Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: We are soon making the decision to bring or not bring gas to the community

[R Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

Jim —

You’ve got some of the right information:  The answer varies with location 
(climate), use habits and so on … but in general, electric systems are usually 
cheaper to install, and sometimes more expensive to run.  Among the fossil 
fuels, natural gas has a lot of advantages, including relatively clean burning 
and currently (thanks to fracking) a relatively low price.  This apparent low 
price, however, is due in part to the externalizing of air pollution costs, and 
the use of the atmosphere as a “free” trash bin.

However, we all must understand that fossil fuel combustion must be, for most 
uses, constrained and substituted away.  The “Smart Energy Future” is an 
electric future, particularly at the site of the end user.  A careful life 
cycle cost analysis might manage to show that over the life of the system, gas 
is still cheaper than electricity.  But we can no longer afford the cheap deal. 
 In my opinion.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA 02140

mobile: 617.460.4549
email:   rphilipdowds [at] me.com

> On Nov 28, 2020, at 2:47 PM, Jim Bronson <jimbronsonashland [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> I would love to have any guidance from experienced cohousers about
> gas/no-gas brought to the RiverSong.  I know there must be a cost savings
> upfront for being only electric, but it is hard to find out how much that
> would be - the gas company buries most of those costs and only passes them
> along later when you have become a committed customer.
> 
> Any guidance on being able to make this decision would be greatly
> appreciated.
> 
> Jim Bronson - RiverSong Design Team
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
> 
> 
>