We hear a lot of discussion at the moment on gas stoves. Somebody somewhere said something about ending gas stoves, the Republicans say that Biden is sending goons with guns to take your gas stoves and Democrats are saying that they have never said any such thing. Meanwhile, cities worldwide are implementing restrictions or outright bans on new gas connections. Fifteen years ago, I began removing gas services from my school and at the time of my departure, we were down to gas in one building only; here's why.
My reasons for removing gas, and why I continue to support the removal of gas, are not ranked, although I am sure they could be. One was purely financial. That school occupied six lots, each with an individual supply, and the gas membership fee was around $60 per connection, ie the monthly fee jsut to be connected befre any consumption, which represented quite a lot of extra electricity. Since we needed the lekkie for lighting, computers, cleaning and HVAC, cutting the gas gave us on average an extra week or more of electricity per month per building. One building was used only for offices and teacher workrooms, so three months' gas dues covered more than an entire year of moving electrons.
Another reason was the need for annual safety inspections and certificates, for our and our parents' peace of mind, for legal and licensing reasons and for insurance reasons. Think how often you hear of gas explosions and gas fires and carbon monoxide poisoning compared to electrical. These inspections of course were not free, were not hourly or "bulk", but per building and per certificate, and each represented at least a week's worth of galvanism.
Combining the expense of the monthly fees with annual inspections meant we couldn't even begin to compare cost per unit efficiency until at least a fourth of the way into the year.
A third reason was the cost and demands (read "hassle" and "effect on program") of maintenance and service. Having gas lines, heaters, water heaters and so on serviced and maintained every year was a noticeable budget line, and affected other activities in the building. The local gas company provided relatively wet gas which lead to increased rust in components, shortened the life of gas pipes, affected chimneys and so on meaning maintenance and repairs was constant.
A fourth reason was that gas company personnel would randomly turn up to inspect their lines with a sniffer up to and including the meter, and this was never announced or scheduled. Several of our meters were from the old days and actually located on the property, and we repeatedly found strangers on-site and with open gates. Written complaints to the gas company were dismissd with "safety" as the justification. On one occasion, a teacher who tried to stop such an intrusion was intimidated and threatened, and when I followed the miscreant down the street to get his ID; I too was the subject of considerable invective. That particular complaint lead to a termination, and yet ...
My final reason was a two-parter. The first was that electricty generation is going to continue to become cheaper due to solar, wind, geothermal etc generation while gas is not, and various incentives exist to go-lektrik in the form of grants, subsidies and interest-free loans. The second is that electricity is increasingly green which cannot be said for gas, and the 250 - 300% efficiency of heat pumps is mind-blowing. Also, we had a small solar set up with an analogue display so our youngest learners could see the effect of sunny days, clouds and the time of the day on power generation which fed into multiple learning objectives in a way gas consumption cannot.
So as each building was refurbished, I stripped out gas and wired it all up. And the labs? They still needed gas, but small gas bottles were enough and we didn't even need safety certificates.
I grew up with gas stoves and water heating, but would I go back? Nope. I can sympathise with wanting a small gas bottle for cooking, but otherwise, gas is up there with steam engines. Both work, but the alternatives are just so much better.
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