all electric house

[shelljo]

we are relocating. Actually, I've relocated, the family will be joining me over Christmas break.

We found a potential new home...all electric.

I've never lived in an entirely electriclly powered house before. And, it bothers me, being all electric... so,

Pro's, Con's?

I have always had natural gas for heat and cooking, or propane. But this house is all electric. We'll add a woodburning stove, but it won't be our primary heat as we both work outside the home. And this country property is very small--2.8 acres instead of our 8.5 acres we have now. Anyway, what is it like, living in an all electric house?

[agmantoo]

I live in NC in an all electric and my power bill last month was $78. This is for a large well insulated home with a geothermal heat pump. I do have a set of gas logs for backup. I like the cost of operation for the all electric just fine. The warmth and the cooling are ideal and we have plenty of hot water as I have an 80 gallon water heater. If I were to build another home I would replicate the setup with just newer geothermal products.

[ninny]

The downside, if the power goes off, you're up a creek. And if it's off for an extended period of time, you could have some serious problems.

.

[bqz]

Invest in a generator !!

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by shelljo

we are relocating. Actually, I've relocated, the family will be joining me over Christmas break.

We found a potential new home...all electric.

I've never lived in an entirely electriclly powered house before. And, it bothers me, being all electric... so,

Pro's, Con's?

I have always had natural gas for heat and cooking, or propane. But this house is all electric. We'll add a woodburning stove, but it won't be our primary heat as we both work outside the home. And this country property is very small--2.8 acres instead of our 8.5 acres we have now. Anyway, what is it like, living in an all electric house?

Personally I do not care to cook on electric stoves. The reason being if you have something boiling over you have to physically REMOVE the pot from the heating element to get it to stop. This is a dangerous operation and can result in disaster. With gas, all you have to do is turn down the heat and it immediately stops boiling over.

Also, I believe that with electric stove elements you have to replace them with "heavy duty" ones if you are going to use the stove for canning because they are not strong enough to withstand the weight of a large hot bath canner. I have read a few posts on here where people were recommending where you can buy the big heavy-duty ones.

Finally, with an all electric house (if you don't have a generator), you risk that if the electricity does go out for some reason in the winter, you can certainly have problems with freezing water pipes, etc. and not being able to live in the house until the electricity comes back on.

When I purchased my house the first think I did was put in a propane wall heater that is not dependent upon electricity (my forced air furnace is), just in case of another bad ice storm this winter.

donsgal

[shelljo]

I have always hated cooking on electric stoves also. This house has one of those ceramic top cookstoves, so I know I can't can on it. DH promised me, if we buy this house, that he'd either find me an old woodburning cook stove or we'd figure out how to use the propane powered turkey fryer. And, since he likes our canned food over store bought, I think he'll follow through...with minimal nagging.

We have a small generator, and can use it to keep the pellet stove running for heat. We would need to get lots of firewood for the fireplace, but I'm guessing it's more for looks than for real heat. And, I've already thought of getting a larger one...

Frankly, I'm not thrilled bout this house, but I'm the only one in our family who isn't thrilled about it.

[SolarGary]

Hi,

This may or may not be a big issue with you, but I don't like electric power from the point of view that most of it is generated in coal fired power plants, and this results in a lot CO2 emissions.

One KWH generated in a coal fired plant results in 2 lbs of CO2. One KWH of heat produced by an efficient gas furnace generates 0.5 lbs of CO2.

I think that in the end we will have some form of a carbon tax that will have the effect of increasing the price of electricity more than other fuels because electricity has the largest carbon problem.

That said, I'm sure there are lots of things you can do to reduce how much energy the house uses -- better insulation, sealing, insulating window treatments, CF's, efficient appliances, ...

Gary

[anniew]

I'd suggest replacing the electric stove with a propane one. You can cook, boil water (to purify), and even use the over CAREFULLY for a little heat IF it doesn't have any electric...if it does then you can't start the oven when electric is off.
Get an insert for the fireplace and it'll be more efficient than using the open fireplace.
If you have a well, it would be good to see how you could get water if the electric is off.

[shelljo]

Originally Posted by anniew

I'd suggest replacing the electric stove with a propane one. You can cook, boil water (to purify), and even use the over CAREFULLY for a little heat IF it doesn't have any electric...if it does then you can't start the oven when electric is off.
Get an insert for the fireplace and it'll be more efficient than using the open fireplace.
If you have a well, it would be good to see how you could get water if the electric is off.

No propane on the property, and getting it set up now is...expensive.

We'll get a generator for the well--we've been without water before. I keep asking DH for a windmill, but so far, he keeps saying no. Might look into solar.

[BTO]

Originally Posted by SolarGary

Hi,

This may or may not be a big issue with you, but I don't like electric power from the point of view that most of it is generated in coal fired power plants, and this results in a lot CO2 emissions.

One KWH generated in a coal fired plant results in 2 lbs of CO2. One KWH of heat produced by an efficient gas furnace generates 0.5 lbs of CO2.

I think that in the end we will have some form of a carbon tax that will have the effect of increasing the price of electricity more than other fuels because electricity has the largest carbon problem.

That said, I'm sure there are lots of things you can do to reduce how much energy the house uses -- better insulation, sealing, insulating window treatments, CF's, efficient appliances, ...

Gary

Does anyone know what the equivalent co2 emissions are for an equal # of BTUs of wood? I would think it would be worse than the coal.

[Stephen in SOKY]

Propane ranges can be set up with 2 100 lb cylinders for a reasonable fee. I've seen many set up this way as once you've cooked on gas, electric ranges never quite satisfy again.

[RiverPines]

Everyone has electric, city, country. Everyone uses electric at least for a light bulb.
They cant gouge us as much as they do for things like propane.
I prefer electric because if it becomes to costly, everyone will hurt dearly, not just the rural people as they are now in my area. They cant kill everyone with to high of electric cost.

Plus supplementing with wood works great too.

Our electric is up in winter but not as much as when we heated with propane.
And in summer, its sweet as we don't use air conditioning.

Our propane budget was high, all yr round.
Our electric is high only for winter.

And you can keep electric cost down with florescent lights, hanging cloths, energy star appliances and hand washing the darn dishes and such.

[Macybaby]

I live in an "all electric" house, but never really thought of it that way . . .

We have a wood stove for "recreational" heat - meaning we use it when we feel like it.

We also are on a rural water system, so don't lose water when the power goes out (notice I said "when" not "if).

We also have a generator that runs off the tractor PTO.

The thing with a lot of "gas" appliances is they still need electricity to work.

BTW- the main part of my house is over 100 years old. It has gone from wood heat, to three oil stoves, to all electric heat. Never had any duct work installed.

When we removed the siding, we found the electric wire for the heat for the one addition were run on the outside of the building - must have been the easiest way to deal with it. We've been remodeling, so it's inside the walls now.

Cathy

[NEOhioSmiths]

For those of you who have wells and worry about getting water when the power goes out - check out the well buckets for sale at Lehmans. Long, cylindrical bucket designed specifically to fit in the well casing. I bought one in case the power is out for an extended period.

[CGUARDSMAN]

our house is all electric except for the propane heat pump that fires on propane below 25 degrees. we are in the process of adding a wood stove for supplemental heat other than that we like it just fine. i would like to get a generator for when the power goes out to at least keep the freezer and appliances going.

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by NEOhioSmiths

For those of you who have wells and worry about getting water when the power goes out - check out the well buckets for sale at Lehmans. Long, cylindrical bucket designed specifically to fit in the well casing. I bought one in case the power is out for an extended period.

Not trying to hijack or drift this thread but...

What type of well do you have that you can use a well bucket on? It would have to be a pit or a dug well or you would have to remove the pipe and pump to get into the well casing.

[ninny]

One other consideration. If you have only cordless phones in the house that the base plugs into an elect. outlet, if the power fails, you're without a phone. Best to have either a cell phone or a landline that doesn't require elect. In an emergency, this could be a lifesaver...

.

[hotzcatz]

I'd say your common sense is working if you are a bit concerned about an all electric home. Depending on where the home is and how the electricity is generated in your area would determine the amount you should be concerned. How far from the generating plant is your new house and how is the electricity run to the house? If an ice storm takes down the poles, what happens then? Is the electricity generated by oil? Oil prices are going up and won't really be coming down much overall so the price of electricity will do nothing but go up.

In my area, electricity runs about .39 cents a kilowatt hour so most folks limit their electrical use as much as possible. 33% of the oil use in our state is from making electricity with it so our electrical costs aren't gonna go down, either.

As far as living in an all electric home, some folks like it. I haven't ever liked an electric stove myself, but some folks like 'em. Our water heater is an "on demand" hot water heater powered by propane which comes from 5 gallon propane tanks. We have a propane switch so when one bottle goes dry it automatically switches to the other. Between the gas water heater and the gas stove we use about 10 gallons of propane a month but we are a family of two even though I bake a lot and my DH loves his bubble baths. With the "on demand" water heater, we never run out of hot water as long as we have water and propane.

We do have a small kerosene room heater we use for a couple weeks in the winter when things get cold but that's the only heat the house needs. Since we are off the power grid, we don't have the option of electric heat anyway.

But it's your house and you should have it comfortable for you. I think having alternatives is a good idea and it seems like it might ease your concerns as well.

[Shrek]

My zone 7/8 1400 sq ft home is all electric. I have a monthly electric bills of $70 to $120 a month depending on how hot it gets outside. Winter is the lowest power bill as I use passive sunroom heat and oil filled 110 volt radiators.

For extensive winter power outages , I use power converters on my tractor and lawnmower, kerosene lamps and heaters.

My power outage contingencies cost me less than $450 to put in place by purchaing the kerosene heaters at end of season closeout.

[agmantoo]

hotzcatz
At $.39 per kilowatt all of us would have to rethink. We are around $.075/KW