BEST Fuel choices: Electric, NG/propane, coal, wood, Solar, etc.

[bradfordwhite]

There are a few different choices we have for fueling our home appliances.

We'd be at a loss without most of them.

It's probably safe to say that no one here invented any of these technologies.
There are positives and negatives to each of them.

We all have little or no say in how much the technologies are billed at or other industry issues.

Have noticed over the last couple of years, when questions arise INDIRECTLY involving these technologies, such as 'I'm looking to get a new _______(appliance), was wonder peoples opinions on ______(various fuel sources) models", that there is a level of hostility that comes out...
over the various fuel options.

To ask a question like that is perfectly legit. This is an appliance forum after all.

Where is the hostility coming from?

What's tended to happen is a person asks a simple question about an appliance and then the post gets dominated with talks about the various fuels, and it's really not fair to the poster who wanted to know about an appliance.

Clearly the fuel sources themselves ARE STARS and deserve their own field of information. We are all, or we should be imo., grateful for the efforts made by who ever invented the various fuel sources. That's regardless of how affective or clean or even if a particular fuel source is still in existence.

Wondering what peoples thoughts are on things like:

1. Your fuel situation, what you use in your home and auto?

2. Are you in the industry, in other words biased. Do you work for a utility?

3. Do own stock or shares in the industry that again would have you biased?

4. Do you even consider your utilities other than the cost to use them? 

5. How you feel about the various disasters such as Nuclear reactor melt downs and buildings blowing up from natural gas leaks that do happen and is a cost of "progress".

6. Are you hopeful about the increasingly popular technologies like Solar electric, battery storage, and electric cars?

7. With regard to fuel types do you have hostilities involving  their costs, ability to use them, or other issues?

 

8. Do you feel any intimidation to discuss utilities?

 

9. Do you have preferences of fuel type or do you just accept what was installed in the home your in?

 

[bradfordwhite]

"Future Tech" is here now

Some places more than others.

 

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWhJ4QIJlfo

 

[DADoES]

 
1.  House = electric.  Car = gasoline hybrid.

2.  No.

3.  No.

4.  No.

5.  Not concerned.

6.  Yes.

7.  No.

8.  No.

9.  No preference.

 

[wayupnorth]

1 House- oil and propane heat and gasoline for truck

2 No

3 No

4 Cost

5 Also not concerned

6 Yes

7 No

8 No, Its what you have to use right now and can deal with it

9 I am not making any more major investments. Solar wont work here, my truck has 20,000 miles, so I am not trading for a sedan. I made the investment in this house 26 years ago to make it as energy efficient as possible for what I had in 1995 and it has paid off for me in utility charges.

 

[ozzie908]

Please note this is my opinion only.

House is heated by Gas along with hot water, Its a combi boiler that heats water when required no holding tank.

Also its heated/cooled by AC units.

No affiliation to any supplier.

Keep in mind we used gas long before electricity was standard for lighting etc.

Have a Diesel car when its replaced will most likely get a Hybrid.

Have had a house with solar panels on the roof and although they did an excellent job at keeping the bills down the trouble we had when selling said house was horrendous.

Y.M.M.V.

 

[turquoisedude]

My 2 cents (.0135 US....)

1. Fuel Situation - in house 1 (St-Liboire, QC) primary energy source is electricity - Heating (heat pump plus baseboard units), range, dryer, water heater are all electric.  There is an auxillary propane fireplace in the basement for additional heat and emergency use.   In house 2 (Ogden, QC) primary energy source is also electricity - same heating and appliance setup (just a LOT more electric dryers...).  The auxillary heat source in house 2 is an oil-burning stove, which is continously in use for the winter months.  Just to note - both houses are very rural; natural gas service is unavailable in either location.  Propane and oil require their own respective storage tanks.  House 2 can be inaccessible to a delivery vehicle for 3 to 5 months of the year.   Cars - 3 gasoline-burning vehicles.  The 58 Cadillac DRINKS gas and burns up just a bit of oil; the 'new' 2019 Honda CRV is probably the most efficient vehicle, compared to the Caddy or the 2007 Focus Wagon that I still manage to keep alive.  

 

2. Neither my Hubby nor me work for any utility.  

 

3. I own mutual funds which invest in alternative fuel development projects. I am not a direct shareholder in any such venture.

 

4. We do consider our utilities availability particularly.  Being in a rural area we have been subjected to lengthy (once for 3 months) electricity outages so we dream of being able to have some kind of alternative such as solar but we doubt this would ever be pracitical for us. 

 

5. The possibilty of gas explosions and reactor meltdowns does scare me.  When an incident like this occurs, I can't help but first think that it was bad maintenance or mismanagement that was the root cause of the incident, however. 

 

6. I would very much like to see more solar power generation, however I live in the wrong part of the world for it to be truly practical.  Wind power seems to be a better bet up here.  My feelings on electric cars is mixed - it seems like a wonderful way to reduce emissions, especially in large urban centres, but I worry about how the special batteries needed for an electric vehicle are produced and more so about how they would eventually be disposed of once exhausted.   I am hesitant to even consider an electric vehicle because our houses are rural (we have long distances to travel and it gets effin' cold in winter so I can imagine battery life is impacted by this AND rural grid power fails frequently, sometimes for days at a time). 

 

7. No 'hostilities' however, I would, if I had to chose, pick the all-electric house over the one with gas heating/air conditioning, range, dryer, and water heater.  It's a bias learned in childhood - some family friends were killed in a serious gas explosion that took out a whole city block.  

 

8. I feel no intimidation to discuss utilities. If someone has a better idea, I want to hear about it! 

 

9. I kind of answered this in point 7 - I grew up and have lived in areas where mostly electric homes were the norm.  I expect that if I was to go out looking for another place to live, that it would be mostly electric.  Frankly, it probably what I am most comfortable with.  

 

[ea56]

1.  Home is all electric because there is no gas service in our complex.  Our car is an ‘07 Honda Civic, with less than 64,000 miles.  I’ll be 71 in a few weeks and I seriously doubt I’ll ever buy another car.  With the little driving we do this little Honda will last at least another 20 years.  However, if we were to buy another car it would be either a hybrid or electric.

2. No

3. No

4. No

5.  Yes this concerns me.  Seems most of the disaster's are the result of carelessness, lack of proper equipment and line maintenance  and human error.

6.  Yes

7.  No

8.  No, but there are lots of STRONG opinions here, and they could be toned down.

9.  I have adapted to the all electric service for our home.  I prefer electric for cooking and heating, both are cleaner.   Anyway, we have no choice, gas isn’t an option and never will be as long as we live in this home.  

 

Eddie

 

[bradfordwhite]

#4

"the trouble we had when selling said house was horrendous"

What do you mean you had troubles selling the home because of the solar panel install?

 

[robbinsandmyers]

1. Home is gas, my 4 vehicles are diesel

 

2. No

 

3. No

 

4. Yes

 

5. Nuclear accidents too hazardous for too long. Ratio of buildings blowing up from gas leaks far lower than car, train, or plane crashes, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or terrorist attacks to die from/in.

 

6. Yes

 

7. Yes

 

8. I buy what I want and wont be intimidated.  It's my choice, my cash.

 

9. Gas always for home and diesel always for vehicles. Although diesel options are dwindling for new vehicles sold here so looks like I'll be driving 20+ year old diesels the next 20 or so years that I'm left driving because I dont like how gas engine vehicles drive torque wise, etc.

 

[egress]

1. Your fuel situation, what you use in your home and auto?
Home is a combination of gas and electric, we use gas for our water heater, HVAC, and stovetop. everything else is electric including the oven and clothes dryer.
2. Are you in the industry, in other words biased. Do you work for a utility?
No, No, and Also no. maybe in the future? Too soon to know.
3. Do own stock or shares in the industry that again would have you biased?
no.
4. Do you even consider your utilities other than the cost to use them?
Yes
5. How you feel about the various disasters such as Nuclear reactor melt downs and buildings blowing up from natural gas leaks that do happen and is a cost of "progress".
Nuclear gets a bad rap from only a few disasters. gas is way more harmful and there have been quite a lot more gas explosions in recent memory, but gas explosions don't make entire cities uninhabitable.
6. Are you hopeful about the increasingly popular technologies like Solar electric, battery storage, and electric cars?
Very, I hope the costs decrease in coming years so that more of the public can begin adopting these technologies.
7. With regard to fuel types do you have hostilities involving their costs, ability to use them, or other issues?
gas costs a lot. I don't like having to pay ~55$ everytime I go and fill my car up, but I don't have much of a choice. electricity here comparably is much cheaper, at 7c a KWh.

8. Do you feel any intimidation to discuss utilities?
not really, no.


9. Do you have preferences of fuel type or do you just accept what was installed in the home your in?
I'm not in a position to change the fuel type my house uses, given I am still a minor.

 

[askolover]

1.  House natural gas central heat/hot water/dryer/stove/grill/back up heat

     One car gasoline, one car diesel, pickup gasoline

2.  No...healthcare

3.  No

4.  Yes...that's why most of my stuff is natural gas..it's cheaper here.

5.  Live pretty close to 3 nuclear power plants but never think about it. 

6.  Yes but it has a long way to go.

7.  Not really, gas car gets 35mpg+, diesel gets 50mpg.  We won't talk about the pickup but it isn't driven much (except through the snow)

8.  No

9.  Looked for a house with gas everything when I bought this one.  Glad I did.  I still have 240V outlets and used them back in 2001 or so when NG went way high for that winter.

 

 

[ozzie908]

@bradfordwhite

Having the panels on the roof made selling a lot more expensive it seems there is an issue with "Airspace" ? The buyers solicitor kept asking all sorts of questions about the panels and the installation we sent all the paperwork and it took an extra 5 weeks to complete the sale. It just seemed like a pointless trail of paper was made for no obvious reason !

Austin

 

[bradfordwhite]

#11

""Airspace"" rights. Interesting.

That is no doubt a real concern that most people would take for granted. Various countries handle the sale of properties/real estate differently.

The separate sale of air rights and sub-surface or mineral right can affect land use.

If I'm not mistaken, the Crown has a superior interest in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">all land</span> in most of the U.K. as well.  

 

Solar panels are a newer technology that needs their own disclosures at time of sale.  Most likely service contracts with the installing company or utility needs to be addressed.  That makes sense especially for those people who are selling their excess electricity back to the electric utility.  There are people who are making money by having the solar panels installed, which is awesome. 

 

Imagine having free electricity AND getting say $800 a month FROM the electric company for the electricity you're producing.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Selling back to the electric company

The more people providing power to the grid helps to add stability.

 

[gizmo]

I'm a big fan of solar, I live off-grid on solar. But selling back to the grid... Here in Australia we have (I think) the world's highest uptake of domestic rooftop solar. In some places it is getting to be a problem for the power companies. When too many people have surplus solar power being exported, it can push up the grid voltage. Some of that is bad management by the utilities, but it is a genuine problem too. In Australia it is common to limit solar exports from a house to 5 kilowatts or 10 kilowatts depending on the area you live and the infrastructure there. Also power companies can now refuse to accept your export at times of excess export, and even charge you a fee for accepting your export when they don't need it. That is a new change. It shouldn't happen often, a few days a year is expected. Some areas even have no new exports allowed - they are already at capacity to absorb solar exports and you can't get permission to install new solar-export systems. This is controversial, people get angry when they aren't able to export power and get paid for it.  Our grid needs upgrading.

 

I have read that higher uptake of electric cars should help with that - soaking up excess solar power. Despite very high acceptance of solar power (it is a definite plus point when selling a home here) we have very slow acceptance of EVs here - Australia has unique design and testing requirements that make low volume imports not viable, also range anxiety is a big thing as Australians, even those who average a 40km a day commute, easily done in an EV, expect to be able to drive hundreds of km as our rural distances are so huge, distances between cities so far. There are fewer EV models available here than in USA or Europe.

 

[vacerator]

All of them!

Elecricity costs will rise too in order to improve the grids for more electric vehicle charging points, and general improvments.
China is rumored to be working on an artificial sun for making solar power.
Knowing them, they will.
Then we need a way for the human race to survive off of this doomed rock.