🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 7:32:08 PM UTC-4, Peter Flass wrote:
> Dave Garland <dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote:
> > 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).
> > 
> 
> The newer stuff I've seen light with an electric spark instead of a pilot
> to eliminate the CO problem. I suppose you could still light, at least the
> stove burners, with a match if you had to.

In our city house, the cooktop had a pilot light, but the oven
had to be lit.  I hated doing so because it would suck in the
match flame with a big whoosh.  If you waited a moment before
lighting, it made a boom.

I guess having electronic ignition instead of pilot lights saves
on gas.  Back then they toward us pilot lights used so little
gas as to be insignificant.

As an aside, in the early 1960s, the city converted from 
manufactured gas to natural gas, thanks to new pipelines and
cheaper supplies.