ONG - natural gas rates - good or bad idea to lock in the rate

[Shadowrider]

I hate the delivery fee I used 3 dollars worth of gas and got charged 25 for delivery.
If I could set it up I would use a portable CNG tank and fill it myself.. but reducing pressure to 1/2 PSI to work in my water heater or furnace.

Friend of mine went all electric and saved money. said natural gas went up in the cold months and electric went down.
I went electric dryer and man that thing dries super quick and did not notice it on electric bill.

My sister's and my house are about the same size, the same age and in the same city. She's total electric, I'm not. She has $250 electric bills in the summer. Mine have never been more than $170 or so and since I got my new system they are rarely over $110. She got a whole new state of the art central system year before last. I told her not to buy a heat pump, but she didn't listen. I told her to use the extra money and have a plumber run a gas line but she didn't listen. Last winter she was hating on that heat pump pretty hard when it was blowing cold air while heating her house. Yes it does have the electric heating strips for real cold weather.

Bottom line is when I'm paying $50 to $60 electric bills in the winter she's still paying way past $100. I'm still paying $40 to $140 per month less than her for both my electric and gas bills. It's been this way for years and I've never paid more than her. It's not even arguable, NG saves a ton of money.

 

[swampratt]

Yea my bills are really low and I burn a lot of free wood to heat the house in the winter.
Low E windows and a lot of insulation in the attic.
I unplug all TV's and entertainment stuff when not in use.
Pretty easy to do when you have a switch on the wall that controls the plugs.
For august the electric was$90.64 gas was $26.36 I suppose I should leave it alone.
2000 sq ft 2 story.

 

[dennishoddy]

Some of us don’t have a NG option.

 

[Dumpstick]

Some of us don’t have a NG option.

Me.

All electric. No NG distribution line anywhere close to me.

I have a high-pressure transportation pipeline at the back of my property. A few years ago, the pipeline company had to replace it, move it a bit too. They came wanting a 20 foot easement.
I tried very hard to squeeze a regulator and meter out if them as payment. No go. Damn shame.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

I am all electric too. It’s not that bad. I would rather cook with gas and have NG for my fireplace but I would rather have an electric water tank. Propane is expensive. But at least I have that for my fireplace. I just have to take my two 100 pound bottles in every so often to refill them. That gets old but it would probably cost too much to get a bigger tank put in.

 

[MacFromOK]

We were originally total-electric back in the '70s, then I put in a wood stove in the '80s (cheaper), then my ticker blew a gasket in '90 and I could no longer handle the wood, so I put in a single Dearborn propane heater and bought a 150 gallon tank.

Should have went propane early on. Still all-electric except for the heater.

 

[lasher]

a good friend has 1600 feet heated and cooled. has a giant wood stove, sucker must weigh 6-800 pounds, put a log in it and open her up,,,it will run you out of the place, and it's a 2 story building. air conditioning is "open the windows" and ceiling fans,,,everything else is electric, and 220 acres yields lots of wood

 

[TerryMiller]

I am all electric too. It’s not that bad. I would rather cook with gas and have NG for my fireplace but I would rather have an electric water tank. Propane is expensive. But at least I have that for my fireplace. I just have to take my two 100 pound bottles in every so often to refill them. That gets old but it would probably cost too much to get a bigger tank put in.

I don't know who you have for suppliers out there, but give them a call. Even though we live in an RV, we tend to stay in each place for months and months, so we tend to get an LP tank (leased) and buy the gas. Any tank or cylinder will generally have a gauge on it, which you 100# cylinders don't have. You might even find that filling a tank is cheaper than filling the 100# cylinders. Some places charge a person a set price regardless if there is any gas in the cylinder or not.

 

[dennishoddy]

Me.

All electric. No NG distribution line anywhere close to me.

I have a high-pressure transportation pipeline at the back of my property. A few years ago, the pipeline company had to replace it, move it a bit too. They came wanting a 20 foot easement.
I tried very hard to squeeze a regulator and meter out if them as payment. No go. Damn shame.

They used to do that on a regular basis back in the day. I know of a house South of Tonkawa and west of I-35 that is total gas because of an easement agreement. Fridge, lighting, heating, everything gas. It's been around for awhile. Pretty sure they don't do that at all now for liability reasons.

 

[dennishoddy]

I am all electric too. It’s not that bad. I would rather cook with gas and have NG for my fireplace but I would rather have an electric water tank. Propane is expensive. But at least I have that for my fireplace. I just have to take my two 100 pound bottles in every so often to refill them. That gets old but it would probably cost too much to get a bigger tank put in.

Used tanks at an auction typically bring $1 a gallon as a rule around here. A 500 gallon tank is $500, and with a tank that size, the propane distributor will come to you and fill them with no delivery charge. Around here you must have a 200 gallon minimum tank for them to come to the house. Fill them in the summer when propane is less expensive.
Our home is total electric as I mentioned before, but my new shop has a propane central heat unit in it. I've bought some smaller tanks at auctions and built a manifold for them that runs to the heater.
Just built a double barrel wood burner stove for the shop, so as soon as I punch a hole through the wall for the stack, I'll cut down on the propane a lot.