Debate of the night: Gas or Electric?

There are aspects to this whole "building a new place" thing that are really hard to figure out, y'know? M & I got into quite the discussion, last night, on the Gas or Electric debate. The furnace and fireplace are going to be natural gas, and I'm planning on having a natural gas line run for a BBQ, too, but I balk on doing the same for the stove and the dryer.

A gas stove cooks quicker and hotter, and having a gas stove also means always being able to cook during a blackout (as does the gas BBQ, I guess). Gas prices, are to me, however, a lot more uncertain that electricity prices. Gas is more efficient, and possibly cheaper in the long run - but is it better environmentally? Besides, gas just makes me uneasy. That, I know, is crazy - the gas is there, already, for the furnace, the fireplace, and the BBQ. But gas burners means the possibility of simple carelessness causing a fire, and that doesn't happen - as much, anyway - with electric. I'm seriously waffling on the gas stove, but I'm starting to think it's likely that's the way I'll go.

Then, we got into it about a gas clothes dryer. I really, really don't want to run gas to the second floor of the house. It's bad enough that I'm running it to the first floor. And that comes down to straight fear, I know. A gas dryer would cost a little more, up front, but it seems to be much more efficient.

How unreasonable is that fear? I keep having visions of my nice new house exploding into a fireball because I've made some silly little mistake. CO monitors will be installed, so I'm not really worried about us dying in our sleep because of carbon monoxide poisoning. My real concerns are fire, and long-term costs, both to my pocketbook and to the environment. Anybody know of some good, impartial research on the true efficiency of gas vs. electric for appliances? I found one guy who'd done the math on the difference for dryers, and I've saved a copy of his spreadsheet to fill it in with local utility figures, but I have no idea how good his assumptions are.

Random Notes from a weekend

• Bowling is fun, but man, I was sore afterward. My hip flexors didn't like all the lunges with weights I was doing. *g*


• On that theme, I really need to get back to the gym. We went for a "walk" with the dogs yesterday, and keeping up with the 10-year-old (that's 70 in dog years!), arthritic, meek Mayhem almost killed me. I don't like getting looks that clearly say "what's the problem, slowpoke?" from her. On the plus side, the new pills seem to be working wonders for her arthritis.


• Pasta with sausage, peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes cooked in a white wine sauce? Yum!


• Appliance shopping is just weird. It's almost like... I'm an adult! Heh.


• The play of the football game (Seattle vs Dallas, on Saturday) made a lot more sense when we realized the score was 20-21 for Seattle, instead of 21-22 for Dallas in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. The reception was a little fuzzy, so we thought the 20 was a 22. So, with seconds left to go we were alternating between "why does the Dallas QB (who fumbled a snap for a field goal from about the 5th yard line, ouch) look so devastated? They're still winning the game! They have it." and "Why isn't Seattle trying harder? Why are they letting the clock run down, they could score again!" Then the game was over, and the wrong team was celebrating, and we clued in to the fact that the second digit in the Dallas score was a "0" instead of a "2". Heh. That'll teach to just tune into the game for the last 10 minutes.


• The weather is freaky. I let the dogs out at 9 yesterday morning, looked around, and said "What a lovely spring day". The crocuses are starting to grow, the trees are starting to bud, and Havoc & Mayhem were getting frisky. It's not April, dammit! None of that should be happening!