New 1961 subdivision
The home we moved into September 1961 was built winter of 1961. The entire street was in the Parade of Homes in Houston thatyear. There was a mixture of Gold medallion Electric homes and homes with mainly gas. Ours was gas. With the water-cooled a/c tower out back, gas furnace, gas cooking (O&M--oven had rotiss and adjustable-height broiler and meat mi9nder thermoeter in the oven) as well as a 42" O&M range with griddle in the middle. There was even a Norge gas fridge in the kitchen during the showcase and Maytag laundry pair (I remember the Maytags were still in the laundry room when we looked at the house, but the fridge was long gone). Aspart of the deed restrictions, EVERY house had one of those gas lights ut frong near the curb, including the Gold Medalliion "all-electric" house. These gas lights provided all the street lighting and to this day they are still a requirement, not even the electric lap equivalent looking device allowed. (My father the ever prankster, when giving instructions to a co-worker for her & her husband coming to visit for the first time, he told her it was the house with the gas light in front). The orignal gas central system was replaced in about 1965 or 1966 due to a major defect, but I odn't remember what it was. We had that replacement system until the mid to early 1970s when it was replaced by a Carrier electric ac with gas furnace. Before the Carrier arrved, the house managed to stay reasonable cool even during the hottest months of August and September. I think around 74 or 75 degrees. As the day advanced and the sun rotated around the horizon, my mom would rainse and lower room darkening shades in all the rooms to help cut down on the heat coming in. Also during the hottest parts of the day, I couldn't rujn the Norge gas dryers because they put out so much heat. The house next door to us replaced their original gas system with a "modern" gas system in the mid 1970s, about the same time as e did. The houses were simmilar size and arrangement. With their new ac system, their gas bill went through the room and their operating expenses for cooling were much higher than our house with the electric and the house next door bought the most efficient that was avaiable at the time. On a side note, when the Astrodome was built in 1963 or so, their climate control systems werre both gas and electric. The electric was used to quickly bring down the temperature and the gas cooling systems were used to maintain the temperature at a lower cost.
