We don’t have that problem here in NH. People complain about the North East snow…but you won’t get killed while at home sleeping in your bed during a snow-storm.
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As I kid my Ohio friends… a hurricane moves slowly enough that we can avoid it… a tornado gives too little warning to get out of its way!
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+1
Hurricanes don’t really scare me, but the thought of a fast-moving Tornado is something else entirely.
On the topic of storms and such, we are forecast to have the first significant snowstorm–in a long time–in my area over the weekend, so I know that I will be spending some time on Friday, checking over the snow blower, gettting gas for it, and giving it a test start-up.
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The conversion loss is from burning natural gas to make el You wind up producing more carbon dioxide than if you used the gas directly. I have heard for years about the 100% efficency of electric heat. Why then does it cost so much more to heat your home t. Many old people froze to death in their homes in last years blizzard in Buffalo becausethey did not have gas stoves and lost power for days. Many rural places in NY get nighttime temps of 24 to35 degrees below zero and the new high efficency,cold weather heat pumps are limited in power due to the size of house wiring and can’t handle those temps.
I do the same for my generator at the start of the hurricane season! 
Electric heat makes much more sense if a heat pump is the main heat source.
I wonder what my 80 year old mother is going to do if/when she needs a new washer and dryer. She lives in CA, do they still sell gas dryers there?
Luckily she can still get gasoline for her 1975 Buick.
See above. It is fairly straightforward and easy to install equipment to clean smokestack emissions when there is but one source to manage. The local coal plant near work completed the transition to NG a couple years ago. There is no longer coal leaking into the harbor from coal piles when it rains, the smokestacks are gone and replaced by something even with the top of the building- no emissions can be seen from it. They don’t have to pay local residents to repaint their cars and homes- something they did for years due to acid rain.
You’re conflating efficiency with cost. My last home was primarily electric heat. It wasn’t all that much more than other sources of heat. But the home was built to be efficient. It was a contemporary log home. I have neighbors that heat primarily with wood. It’s a nasty business and work intensive. If you drill down into the actual costs, they aren’t saving that much.
You’re right. Some existing homes may not be capable of heating only with electricity. They weren’t built with efficiency in mind. You should see some of the homes on the east coast. Try a 300 year old home with a fireplace you can actually stand in. 
So every year the fireplaces get smaller until there’s a tiny flame in your furnace. Now for the next step- elimination of that tiny flame. New homes built more efficiently and designed to run on electricity.
Many city councils in this area have passed ordinances to prevent installing any natural gas appliances in new construction. I’m not sure if replacing an existing broken nat gas appliance is even allowed. Most city residents are busy & don’t attend or pay much att’n to council meetings. However there is one group of folks that do pay a lot of attention to this issue b/c they very much prefer to use natural gas for cooking, the owner’s of restaurants. I heard on the radio yesterday one of these groups has successfully won a legal hold or injunction preventing the ban from going into effect. I think their legal basis is a 1970’s law concerning the right to use natural gas appliances. The radio news suggested all of the natural gas bans are now in jeopardy.
There are many new homes being built around here that are heating and cooling the homes with electric heat-pumps. No backup system (aka furnace or boiler).
While it may be possible to design a home’s heating/cooling system to make electric cooling & heating & cooking to be cost-comparable to natural gas, that doesn’t solve the problem of how to heat & cool the home and cook the food when the electricity is out. Neighborhood-size electric outages are fairly common here, sometimes lasting several days. No worries, while the lights are out and no tv, can still heat the home and cook the food.
How can you heat the home without electricity, with gas heat? No fan or pump.
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Most of the older homes in this area use gravity furnaces. There’s no electric fan to distribute the heated air; instead the natural gas flame heats a big hunk of metal, radiation and convection currents distribute the heat, sort of like a fireplace.
Oh, haven’t seen that. But your power outages happen more in hot weather, right?
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They have these things called generators.
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If the power is out, no one has cooling. Far as I know, there’s no fire based cooling solution.
You are aware newer gas stoves, water heaters and furnaces are pilotless. They also have gas solenoids to enable flow. Meaning they need power to operate.
When we had a prolonged power outage after Superstorm Sandy, I was amazed that my water heater continued to operate, and that was because it has a Piezoelectric ignition mechanism.
Electricity is not all that reliable a heat source in areas with heavy snowfalls that have a lot of trees. I have never seen a gas stove whose burners could not be lit by a match.
My home in Ohio had quite erratic electric service. Power is out, we have no water (well pump) no heat (nat gas furnace needs 115V to run the controls and the fan) no cooking from an electric stove and no lights. Since I had natural gas I was seriously considering a nat gas fired whole house generator… but then we sold the house.
Down here in Florida, the only time the power goes out for any length of time is during hurricanes. Some have whole house propane generators which work nicely if you have a tank already for a propane cooktop and oven. We don’t.
But we do have a large gasoline generator and a propane grill. The 5kW generator will run everything except the A/C (but we have a portable for the bedroom if needed), the water heater (yeah, we could make that work if needed) and oven. Lights, TV, internet, the top burners on the stove and the microwave all work as does the propane grill for cooking.
You have to consider what fuel you have available and plan accordingly. Nat gas is the best (and cheapest) then propane, then diesel and lastly gasoline. The first 2 won’t go “bad” the third can be treated to last a very long time and non-ethanol gasoline is roughly an 18 month life.
Side note: Modern heat pumps are more much efficient than electric heat. At 45 degree outside temp they can be 400% efficient. One kWatt gives 4 kWatts of heating. At zero degrees they fall to roughly 220% efficient. Still very good and far cheaper to operate than electric resistance. Competititve with nat gas in cost to operate above 25 degrees F. Gas is about 5.5 cents per kWatt-hr. If your electric is 14.5 cents/kW-hr the ratio is 2.6. Your results vary by local gas, electric costs and average temperature.
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