Why are so many homes in La. all-electric? (Lafayette, Lake Charles: for sale, apartment)

[bpollen]

In looking at homes for sale in the Lake Charles area, and north of there, as well as in Lafayette, I noticed that almost all homes are all-electric. That seems odd to me. (I have been looking at homes north of Houston, too, and many of those homes, if not most, have gas stove.)

In particular, the Lake Charles area is almost all all-electric. Even to the point where there's not even a gas line to the house or even the subdivision.

Louisiana is a gas-producing state, so this seems so odd to me. I notice, maybe, because I want a gas stove.

Why do you think so many homes are all-electric? Is it that there's something wrong with the ground that makes running gas lines dangerous? Or is it a cost-saving measure?

[mhounit]

It costs more to run gas lines when you develop a property . Takes more time as well .

[bpollen]

Originally Posted by mhounit

It costs more to run gas lines when you develop a property . Takes more time as well .

Thanks. I see. Disappointing, esp since the houses are not exactly cheap. Not sure I'm going to go for an all-electric house. It's just not practical and cost-efficient for the homeowner. Maybe I'll be lucky & able to find an old house with gas.

[Chance and Change]

Louisiana needs a campaign to " Bury all the Electric Wires"- why do we insist on telephone pole, which are from an era long gone. Yet we get tornado's, hurricanes and all in-between, and still we have all these telephone poles with 300-500 lb transformers hanging on them, and in many areas the poles are leaning, some dry rotted and every time the wind blows, we have thousands of people with no power. We pay enough for power the company can afford to bury these cables. Stop paying the criminal executives a kings ransom and then there's monies to fix the problems.

[rgathrights]

Originally Posted by bpollen

In looking at homes for sale in the Lake Charles area,
...
Why do you think so many homes are all-electric? Is it that there's something wrong with the ground that makes running gas lines dangerous? Or is it a cost-saving measure?

Ground in Lake Charles is often wet. Steel gas lines were often seen as a poor option for running gas lines due to their tendency to rust and high cost of coating them to prevent breaks. Modern gas lines have better tolerance for wet conditions but I have yet to see any announcements for new runs in Lake Charles.

Homes South of I-210 in Lake Charles down to Gauthier RD and east to Common Street mostly have gas lines. This area includes Nelson Road and Country Club road which have many subdivisions to look in for a new home.

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by Chance and Change

Louisiana needs a campaign to " Bury all the Electric Wires"- why do we insist on telephone pole, which are from an era long gone. Yet we get tornado's, hurricanes and all in-between, and still we have all these telephone poles with 300-500 lb transformers hanging on them, and in many areas the poles are leaning, some dry rotted and every time the wind blows, we have thousands of people with no power. We pay enough for power the company can afford to bury these cables. Stop paying the criminal executives a kings ransom and then there's monies to fix the problems.

Soil, water table, and extremely high cost to build and maintain.

[Chance and Change]

Thinking of the FUTURE, It is very economical to do at todays, prices, than it will be at the world prices in 2030 or 2050 - We need to see far into and beyond our current lives as to what is the world and what is it to be and become. Power is central to us in many ways, and based on current awareness, we will need transmission connectivity lines well into the future.


We should learn from other nations, China today is building toward the future, a great many Asian Pacific Nations are building innovative things, even in the Arab Penusila, they have embared on massive projects that rival anything in the world.
We've built nothing, and cannot even build a high speed rail, at current they know the cost today are miniscule to what future cost will be, so they hedge up and get it done.
We use to be forward thinking people in American, but we have become fear filled and caught into the defeatism which dominates the atomsphere of today, and we will pay dearly for that fear and what it results to diminish in us as a society, in years to come. The future generations may well wonder how could we have suddenly turned into a society, afraid to grow and learn and expand our capabilities".

We are no longer the high spirited "let's get it done people", we are now a society where greed and graft and looting and hoarding in the executive suites and political administration has been allowed, their deceptive nature and manner and their assaulting acts has freightened and weakened the will and spirit of the people.

AT some point we have to break the trend, but maybe will simply have to wait for the next generations to do what we today are too overwhelmend with fear to do. The world was here before we arrived, it will be here when we are gone and mankind if he is progressive, will continue to build and bring new things into being. Where is our sense of "hope and faith"... does the dollar strip of us it????? If so, then we may not be as free as we think we are, and have allowed the dollar to diminish us.

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by Chance and Change

Thinking of the FUTURE, It is very economical to do at todays, prices, than it will be at the world prices in 2030 or 2050 - We need to see far into and beyond our current lives as to what is the world and what is it to be and become. Power is central to us in many ways, and based on current awareness, we will need transmission connectivity lines well into the future.


We should learn from other nations, China today is building toward the future, they know the cost today are miniscule to what future cost will be, so they hedge up and get it done.
We use to be forward thinking people in American, but we have become fear filled and caught into the defeatism which dominates the atomsphere of today, and we will pay dearly for that fear and what it results to diminish in us as a society, in years to come. The future generations may well wonder how could we have suddenly turned into a society, afraid to grow and learn and expand our capabilities".
We are no longer the high spirited "let's get it done people", we are now a society where greed and graft and looting and hoarding has been allowed and it has weakened the will and spirit of the people.

AT some point we have to break the trend, but maybe will simply have to wait for the next generations to do what we today are too overwhelmend with fear to do. The world was here before we arrived, it will be here when we are gone and mankind if he is progressive, will continue to build and bring new things into being. Where is our sense of "hope and faith"... does the dollar strip of us it????? If so, then we may not be as free as we think we are, and have allowed the dollar to diminish us.

Perhaps... but a bit further into the future and transmission may be largely a non-issue. We might just see solar panels on houses with batteries that store the power so there would be no lines running to your house.

Of course that is decades away from being widespread and even then there would probably be backup of some sort... but still... if we are looking to the future, might as well not be short-sighted about it.

Look at the developing world... and how they totally skipped over land line telephones. It just makes more sense to use cell phones. We could see something similar when it comes to power.

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by steveklein

Perhaps... but a bit further into the future and transmission may be largely a non-issue. We might just see solar panels on houses with batteries that store the power so there would be no lines running to your house.

Of course that is decades away from being widespread and even then there would probably be backup of some sort... but still... if we are looking to the future, might as well not be short-sighted about it.

Look at the developing world... and how they totally skipped over land line telephones. It just makes more sense to use cell phones. We could see something similar when it comes to power.

We kept our land line phone. When hurricanes hit our area and when 9/11 towers fell, cell networks didn't work but land lines did. I use land line phones because of my hearing. I lost part of my hearing (lost certain frequencies) and land line phones offer clarity cell phones do not offer at all. In an emergency, we can use our land line phone and the 911 operator will know our exact home address even if we're unable to speak. Another advantage of a land line is for major power outage or rolling black outs. Example, after hurricane Lilli, most of our city lost power. I lived near a nursing home so my apartment had electricity before my relatives. I called my relatives and invited them over. Though my apartment was small, it had hot water, AC, and a working refrigerator. Every 30 minutes to an hour my relatives called their home's landline phone. If the phone rang a 5th time, they hung up. If their answering machine picked up at the 4th ring, they knew they had electricity at home.

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by victimofGM

We kept our land line phone. When hurricanes hit our area and when 9/11 towers fell, cell networks didn't work but land lines did. I use land line phones because of my hearing. I lost part of my hearing (lost certain frequencies) and land line phones offer clarity cell phones do not offer at all. In an emergency, we can use our land line phone and the 911 operator will know our exact home address even if we're unable to speak. Another advantage of a land line is for major power outage or rolling black outs. Example, after hurricane Lilli, most of our city lost power. I lived near a nursing home so my apartment had electricity before my relatives. I called my relatives and invited them over. Though my apartment was small, it had hot water, AC, and a working refrigerator. Every 30 minutes to an hour my relatives called their home's landline phone. If the phone rang a 5th time, they hung up. If their answering machine picked up at the 4th ring, they knew they had electricity at home.

This may be true because of duplication of the grid. As the years go by, I'd expect cellular networks to be more and more reliable even in times of disaster.

As for the call quality thing, that is reasonable... but again... technological improvements are being made to make it a non-issue.

In my experience, the call quality of VoLTE (Voice over LTE; basically broadband for phone calls... what cable internet did for streaming video, VoLTE is doing for cellular phone audio quality) blows away land line conversations.