural gas was higher than what they could sell the resulting electricity for) is not something I favor at all.