Comments on: what makes natural gas a good or bad choice? what are some advantages or disadvantages?

By: sarah a

sarah a — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:18:59 +0000

Actually, there are side to both stories. If you are referring to sugarcane based gas and ethanol, studies have now proved that the more production of these fuels lead to needing more fields, thus destorying the cattle farms and forest land (and soon enough it may be another major factor in global warming).
On the other hand, your car has a cleaner pipe system and you are not using all of the worlds oil.
Generally, plant based fuel is more expensive depending on where you go. This is because there is not a surplus like other oils.
Although I am unsure of the name, there is a product that you can insert in your car to make it run on corn based plants.
References :
TIME The Clean Energy Myth by Michael Grunwald

By: Darren G

Darren G — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:11:59 +0000

Natural Gas burns clean, but it is a non-renewable resource. My opinion is natrual gas is a good choice as long as they keep their inspections of the lines current to make sure nothing bad happens. I know of at least 3 instances in Maryland (when we lived there) of houses blowing up because of gas leaks. Luckily nobody was home when it happened.

Here are our prices in Colorado Springs:

Natural Gas
Access charge per day $0.3142
Access charge per CCF $0.1262
Natural gas cost per CCF $0.6034
GCA per CCF $0.0000

Compare this to when we lived in Maryland:

2.RATE TABLE:

Customer Charge . . .$ 13.00 per month, plus
Delivery Price (For all gas used) .. 25.61 cents per therm

As far as average cost that would be hard to determine unless you could get prices from across the country. You will find the Northeast will be typically higher than most places.

As far as appliances go, the newer ones should be more efficient. For furnaces the lowest rating you can get is 80AFUE, which basically means $.80 out of every dollar you spend goes towards heating your house. The higher the rating the better.

Sarah:

I think ethanol was off topic for this one, but they do have something called Full Flex Gold that is a converter so you can run regular gas or E85. I dont know how much or how prevalent E85 is in your area, but here in Colorado Springs E85 is running around $1 cheaper than regular 85 Octane gas. Website is below for the converter.

The Full Flex is the only 2007 OBD 2 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compliant E85 ethanol conversion kit in the United States.
References :
http://www.change2e85.com/servlet/StoreFront

By: Jeremy F

Jeremy F — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:02:59 +0000

for what – a range? a furnace? water heater?

it’s generally more energy efficient and cost effective than electric appliances.
References :