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Fascinating replies, I thank you. I find them interesting because I had always assumed gas was preferred. That is certainly our preference and every serious cook I talked to about it. They heat up instantly and offer much more heat control than electric.
As I said we will be moving in 7 years or so. EVERY decision we make regarding home improvement will be based on ROI. And as most pre-retirement people know when you get to this point you start looking at dollars and cents very carefully. We do not have the budget to do things to the home based on what we prefer. We have had an electric range for 14 years, we can live with another one.
Gas is preferred. I don't know of any builder in my area that installs an electric range.
Hate electric stoves. Have always lived in areas where there is no natural gas available, so propane it is. Last house we bought had an electric stove. First thing we did was pay for propane to be run to the kitchen(they had a gas fireplace). I would not have paid more for the house if it already had a gas range. I would say there is no ROI to be had switching. It wouldn't make me NOT buy a house either way. It's a fairly easy changeover.
I think propane would scare a lot of potential buyers off. A lot of people say they hate electric, but they get used to it and it's fine. In south Florida every stove is electric many neighborhoods don't even have gas lines for natural gas because you don't need it for heat. When I hear propane I think outdoor BBQ and RVs. Get an electric range that has 2 electric burners and 2 induction.
Fascinating replies, I thank you. I find them interesting because I had always assumed gas was preferred. That is certainly our preference and every serious cook I talked to about it. They heat up instantly and offer much more heat control than electric.
As I said we will be moving in 7 years or so. EVERY decision we make regarding home improvement will be based on ROI. And as most pre-retirement people know when you get to this point you start looking at dollars and cents very carefully. We do not have the budget to do things to the home based on what we prefer. We have had an electric range for 14 years, we can live with another one.
Gas is preferred by people who know how to cook, I've never worked in an elec kitchen unless it was in a restaurant on the 36th floor and gas just wasn't available.
It won't make a difference in final price, but a good roof would.
I like electric for cooking. I hate gas. You would lose a sale if you replaced the electric which is hooked up to a line that furnishes power to propane that has to be messed with in order for it to work. We have a total electric home because I am allergic to gas.
At the same time, different people have other preferences. When I bought my house the propane cooktop was a definite bonus. It isn't that I paid more for the house, but it was one more factor that made the house attractive to me and made me put an offer in. You might say that it helped the house sell faster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crashj007
I have a 500 gallon tank, it gets filled only to 80%. We have a water heater and two zone heating, small fireplace but no stove.. Probably paying $1800 a year.
The propane company owns our tank so we cannot shop for a better price. Don't go that route, buy your own and be sure to save the receipt.
I own my 120 gallon tank, and the only appliance it feeds is my cooktop. I fill it up every two years and it costs me about $100 each time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
When I lived in Berkeley CA and Ann Arbor MI, I had gas ranges -- i.e., natural gas. When I moved to New Hampshire, I quickly discovered that there is no natural gas in my part of the state; when we say "gas" here we normally mean propane.
My first apartment here and first house (where I lived for 9 years) had propane ranges. I loved them, since for cooking, I VASTLY prefer gas. I also never noticed any difference between natural-gas cooking and propane-gas cooking. (Maybe there is one? To me, it's just a wonderful, adjustable flame. )
My current house came with an electric cooktop and double electric ovens. Love the ovens, HATE the cooktop. When I re-do my kitchen here in the next year or two (HOPEFULLY), I will definitely be converting to gas for the cooktop. Alas, that will be expensive -- my propane company's prices are insanely high (and they seem to me to massively pad their bills), but there's not much I can do since they own the tank (makes it VERY hard to shop around). I may end up switching propane companies.
More to the point of the OP: not sure you will see an ROI if gas ranges aren't common where you live (or frankly even if they ARE, since your move is 7 years away so a new range would be getting up there). Do you have info on that? And will the gas range be the ONLY propane appliance in your house? If so, that might make it more expensive to put in (you didn't mention if you already have a tank/other items on propane?).
A couple of people have mentioned electric induction cooktops. I know a lot of people who love them, but I vastly prefer gas to those too.
I have the double electric ovens and propane cooktop. I have become so used to them that any other setup would seem inefficient.
Is gas or electric the norm in your area? Or is it more split? This could help predict what buyers will expect.
Around here, you can find both. I prefer gas.
When I was house hunting in North Carolina, not one single house I looked at had gas, or even a gas line to the kitchen. (They pretty much all had a gas furnace. The house I bought had a gas fireplace.) None of my friends had gas stoves, either.
We found the same here. Electric stove (and we love the glass flat top surface) but propane heat and water heater and fireplace.
Strange, but we like it.
Propane doesn't burn as hot as natural gas (I've had both). And it stinks more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David A Stone
There can't be much difference between natural gas and propane.
I worked at a plant that had huge dryers drying food food products that operated on natural gas.
The company got a discount if they had propane for backup and would switch over to propane during peak natural gas useage ( usually when temps hit -30 in winter )
The company got a phone call to switch.
No difference is performance of dryers between the two.
Yikes! it's $4.50 here, more if you have a big tank that they send a truck to fill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David A Stone
propane is $1.09 right now where I live.
Not bad at all !
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