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We just purchased a home in Laurence Harbor and it has an electric stove. All appliances have to be replaced, they are in bad condition.
I can't stand electric stoves so since buying a new one anyway, I would like to switch to gas. How easy is it to do this and is it expensive? Do I just call the gas company and they do everything?
Thanks.
If you already have gas to the house, just call a plumber.
If you don't have gas to the house, that means you have electric or oil heat, both of which are more expensive than gas heat. Plumbing a house for gas just for a stove could be expensive, depending on conditions, but you could realize significant savings by switching to gas heat as well. It sounds like you might need to replace your boiler anyway, so might as well switch to gas. (If you have an electric forced-air heat system, never mind.)
Don't even know if gas is offered in that area. So I just call the gas company?
Just how deep are your pockets?
If there is no gas line running from the street to the house, you will have to pay to run a line from the street gas main--assuming that there actually is a gas main in the street. That would cost...more than a few bucks.
If there is no gas service offered in the area, then you need to ask yourself this question:
Do I have the financial resources necessary to do the land acquisition, excavation, and construction that would be necessary in order to run a gas main from a distant location?
(Hint: This could easily be in the realm of hundreds of thousands of $$.)
If the answer to that question is "no", then I predict that you will learn to like your electric stove.
Additionally, I am of the opinion that this issue is something that you should probably have researched prior to purchase of the house.
Call the gas company and see if they will run a line. We had gas up on the main street but had to have it run down to our house (we are on a flag lot). If you have neighbors, and gas is available, they will ask them if they want to hook up too. Our neighbor had electric heat and he was the one who called the gas company then they contacted us.
If natural gas is a no go, you can opt for propane. Before we switched to natural gas, we had propane for cooking. (Heat was oil, hot water, dryer was electric). You need to by a propane stove. The propane company will put a large cylinder outside your house (it's about 5ft high), it's not like a barbeque grill. They will put you on a schedule- just like the oil company and periodically come with a truck and fill up your tank and send you a bill. You don't need to be switching tanks like you do with a barbeque. It's quite painless. We used the propane stove the first few years we were in the house. Once we got the natural gas, we bought a new stove, hot water heater and dryer. We finally switched to gas heat about 5 years after that.
There are difference between a propane and natural gas stove- you can't just plug propane into a natural gas built stove and vice versa. If you must have that flame, this would do it for you in the most cost effective manner.
^^ That's what my Dad in NH did, He put in a Tankless HotWater heater (Propane), About a year later he Re-Did the entire kitchen, Replacing a 1980's Electric Stove, where the oven no longer worked. He was going to put in a New Electric Stove, but we (The Kids) told him to go "Gas" He had the propane pipe continued to the kitchen and put in a Propane Stove. (They will Never Get N.Gas his sub-division is 10miles or so from the nearest gas main).
Still has Oil Heat, a 100Gallon Propane tank off the side of the house, Both filled by his "Oil" company. Future plans call for a Propane Fire Place, and the stub'ed a pipe into back of house for a Outdoor Grill/Kitchen.
Gets Propane about every 9 months or so, about 75Gallon each fill.
Thanks for all the replies.
Quick response to a few comments. No my pockets are not deep, I'm disabled.
If gas was an option or is not, its not a make or break on the deal so it wasn't important enough to research prior to purchase. If my pockets were deep, I would have searched and been able to be choosier with what we purchased.
There are a lot more factors involved so assumptions should not be made. While I'd love to explain my whole life here on CD just so that some ppl can answer a question, I don't really have the time.
I'm just asking questions for help if anyone happens to know.
I don't live there or know the neighbors. I'm states away. My Realtor doesn't even live near there or would know the answer, Realtors don't know every street in the areas they sell and if gas is available. She went way out of her way for us to even find this place, it's not an area she usually works in.
Thank you to the people who gave me ideas and said how I can proceed if this is an option. I appreciate! Calling gas company today.
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