Live Better Electrically

[3beltwesty]

1968 new subdivision

In a subdivison I use to live in that was built in 1968, there was a WAR between the Gas and Electric company.

The Electric Co had its claims that electric heat is 100 percent efficient. If one got an all electric house one got a "fee" house power box and inside breaker box too. One got discounts/kickbacks on an electric water heater, electric stove, and electric heater.

If one got GAS one got a "free" gas stove plus front post gas lamp; sometimes a discount on a gas water heater and furnace too. At that time folks got natural gas powered AC units that uses Ammonia/brine and was heated by a gas flame. The "all gas" houses ran these front porch or front sidewalk 2 mantle gas lamps 24/7. When the 1973/74 and 1979 energy crisis hit many folks stopped burning these lamps.

The Reddy-Killo-Watt Gold Medallion home and all gas home adverts were strong in that era. The gas and electric CO were I lived sold the bulk of new water heaters and had a giant showroom. The gas company sold AC central air units by Arkla Servel.

In the link below folks claim how costly these old gas units are to run. In the current house I live in, a Arkla Servel gas AC unit was installed in 1971 and ran to 1992 with little issues. The actual gas bills were not that high either. I look back at my moms records and see where some in August back them were 80 bucks back in 1991 for the natural gas bill. I often wonder if it is just repairing older units is not known anymore. This was a bigger unit of 4 or 5 tons cooling. I remember telling an old boss back in 1988 in California that this Gulf Coast house had a gas absorption AC unit and he told me they were *terrible* with a low EER/SEER.

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hvac-talk.com

 

[112561]

Paul and Lee Harvey Buy a New Car

Mini movie about a day in the life of Paul and his signifigant other, Lee Harvey.
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[crevicetool]

Great thread! Thanks 112561!!!

 

[appnut]

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.

 

[112561]

Sometime in the '58 '59 time period, we moved into Army housing on a street called 70th Tank Batallion Road in Fort Knox, Kentucky. We had a gas refrigerator in the kitchen, and our one door Frigidaire was in the basement. I would guess the whole series of residences were served mostly by gas. That was a neat place, all of the living quarters were two story, the kitchen and entry doors were on the front. We had attics, basements, French doors on the back for the huge terraced area, and some bits of furniture were included in our place. I can find the place on Google Maps, but no street views, I'm guessing because it's Government housing, if it still exsists at all. I'm guessing the whole area dates to the 1940s.

 

[whirlcool]

 We have a gas light out on the front of our house. We had it installed when we moved in as the front door is recessed and at night you couldn't see the door. The gas light fixed that. We calculate that it costs us about $20.00 per month to operate.

The first house we had in Houston was an all electric house. The entire subdivision was electric.
Over time you'd see a ditch being dug from the street to the house then a vent or two pop up on the roof of the house.  We were going to run gas into the house, but the gas company wanted $2K to do so. So we sold the house and moved elsewhere. Besides, that part of Houston was falling apart at a very rapid rate.

 

[mattl]

$20/mo???  That's quite a bit, are you sure?  I have a gas water heater, gas cook top, gas dryer and gas grill on the patio, and in the summer my gas bill is not much more than that.

A few of the neighbors still have the gas lamp posts, I enjoy seeing them, but if they knew it was costing $20 I'd bet they'd go out quickly.

 

[passatdoc]

check out the KC-135 tanker

I remember SD G&E (San Diego Gas and Electric) pushing outdoor gaslights in ads in the late 1960s. I don't recall my parents' home as containing "free" appliances, but this was 1972, not the 60s. However, the builder may well have pocketed rebates or kickbacks from the utility, though where we lived, San Diego Gas & Electric handled both commodities.

My sister's mid-century house in the Bay Area had gas water heater and furnace. Originally laundry area (in a garage now converted to family room) was electric, no gas, and the kitchen did not have gas when they moved in. The previous owner, who had converted the garage, built a laundry annex off a hallway near the bedrooms and ran in gas. From the laundry connection, they piped in a connection to the kitchen so that my sister could replace the existing electric range with a gas model. I presume the 240V outlet is still behind the range should she ever want to revert to an electric or dual-fuel range.

Going back to recycled military planes, how about the KC-135? The Boeing 367 prototype was developed into the KC-135 and--with flengthened and widened fuselage--as the 707. Some of the financial risk Boeing took was cushioned by the knowledge that the military needed lots of jet speed tankers. The later models have been retrofitted with quieter and more fuel efficient CFM engines (similar to civilian airliner engines). With proper maintenance, they can be flow until c. 2040, for a lifespan of about eighty years. Talk about value for money!!

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en.wikipedia.org

 

[cornutt]

The interesting bit is that the last 707 didn't roll off of the production line until 1992... for some years after they were no longer being sold as airliners, Boeing was still using the 707 as the base platform for the E-3 AWACS military aircraft. That gave it a total production run of 34 years.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I subscribed to Paul's YouTube channel, and he was so excited to find out that I was a washer lover. He we telling about a lamp he found made out of a washer agitator with a fiberglass lampshade. Hmmm a new use for old agitators?

 

[3beltwesty]

Tex Johnston as a 707 passenger

"In his autobiography, test pilot Tex Johnston described a Dutch Roll incident he experienced as a passenger on an early commercial 707 flight. As the aircraft's movements did not cease and most of the passengers became ill, he suspected a misrigging of the directional autopilot (yaw damper). He went to the cockpit and found the crew unable to understand and resolve the situation. He introduced himself and relieved the ashen-faced captain who immediately left the cockpit feeling ill. Johnston disconnected the faulting autopilot and manually stabilized the plane "with two slight control movements""

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en.wikipedia.org

 

[112561]

So far, I've found Paul Wilson's channel to be the most entertaining of all of them!

 

[cornutt]

Well, Tex would know about 707s and rolls.