Debate of the night: Gas or Electric?

[carynb]

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.

Comments

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Heh. This was the crux of my argument with Mike, actually. I was saying that natural gas is a limited resource, and the prices are almost undoubtedly going to go up, and up a lot. And then he'd point out that, in real terms, so is electricity - it takes about a decade to build a new power plant, so the power we have now is the power we have for the foreseeable future. Counting on the price not going up because we can always make more electricity is probably not a valid assumption.

I am intellectually aware that gas is safe - you don't hear a lot about gas causing fireballs in random residential areas, I know. It is an irrational fear, but that doesn't make it any less a fear, y'know? I think it may have to do with not growing up with gas into the house. Everything in NF was electric. *g*