Gas coming to our neighborhood

 
Kungur
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Post by Kungur » Sun. Dec. 23, 2018 4:38 pm

We tapped binto the NG line about 4 years ago. There was no tie in fee and it cost me $900 for a guy to install a riser and bore down to the road and install the line. My woodworking shop is NG forced air along with the clothes dryer and cooktop. We do have a gas forced air furnace that we use in the shoulder seasons. But my wife loves the radiant floor heat. Plus I run our KA2 year round for DHW.


 
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Keepaeyeonit
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Post by Keepaeyeonit » Sun. Dec. 23, 2018 8:26 pm

If I had it then I would be using It right now but we don't so Its either oil, electric,wood :o or coal so coal It is :D , we have a gas transmission line 400' South of us and about 10 years back the gas Co asked If they could run a tie in line to another transmission line just North of us and we asked if we could get gas and there answer was no!! well ok two can play that game so our answer to them was NO!! :lol: so I'm still burning the black rock :yes:

 
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BlackBetty06
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Post by BlackBetty06 » Sun. Dec. 23, 2018 8:50 pm

That stinks man. I guess you could try and figure out what you could sell the coal unit for and factor that into wether or not you pull it out. Your time is also worth something too. Last year UGI ran a gas line down my dads street. His Mark 3 has been cold since. I installed a gas furnace for him years ago but it ran on LP so he burned coal. I saved the NG gas spuds and valve springs to convert, so in this instance it cost me about 4 hours to pipe the meter change things over etc and he was up and going. MUCH more involved in your case. Its also much cheaper for him to burn gas than coal so thats what he does. I am surrounded by natural gas but there is no line down my street. I can look out the window and see the meters on the other houses and buildings though. Under.Ground.Idiots quoted me 11 grand to bring the line to my house and my neighbors could hook up for free, No Thanks. If they ever bring the line down my street Ill be the first in line to hook up. It is currently cheaper than coal. It sounds like you have a nice setup with the coal unit. Crunch the numbers and see if it makes sense for you. Gas is currently cheap and plentiful but could go up. Coal isnt as cheap as it used to be but is also fairly stable right now. One thing Im starting to learn in life is that no matter how hard you plan and no matter how much research you do, after you do something, there will always be something that pops up sooner or later that makes you say coulda woulda shoulda. Go with your gut on this one is my $.02 Good Luck!

 
TJBender
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Post by TJBender » Fri. Jan. 04, 2019 11:06 am

Just want to throw my opinion out there. I have recently made a home purchase that has NG. Even though the gas is convenient I like the thought of being self reliant in case of any situation that may occur. Part of being self reliant means heating my home without gas coming through the pipe or electric through the wires. In my previous home a couple winter's ago we had low gas pressure situation. This happened during a couple day stretch where we dropped to close to -20F at night. I have a high efficiency boiler that couldn't hold the flame from the low pressure. How I wished we had thought ahead and had some other heat source. Since then I have bought a protable generator that can power my critical loads and secured other sources for heat. With this new house I plan on using coal for supplemental heat at the least if not my main heat source.

If I didn't have NG and it was coming down the street I would tap in.....just to be tapped in, even if I didn't use it.

 
mof1964
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Post by mof1964 » Sat. Jan. 05, 2019 1:59 pm

well they have marking all over the streets and crews have been working on the main street getting things ready. Still have not heard anything official from the borough on timeframe.
The preliminary numbers we heard to tie in( not official ) is appox 4k or 58 bucks a month for 10 years.
The current DF520 unit we installed is working well. The DF unit plus install was less than the proposed tap in fee and then I would still have to buy a gas boiler. I'm not trying to second guess myself on this but it's a bit difficult to do.
My wife is perfectly content to stay with coal. There isn't really much work to it, just the couple hours labor to get the bagged coal into the basement. PLus, the wife is a bit gun shy since her uncles house exploded due to a gas leak. Blew it right off the foundation.

Our street is a cross street with only 4 houses on the street. I know that 3 of us are not interested in connecting if the cost is 4k. My father inlaw lives across the street and he heats his house with a chubby coal stove and is completely satisfied with that. MY other neighbor is an 82 year old couple and they have a 3 year old heatpump unit. Now maybe they will come down the street just to get to the other street, but it's my understanding that most of those homes were electric heat. Some have propane stoves etc.
The gas company is looking for 60% of the 160 homes to connect.

 
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Post by TJBender » Sun. Jan. 06, 2019 9:13 pm

Ultimately it's your decision that you have to weigh the pros and cons. If you plan on living there forever you may never need gas. If you think you may move in the future NG may help the resale value. Then you have considerations such as the possibility of a gas explosion. Which has to be a very rare occurrence....or no one would have gas in their homes. I can understand your wife's concern with what happened to her uncle's house.

4k to connect seems excessive to me. I am a electric utility worker and I know our connection fee is somewhere around $300. It is a totally different scenario...our connections are above ground. But they are already going to have the street open.

I would talk to the utility about the price. They have at times waived connection fees just so they can gain a customer. I would explain your situation to them and your concerns, how you and your wife enjoy the coal heat. Your concerns of the possibility of a gas explosion...which could happen anywhere they are running these gas lines.

I would do whatever I could to be tapped in, at a reasonable price of course....even if I cancelled my service after the first month. They'll shut it off at the meter or curb stop, but you'll still have the pipe in the ground.

 
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BlackBetty06
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Post by BlackBetty06 » Tue. Jan. 08, 2019 5:42 pm

In 2012 I converted my wifes grandparents over to natural gas from propane.(hot water baseboard) They live in Landisville, PA. At the time since they were on a TOWNSHIP road, as long as they were burning gas within 60 days there was NO fee. They tapped the main and had the meter set in 4 hours (about a 150 run from street to meter). Their old boiler was junk so they had to make a choice

In 2014 I converted my inlaws to natural gas from oil. (Hotwater baseboard). They live 3 miles from her grandparents but are on a state road so they had to pay 2 GRAND to get the meter set. Took them 3 days to dig though because of buried rocks and tree roots, so they atleast had to work for their money. They recovered the costs of the whole project in a year and a half. Their old boiler was junk so they had to make a choice

In 2017 as mentioned above I converted my parents. It cost them just over 3 GRAND. They hooked up for the convenience and the money savings, plus everything in house runs on gas.

So as you can see, it seems like they raise the hookup price about 1000 dollars every year. Is it cheap? Oh yeah. Does it give you options to run multiple things on gas? Yep. Like others have said if you plan to stay there forever it may not make sense for you to replace the boiler since yours is working and has lots of life left in it.

I know its a lot of scratch but if I was you, I would get the line run to your house if its an option. Then you can decide if changing the boiler out or pairing a gas job up with it is worth it.


 
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Post by TJBender » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 8:38 am

There's not a chance in hell that I would change that boiler. I am just of the opinion that having more options is better.

I would not pay 4k. I would try to work out some sort of other agreement, even if I had to dig the trench to my house.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 9:21 am

Given my combined age and health related issues, I find myself more and more hoping that natural gas will come down our street. I reached out by phone over a year ago to the NG supplier who's lines come closest to my house, and they sounded tremendously enthusiastic (seeing as they have a line within 2/10ths of a mile from our house), but then I never heard back from them. It may be time for me to make a personal visit to them.

 
mof1964
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Post by mof1964 » Sat. Jan. 12, 2019 8:55 am

yesterday I talked with a customer at my shop . She lives 2 blocks away but in the neighborhood where gas is being run. She came home to find all kinds of equipment on the street and a huge hole bored in the grass strip in front of her house. She said no one contacted her. Seems nobody has been contacted. She also confirmed what I thought- that the majority of the neighborhood is all electric homes. Seems strange that gas would come in there.
On the gas explosions note, the home in Mass where I got the DF520 unit was only 15 minutes from where a bunch of homes were affected by a huge natural gas explosions.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sat. Jan. 12, 2019 9:03 am

People don't own the land near the street in front of their homes. No need to be contacted. It's not her property.

 
mof1964
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Post by mof1964 » Sat. Jan. 12, 2019 9:08 am

I guess we don't own it but we are required to maintain it? we are required to maintain and repair the curbing. Even if they don't own it, I would still think home owners should be contacted. Her street is a disaster. Equipment and piping laying all over the place.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sat. Jan. 12, 2019 9:54 am

It's a matter of: How do you get the NG from point A to point C without going through point B.

BTW, I'm not saying its right.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Jan. 23, 2019 12:16 pm

Given some actual local NG heating bills, so I could see how all of the ancillary variable and fixed charges (in addition to the charge for the NG itself) are handled, I have concluded that my heating cost would decline by 43% if I switched from coal to NG. But sadly NG is not available on my street.

For anthracite to match local NG for cost my delivered cost would need to fall to about $142.50 per ton.

 
mof1964
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Post by mof1964 » Thu. Jan. 24, 2019 8:57 pm

Well today the paperwork finally arrived about the natural gas coming to the neighborhood. The options are pay up front fee of 3888.81 to hook up or add 54.95 to my monthly bill for the next 10 years for a total of $6594.00
those costs plus the cost of a new gas boiler. Any sidewalk,driveway,yard etc that is torn up to get the gas to the house is also the responsibility of the homeowner - so more cost.
I'm not sure what the cost of a new gas boiler installed would be maybe $5000 to $6000 ?
So like I thought , we could get 10k wrapped up into this in a hurry.


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