Posted on 11/21/2019 5:23:36 PM PST by karpov
NO: A Ban Looks Good—Until You Do the Math
Those seeking to ban natural-gas hookups in new buildings say it will reduce local pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions, while saving end users money. Some also point to safety benefits: Fewer natural-gas lines means less potential damage during earthquakes.
When you compare the benefits and costs of such policies, however, you will find that their claims have little or no merit.
For starters, if consumers had an economic incentive to use electricity instead of natural gas, there would be no need for bans in the first place. With these kinds of analyses the devil is in the details, and one small detail is that in areas where natural gas is available, it is generally less costly to burn natural gas directly in homes and buildings for things like heating and cooking than to rely on electricity to provide equivalent end-use service.
Consider California, the state at the forefront of natural-gas-hookup bans. Last year, the average price of natural gas in California was about $12.30 per million British thermal units (a measure of the heat content of the fuel), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For a homeowner with a new, 95% efficiency natural-gas furnace or water heater, that translates into a cost of just under $13 per million BTUs.
Compare that with the cost of electricity, which averaged 18.84 cents a kilowatt-hour in California in 2018, about 50% higher than the national average. That works out to $55 per million BTUs, more than four times the cost of natural gas. Even heat pumps for space and water heating can’t bridge that gap.
Environmentalists also tend to ignore things like comfort, reliability and usability. A ban on new natural-gas hookups in Berkeley, Calif, for example, means restaurants [can't] install gas ranges
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The thing about using electric heat is that it generates more than 2.5 times more green house gasses as natural gas heat. As if that actually matters to these people.
The process of generating electricity is limited by the laws of thermodynamics and the max efficiency of these plants is about 40% of the heat being converted to electricity. But, line loses in transmission decrease the system efficiency of “heat” being delivered even more.
The waste heat from creating this electricity must be released to the environment and it is not very useful because it has to be released at the lowest temperature possible or the efficiency of the generation process is reduced more. So, most of the heat is dispersed via cooling towers that just heat the air around the plant or into rivers which is another version of useless. And, that is the way of thermodynamics.. from useful to useless.
But, that same heat used to heat a house is useful until it leaks out the walls and into the ground around the house as heat. So, natural gas gives every BTU of heat as heat to heat. Why are these people so silly? Because that Electric Plant is a target for taxes and regulation and a choke point to control people. Which is what this is really about, power, not electric but political.
I’m surprised that you don’t have one of those on demand natural gas generators to power your house. Seems like a worthwhile investment in that state.
Costco had them for few years. The problem was getting them installed properly to meet the codes and PG&E’s requirements.
The total installment costs were often equal to or more than the unit.
The people, who had them installed properly, businesses and private citizens like them.
Back then before the fires and shut offs, it was hard to justify the expense that could equal several years of electrical bills. Gas ‘ain’t’ cheap out here.
We have a friend, who just retired from PG&E, who is a licensed mechanical/electrical engineer. He is looking @ working a packaged deal with a buyer of the equipment & his licensed workers.
You sound like my wifel who grew up in the mid west. Her parents had gas ranges/ovens. She is a great cook like her mother.
Our home was basically, new, when we bought it, and the all electrical stuff was big at that time. Electricity was cheap and clean. So our range was electric and the double oven.
About 12 years ago, we redid our kitchen. She had a 5 burner gas Jenn Aire range installed. She took our mothers’ cast iron and top of the range pans out of storage. It is amazing how good everything tastes that is cooked properly over that range.
We replaced our twin electric ovens with the newer model. It works great, but now with the power outages, she would have gone to the gas versions.
Individual freedom and markets that adapt to that freedom certainly need to be replaced by the decisions of government planners. How ever can the success of the USSR and more recently, Venezuela, be duplicated by Americans without following this sensible solution.
Yes. Ban natural gas.
Let liberal cities pay 4 times more for energy.
Leave the cheap stuff for the conservatives.
A ‘standard’ cubic foot of gas (the mass of gas that fills one cubic foot at 70F and atmospheric pressure), has around 1000 btus in it.
Your bill will have a ‘billing factor’ or ‘energy factor’ or something like that, a number near 1.00 that adjusts for the heat content of the specific gas they’re selling you.
My Atmos Energy bill did not include such.
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