OT: having natural gas put in at your home.

I have Propane now and would like to have Natural gas run. However I dont think it is at the street (my home is 1000' from the road) I know that there is Natural gas 1 mile away on a paved road and it is on my road but on the other side of the paved road. (basically goes south but not north on my road) Has anyone on this site had natural gas run down the road and trenched to your house? If you have had nat. gas trenched to your home what does it cost to hook up at the road? Are there group rates for hooking up?
If you know the answers to these questions then fill me in. I will be calling a woman tomorrow at the gas comp. to see what is involved and if it is at my road, which I doubt. With Propane being real high I would think that many people would now want to get Nat. gas. I understand it is about 1/2 the cost of propane.

I would check into a heat pump.

Likely the cost of a mile of trenching and pipe would buy propane for a decade, or buy a ground water source heat pump and the electricity to run it for even longer.

Gerald J.

I was thinking that if 50 residents on my road, the stretch of a mile would want Nat. gas and the cost would be broke up between 50 people.

I was at one time planning on building just a little past my parents whose house is about 1500 ft off the main road. The local gas company said they would run a main if my parents and I both signed up with a year round appliance, like a water heater. I later decided not to build there. For me, I just called the gas board and asked them and they told me that. I think you will be suprised how few people would have to sign on.
Good Luck

As you alluded to in your post below if you can get your neigbors to go along with you it's not bad. I got hooked up some years back. At that time the gas company would put in 238 feet per customer for free. So if you have some 20 homes on your mile that would hook up even if only a water heater it would be feasible. As to the lateral to the house from the road, only 64 feet was free. The balance was like $3.75 per foot.

HTH

Areo

Well, it won"t cost anything to ask--but it wouldn"t hurt to find out what someone who has gas in your vicinity pays for heating, AND if they"ve had any problems in cold spikes...gas co"s love to sign up new customers, but they don"t like to enlarge their lines, and if everyone"s on at full blast you might find your unit shut off by low pressure, particularly if you"re out on the end of the line.
You might also ask if any gas furnaces can be run manually (off blower at low pressure) for a little gravity heat in "low pressure emergencies".

If you have to foot the entire bill for running gas for a mile, it will take a very long time to pay it off. I believe that if you pay for the main, you get a percentage of the revenue from anyone else who hooks in, up until the cost of the main is recovered.

I seem to recall it cost over a thousand dollars for us to tie into the gas main; our house is 650 feet from the road. You get so many feet included in the basic hookup, then they charge you by the foot.

The gas company will give you the lowdown. Once you have the info, go visit each of your neighbors and convince them to buy in.

Hello gun guru
I know a guy that back in 2004 it cost $2558 for 365 feet of main to the front of his house. The company wanted a fixed amount of revenue a year.
He exceeded that because another house attached to the main he brought in and got 90% of his money back this year. He said by next February he will have the rest. He is very happy.
You need to talk to the gas company they will come out and tell you what will it cost and the conditions for pay back.
Guido.

After having an all electric home which we could not keep warm (that says a lot since winters in Dallas are not that bad) and were always running out of hot water, when we moved our #1 priority was gas heat and gas hot water. Now, we are never cold and never run out of hot water. I would definitely check it out.

How much acreage do you have? I don't know what the minimum is in your area. If you get a good well The gas co will run it to the main line. And you could end up with free gas.

used to be elctric was the most expencive way to heat. Not any more. We use off peak heat and water heaters. I think our budget is $260 a month and that just went up because of my bad use of tank heater for the cows was $245.
I talked to some guys who were doleing out $2000 plus for propain in the winter. Yikes!!!
Plus electric and water heater year round.

Oh I never run out of hot water. We have 2 monster tanks that heat up off peak and we have never run them cold.

Heat pump is our next heat angle. Those things are amazing.

Natural gas has increased 93 % in one year.We have limited natural gas here and its used to generate electricity that has gone up about 35 %.More hydro is being used.Now if we could just keep the enviro screw balls from taking out 3 dams.I am cutting more firewood, cant afford 5.00 oil.I am ignoring cash income because money is becoming worthless.

Is probably a toss up in the end as for usage cost. Our propane just went up $90 per month, or $1,000 per year. Ouch!

But I can think of a huge power plant in Morris, IL. that I used to have to service where the units could run on either fuel oil or natural gas that was completely torn down a couple of years ago because was too expensive to run and maintain or sit on because of taxes. The owners kept and are still running their coal fired fossils though. Got any coal near your house can generate from? Of course the neighbors and epa will hate you, but your wallet will love you.

The heat pump can be a cost efficient system in some cases. $ for the electrical operation of the system must be considered along with the thermal gain from the ground. Things like the water table/well/pond can be good sources of energy,but the return on your $ cost are dependant on several of the items. You NEED a good & knowledgeable person/company to make an anaylsis of the installation. We have locally a REMC that offers a credit and knows to do the study..it does not charge for it in order to boost your electrical usage. Beware of the quick HVAC firms that will not give you assurance of the cost of operation!!! I have been involved in several lawsuits with this topic as an Elec. Eng'r. Make it a good day.

I understand that heat pumps have to be in the south (south of the Ohio river) to be effective. I live in Michigan. The loss comes when you have to use gas or another form of heat to heat the house from 55f to 70f. I have never looked into it. My pellet stove works good in the winter.

I'm an engineer for a natural gas distribution company, so I feel qualified to answer this (for once on this forum!)

As others have said - it very much depends on the company that will deliver the gas to you, so check with them and they'll give you the scoop. If your neighbors want gas service too it will definitely increase the likelihood they'll run a new main for no cost to any of you.

Our company, for example, will extend a main up to 400' in order to reach a new customer for no charge. Any more than that is still possible, but it would take a little further study and approval (where you can sell how many neighbors want service and what kind of appliances everyone plans to use). We'll run up to 300' of service line (from the road to the house) for no charge as well - I want to say any in addition to that is $5/ft, but I don't have that in front of me right now. If you could demonstrate a larger than average residential load you might qualify for more footage of free service line. This means nothing to you personally, but will give you a ballpark idea of what to expect or something to compare your quote to.

As for cost comparisons - there's a lot of variety based on which types of units you plan to install/compare, but on a straight $/MMBTU (dollars per unit energy) basis right now (April 2008) in Middle TN, natural gas is roughly half the price of electricity ($13.79 vs. $26.99) and a little better than that compared to propane ($13.79 vs. $29.30).

Of course that will changed based on when and where you are looking, but propane is a derivative of natural gas, so it will always be more expensive except in rare cases.

Feel free to shoot me a PM or email if I can do anything to help -

Matt

I have the phone # of the guy at the gas comp. and I am waiting for his return call. Depending on the hookup cost I may or may not do it.

Makes me feel lucky here in Wichita KS. Wife keeps thermo at 78 degrees all winter, 1400 sq ft house, and gas bill is $72 a month (average billing - same amount all 12 months). She keeps it set to 70 all summer (go figure) and average electric is $112 (average billing just like with the gas). Hate to think what propane would cost for heat.