Time, trouble & cost to convert all electric house to gas (fireplace, furnace)
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House we have our eye on to purchase is all electric (home heating, for instance, is a heat pump). Neighboring "sold" houses have gas to the house, so I would imagine converting this one to gas would be a possibility (we would need to find out for sure, obvs).
Is it worth the time, trouble and expense to switch to gas? Anything we need to consider? I'm a total noob when it comes to these things. I just know I like to cook on a gas range and have never had anything other than gas (forced air) for home heating. Our clothes dryer is gas, but we'll probably be replacing it anyway, so it doesn't matter much (unless electricity costs makes a gas dryer a better $$ option).
IMO, no. Buy a house you don’t have to spend dollars on up front to be happy in. DH and I have talked about this very thing. We spent big dollars over time on our last house. It was not a good investment. The Great Recession happened and our house’s market value shrank every year for several years.
There is no way we recouped what we spent on that house in the 26 years we lived there.
My advice is to not start off in a new house by incurring costs you don’t have to incur. Either live with electric or find another house. You do not know the future. But you will have to spend money on maintenance and upkeep. Better to not spend money you don’t have to spend.
I'll offer the other opinion. The gas company typically will run a line up to a meter on your house at no cost to you. You can check with the local supplier to verify that. There's no reason to convert everything at once, if you want to mitigate the expenses. As appliances need replacement you can switch them over.
A range is easy because you don't need a special flue, just a vent hood which may already be there. We had gas run to our range for around $300. The cost will vary depending where the range is in relation to the meter.
When the HVAC needs to be replaced you can run a line for that. Same for hot water. Plan ahead and size the line for whatever you might add later, and leave a couple of capped T fittings in the line to make it less costly and disruptive.
A gas furnace and water heater will need to be vented which can add some complications and expense.
There's really no good reason not to enjoy cooking with gas right away. I'd never go back to electric.
So if we were to buy this house and stick with all electric, should we expect our electricity bill to be crazy high? If we get far enough in the home-buying process, we can ask for average utility bills from the seller, but if anyone has experience with this...??? House is in the Indianapolis area, so 4 definite seasons needing climate control. Plus a heated in-ground swimming pool if we decide to go that route.
So if we were to buy this house and stick with all electric,
should we expect our electricity bill to be crazy high?
Call the power Company. Ask for their budget billing amount at that address.
It is what it is.
But until/unless the stove/dryer/HVAC/etc actually NEED to be replaced
there's rarely going to be a financial reason to spend that money in advance.
This applies to the new pipework required to use gas as well.
So if we were to buy this house and stick with all electric, should we expect our electricity bill to be crazy high? If we get far enough in the home-buying process, we can ask for average utility bills from the seller, but if anyone has experience with this...??? House is in the Indianapolis area, so 4 definite seasons needing climate control. Plus a heated in-ground swimming pool if we decide to go that route.
What is your definition of crazy high? I have not lived anywhere in the US that has crazy high electric prices.
Either way, if money is your motivation for this, you will never recoup that cost.
Mine run about $120/mth average, running the AC basically year round, in Miami.
Yes, I did the same thing, only I went in the opposite direction. I bought a house that was gas (gas furnace & water heater) and converted it to electric. It cost me a lot to convert as it was a large house. The bills might have been slightly higher but I was happy. When I sold the house I took a big loss because no one wanted an electric house. Many prospective buyers would not look at the house, even though they liked everything else about the house, because they did not want to have to go through a conversion back to gas. The offer I did get took into account the cost of the conversion, with an additional $20,000 to $30,000 chopped off the sale price due to the new owner's time and trouble to convert back to gas.
It would seem to me that you being up north in a cold climate where everyone wants gas because of alleged cost efficiency, this house should be selling at a discount, maybe even at a deep discount, because of its lack of gas. Is the price substantially lower than surrounding gas houses?
The best answer you got is #2, which warned you about dumping a bunch of money into the house and then selling it. Do you really like this house? Are you going to live there until you die? If so, dump a bunch of money into it and get what you want and be happy. If not, you need to consider the costs and how long you will be there. You have a lot of research and figuring to do. Good luck.
Perhaps you should look at it with a different perspective-
Location, location, location?
To include, schools, shopping, work travel (if any right now- know what I mean?), etc.
Bells, and whistles?
The bones? Good flow, number of rooms, etc.?
If there are checks in all of those boxes- does it really matter if it’s all electric?
Then again, the few subdivisions that I know of here in the ATL that are “all electric” don’t have gas available. So if any of those H/O’s wanted gas- propane would be their only option. I for one would not like being in an all electric house here- an ice storm (that happen somewhat infrequently) knocks out power, you have nothing! With gas- I can cook, shower, wash, I can even have heat in the fireplace- or rig a space heater. I can stay in-place; not so much with all electric.
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