🚀 go-pugleaf

On 4/28/2018 3:25 PM, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Apr 2018 12:05:44 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>
>> In the 1960s, the electric power industry pushed for all-electric
>> homes--where all appliances, including heat, would be electric.
>>
>> They liked electric heat since it made use of otherwise idle
>> capacity in the winter (it was used in summer for a/c).
>>
>> In modern times, gas is now popular and more economical, though
>> rates vary a lot by locality.
>>
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=51UEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA60&dq=life%20long%20island%20expressway&pg=PP2#v=onepage&q&f=false
>>
>> Many years ago, my parents used coal.  They hated it, and were
>> very happy when they converted to oil heat.
> 
> Electricity heating has the disadvantage that if you had a local power
> outage you had no heat. If you had some oil or gas powered system you had
> it at least warm, although your fridge, TV and other appliances wouldn't work.
> 

While gas heat mostly requires electricity these days even for hot air 
systems (blowers, thermostats, control systems), it wasn't always the 
case. My family's coal furnace was hand stoked when I was a kid, and 
would continue heating through power outages (though the 
thermostat-controlled damper may have stopped working). Such "octopus" 
systems (gravity hot air) were often converted later to gas (with a 
pilot light). IIRC oil did require power (pumps, fans, igniters). Some 
neighbors had kerosene space heaters that didn't require power, though 
those were considered dangerous. Today it seems that most gas ovens 
require electricity, but not until recently. That's a bit of a CO 
hazard, though far less than kerosene was.

In northern rural areas, winter power outages of as long as several 
days used to happen occasionally (mostly after ice storms). Maybe 
still do (I've lived in the city for a half century).