This is a reason I never understood modern homes in the US being built with natural gas furnaces and appliances. My house had a gas furnace even though most other homes around have electric. You have a flammable gas under pressure going through miles of pipe to get to each home. A leak anywhere could be really dangerous along those many miles. Yet, exceedingly rare to see fires from this (maybe I’m wrong in that I just don’t hear of many). Meanwhile, electric appliances use the electricity that has to come into a house anyways.
Electricity arcing over something flammable can also cause a fire that burns down your house and kills you.
It isn’t just your imagination. Houses burning down / exploding really is a rare occurance. This is not by accident. There are layers of dumbass-proofing in every part of the system, from the way wire and pipe are manufactured, to the availability of easy-to-use tools and materials that make doing the job the right way also the easy way, to detection systems like fire alarms, to building codes that set standards for how things should be constructed.
I think my curiosity is more around the “why” of the gas lines. I put in another comment above but it’s a good amount of effort to run and maintain these lines when we already have and need electric. We’re adding an additional source of risk to these environments for what additional benefit? I’m not talking trash about gas I’m just wondering what the selling point is. Like I said, I have a gas furnace and it’s fine…no complaints. Is it much more efficient than electric? Hotter? There has to be some compelling reason to put in the effort.
Gas is much, much cheaper. Like, insanely cheaper. Many homes were built long before it was normal to have 200 amp service.
It’s only in relatively recent years where heat pumps are becoming more common. And resistive heat uses a lot of electricity.
Gas has had decades and decades to be made safe. We have odorants so people can smell it, meters and sensors to monitor for abnormal usage and leaks, and it needs to be contained to cause an explosion.
Leaks outside suck, but aren’t really that dangerous because they can dissipate and be blown away by wind.
We had a week long power outage after a winter ice storm a few years ago and would have been screwed without our gas water heater and fireplace, so I’m a big fan of having both gas and electric.
You just answered your own question. The techniques for running gas lines into houses and hooking them up to furnaces are very refined at this point, it can be done safely.
I guess my question was more about the “why” for gas lines. I mean it’s a lot of extra effort to put them in place and maintain them when we already have electric coming into the houses.
Oh, probably because it's cheaper and more efficient.
If you wanted to use the gas in a gas power plant to produce electricity to run an electric heater, there's a bunch of steps where energy gets lost. The turbine and generator isn't 100% efficient and the transformers and transmission wires lose energy along the way to your house. Whereas burning something directly for heat is nearly 100% efficient, the only waste is whatever heat gets carried away by the exhaust. Which isn't much with a modern high-efficiency furnace. I've got one of those and every once in a while I knock icicles off of the exhaust vent outside when I pass it. They use countercurrent exchange to keep all the heat inside the house.
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is a reason I never understood modern homes in the US being built with natural gas furnaces and appliances. My house had a gas furnace even though most other homes around have electric. You have a flammable gas under pressure going through miles of pipe to get to each home. A leak anywhere could be really dangerous along those many miles. Yet, exceedingly rare to see fires from this (maybe I’m wrong in that I just don’t hear of many). Meanwhile, electric appliances use the electricity that has to come into a house anyways.
blarghly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Electricity arcing over something flammable can also cause a fire that burns down your house and kills you.
It isn’t just your imagination. Houses burning down / exploding really is a rare occurance. This is not by accident. There are layers of dumbass-proofing in every part of the system, from the way wire and pipe are manufactured, to the availability of easy-to-use tools and materials that make doing the job the right way also the easy way, to detection systems like fire alarms, to building codes that set standards for how things should be constructed.
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think my curiosity is more around the “why” of the gas lines. I put in another comment above but it’s a good amount of effort to run and maintain these lines when we already have and need electric. We’re adding an additional source of risk to these environments for what additional benefit? I’m not talking trash about gas I’m just wondering what the selling point is. Like I said, I have a gas furnace and it’s fine…no complaints. Is it much more efficient than electric? Hotter? There has to be some compelling reason to put in the effort.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
Gas is much, much cheaper. Like, insanely cheaper. Many homes were built long before it was normal to have 200 amp service.
It’s only in relatively recent years where heat pumps are becoming more common. And resistive heat uses a lot of electricity.
Gas has had decades and decades to be made safe. We have odorants so people can smell it, meters and sensors to monitor for abnormal usage and leaks, and it needs to be contained to cause an explosion.
Leaks outside suck, but aren’t really that dangerous because they can dissipate and be blown away by wind.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Seems like you answered your own question.
We had a week long power outage after a winter ice storm a few years ago and would have been screwed without our gas water heater and fireplace, so I’m a big fan of having both gas and electric.
FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 day ago
You just answered your own question. The techniques for running gas lines into houses and hooking them up to furnaces are very refined at this point, it can be done safely.
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I guess my question was more about the “why” for gas lines. I mean it’s a lot of extra effort to put them in place and maintain them when we already have electric coming into the houses.
FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 day ago
Oh, probably because it's cheaper and more efficient.
If you wanted to use the gas in a gas power plant to produce electricity to run an electric heater, there's a bunch of steps where energy gets lost. The turbine and generator isn't 100% efficient and the transformers and transmission wires lose energy along the way to your house. Whereas burning something directly for heat is nearly 100% efficient, the only waste is whatever heat gets carried away by the exhaust. Which isn't much with a modern high-efficiency furnace. I've got one of those and every once in a while I knock icicles off of the exhaust vent outside when I pass it. They use countercurrent exchange to keep all the heat inside the house.