Thank Goodness for Natural Gas

February 9, 2010 by Jim Linn · 5 Comments, leave one of your own
Filed under: Natural Gas

A snow storm of historic proportions was forecast to begin Friday, February 5, 2010 in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. As predicted, the snow began just before noon and continued through the day and evening. At some point in the middle of the night, the electric power to our neighborhood went out. We woke to a house that was 64 degrees and dropping. My first thought was how to keep my family warm. Fortunately our home has a natural gas fireplace.

Typically we start our fireplace with a remote control. With the power out, the remote control and the wall switch, which both run on electricity, were both inoperable. After a quick review of the manual, I opened the access panel and manually started the fireplace. Within minutes, the temperature of our family room rose to 65 degrees and by late morning it even reached 70 degrees which was very comfortable. This temperature was maintained for the rest of the day. Our home has an open first floor design which meant that the heat from the fireplace also kept our kitchen warm. In order to contain the heat we hung a sheet over the opening to our dining room and hall. During this time the temperature kept dropping in the second floor and reached as low as 50 degrees late in the afternoon.

Not only did natural gas keep us warm but we also enjoyed hot food. We manually lit the burners on our gas stove and cooked pancakes for breakfast. We grilled sandwiches for lunch, and we cooked green beans, pierogies and steak for dinner. And, we had plenty of hot water for washing dishes in the sink and hot showers all thanks to our natural gas hot water heater.

During this power outage many friends and neighbors headed to local hotels for safety. Unfortunately our neighborhood had not been plowed and getting out would have been difficult if not impossible. Without our natural gas service and appliances we would have had a quite cold and challenging experience. Instead, we enjoyed the warmth of our home and family while enjoying the comfort of cooked food and hot water.

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5 Comments on Thank Goodness for Natural Gas

Dan Gibson on Wed, 10th Feb 2010 10:59 am

Glad you guys were able to stay warm Jim. Hope the power stays on.

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Joanna Linn on Wed, 10th Feb 2010 11:20 am

So very grateful for the natural gas! The temperature difference was remarkable, and without the fireplace it would have been so miserable!

We were also able to allow my friend to come over who had all electric heating in her house and lost her power from Friday until Monday night.

Thank God for the blessing of natural gas!

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T Lohmann on Wed, 10th Feb 2010 2:05 pm

I was particularly grateful that they had natural gas because we were snowed-in with my brother-in-law and his family. Had we been in our home…..we would have had no means of natural gas to keep us comfortable and happy. It is making us rethink our future decisions for appliances.

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Karl W Miller on Wed, 10th Feb 2010 2:50 pm

Its Hard to Find a Reason Not to Like Natural Gas Right Now, a move to $7/mmbtu Looks Possible

U.S. Utilities and Natural Gas producers are the best “Safe Haven” after U.S. Treasuries Plus You Collect a Dividend, Not Zero Percent Interest Rate” at the following link: http://www.naturalgasstocks.com/Karl_Miller/news/2046.asp

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Marc on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 10:39 pm

I can relate. I have been thankful to have natural gas at least two different times in my life in situations similar to yours.
Whan I was a child Hurricane Betsy hit. We were without electricity for about a month..We had gas,however.During the storm one of the original gas fixtures was used for light by a family member. Therre was no ice available.My grandfather had a gas refrigerator. The second time was on January 20,1985.We lost power because of severe cold weather and an ice storm.
However,I had to go in to work that morning at the local water department where I worked. I cooked my breakfast on our gas stove,Dressed in front of a nice warm gas wall heater-those vented wall heaters you see in motels and apartments. Those didn’t require electricity.Kept the house warm when the furnace wouldn’t work.( Unfortunately we had to remove those several years later because they weren’t properly installed.) i get very anxiety-prone when I think about doing without gas.I can do without electricity,but not gas.Many people in our area are installing natural gas backup generators.
Some crazy energy efficiency expert sais a house can be built tighter without gas because no combustion air is needed. He says because we are a cooling oriented climate gas is not cheaper than electricity here in Southeast Louisiana. It pains me in our area to hear of the many new houses being built that are all-electric.
Our new church(under construction) is going this route because the local gas company wants $65,000 to run a gas line. We have gas in our present building.
I hope I’m wrong,but I can picture the power failing on a cold winter day or a hot summer day during a heatwavewhen thay are having a dinner. I asked about a diesel or propane generator but they said they don’t have the funds for it.

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