Powering your home during power outages

[Crazyboat]

Just addressing the no flame when cooking with NG due to the NG generator sucking up too much. You have to plan out your line into the house accordingly. Same when it comes to those newer instant hot water heaters. They need a lot of gas to develop those 200,000 BTU. You need a 2 or 2.5" line to handle the draw.

 

[moedelawn]

Just addressing the no flame when cooking with NG due to the NG generator sucking up too much. You have to plan out your line into the house accordingly. Same when it comes to those newer instant hot water heaters. They need a lot of gas to develop those 200,000 BTU. You need a 2 or 2.5" line to handle the draw.

That makes sense. I just spoke to my neighbor who is looking into the propane standby and and he said bulk price is just over $2.00. Not sure how much over though.

 

[airshot]

In my area, propane is fairly cheap compared to other fuels, we have a number of refineries in our area which helps lower the propane cost. Here in the cold winter the NG folks have to inject propane into the NG lines to keep pressure up, otherwise the NGwill stop flowing with enough pressure to work. When we were getting quotes for generators, whatever size genny I needed to run my household was quoted to burn 25 gallons per day to keep my home operational. When others have no power at all, or are running around filling gas cans, the less than two bucks a gallon for propane sounds like a bargain.

 

[airshot]

Just addressing the no flame when cooking with NG due to the NG generator sucking up too much. You have to plan out your line into the house accordingly. Same when it comes to those newer instant hot water heaters. They need a lot of gas to develop those 200,000 BTU. You need a 2 or 2.5" line to handle the draw.

My propane line that feeds my home, with heat, hot water and gas dryer is 1/8" diameter.....gas company claims I could run two homes off that same 1/8" line !
My propane water heater recovers far faster than my NG water heater ever did..
Our clothes dryer is far quicker than our NG dryer ever was....propane has been far superior fuel.

 

[moedelawn]

In my area, propane is fairly cheap compared to other fuels, we have a number of refineries in our area which helps lower the propane cost. Here in the cold winter the NG folks have to inject propane into the NG lines to keep pressure up, otherwise the NGwill stop flowing with enough pressure to work. When we were getting quotes for generators, whatever size genny I needed to run my household was quoted to burn 25 gallons per day to keep my home operational. When others have no power at all, or are running around filling gas cans, the less than two bucks a gallon for propane sounds like a bargain.

Been there for sure searching for gas I was running a 2800 Yamaha inverter and burning 5-6 gallons a day for Ida. I could have drained the boats but didn’t want to unless I had to. Another plus for diesel over gas is there were no shortages and no lines at the diesel only pumps

 

[Crazyboat]

My propane line that feeds my home, with heat, hot water and gas dryer is 1/8" diameter.....gas company claims I could run two homes off that same 1/8" line !
My propane water heater recovers far faster than my NG water heater ever did..
Our clothes dryer is far quicker than our NG dryer ever was....propane has been far superior fuel.

I don't know how much colder it gets in Ohio then NJ, but we get zero often enough, with 10-20F being common in winter. In all my 60+ years we've never had a problem with NG service. Maybe it's because nearly every house and business in NJ uses it, IDK.

When we lost our summer home at the shore to Sandy we rebuilt and I brought the NG load to the gas company, they told me a 2"-2.5" line into the house was what we needed. The 2" line was enough but on the chance that I'd want to add a NG fireplace in the future they said go with the 2.5" line.
We had a Hot forced air NG heat (1,250 sq ft house), 2 bath tankless hot water and stove/oven.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Just addressing the no flame when cooking with NG due to the NG generator sucking up too much. You have to plan out your line into the house accordingly. Same when it comes to those newer instant hot water heaters. They need a lot of gas to develop those 200,000 BTU. You need a 2 or 2.5" line to handle the draw.

When I installed a second water heater, I was told I might need to swap out the NG meter to one that flows more if I had issues.
We had no issues.

 

[airshot]

I don't know how much colder it gets in Ohio then NJ, but we get zero often enough, with 10-20F being common in winter. In all my 60+ years we've never had a problem with NG service. Maybe it's because nearly every house and business in NJ uses it, IDK.

When we lost our summer home at the shore to Sandy we rebuilt and I brought the NG load to the gas company, they told me a 2"-2.5" line into the house was what we needed. The 2" line was enough but on the chance that I'd want to add a NG fireplace in the future they said go with the 2.5" line.
We had a Hot forced air NG heat (1,250 sq ft house), 2 bath tankless hot water and stove/oven.

You won't have a problem as long as the NG service company pushes the pressure up by adding propane when the temps drop below O degrees. Our area gas supplier sends out notices each year explaining how this works at the beginning of each heating season. We had NG for years with no problems either, but when we moved out to the country there was no NG. We chose propane with no regrets, much hotter burning, water heater recovers in minutes and clothes dryer is much faster than the NG version. Our overall yearly cost is less for propane than it was for NG. To each his own, but we really like our propane fuel.

 

[thill]

You have some strange NG up there. Very low pressure, apparently. In the DC area, its high pressure, then regulated down at the meter.