Electric vs. Gas stoves -- Why do electric stoves dominate the SC Market?

[jersgrl1969]

Originally Posted by Brandon Hoffman

FWIW, I think our electric bills are on the high side from some of the other places I lived in SC. I was just asking because doublewides are very inefficient. It's a metal box. I'm guessing a very affordable rent probably helps even it out.

We're looking into renting a real house.
It's weird because I grew up in a mobile home that was built in 1969, and we never froze or felt the heat in it. It was tight as a drum-no drafts, etc.
These double-wides are very cheaply made. Our bedroom doors are made of cardboard, for Pete's sake. I wouldn't give you $5 for one of them.

[ddm2k]

Originally Posted by LexingtonDad

One big reason is that natural gas is not available in many areas of this mostly rural state and it is very expensive to lay that pipe once an area is developed. Propane is an option but the easiest out is to have an all electric home and not have to deal with it. That said I'm like you in that I like natural gas for heat, cooking, clothes drying, and water heating. When we bought our home 2 years ago it had gas for heat and gas logs only. That's great but the 8 months out of the year when we don't use heat we pay a nagging $10 per month "facilities charge" to have natural gas available. I figured if I was going to pay to have it available I would use it and reduce my electric usage.

I paid a plumber to install a gas hook up so we could have a gas dryer and had told him to go ahead and run a stub behind the stove and water heater so I could change them out to gas in the future. When my wife found out she asked me to reconsider the gas stove because she had fallen in love with the smooth top electric stoves due to their ease of cleaning (no more disassembling burners to remove boiled over gunk). I was surprised because she had loved our gas stoves in the past but I could see her point.

I imagine that most newer subdivisions have natural gas plumbed in so that shouldn't be a problem. Brandon will jump in here shortly and confirm that for you.

Check the SCE&G website. I recall that they will run the gas line to your house for free but you have to pay someone to connect your appliances. It cost me just under $300 to have it run through my crawl space for the dryer and water heater. It was so high because I used copper instead of flex pipe. Your mileage will vary obviously.

Distance between homes, and the long shot ROI they'd earn off of the construction costs are not worth the investment for natural gas companies. It's not that electricity is cheaper than natural gas, it's that propane is more expensive

I called to see if natural gas lines were close to my area. The line ended 1000' from my property line - right in front of Suburban Propane. Construction costs were $10 a foot when I was quoted some 4 years ago.

[waccamatt]

I have a gas water heater and gas heat, but I live in the city. Rural and suburban areas are less likely to have gas lines.