Quote:
Originally Posted by koland
Did your natural gas stay on when the flood hit? Most utility companies can't pump it if their own power is out and most turn it off until they can run thru a disaster area and check for leaks. With earthquakes, that can be a bigger problem (one county south of here lost their gas last week due to a pretty small quake; we don't get many, but one in KY rattled the house for several seconds a couple of weeks ago). It would be good for snow problems, except we can't actually get it here (just because we are extremely far from the closest line and it would be a couple of miles run to get it to the house, if they would even consider it; it wasn't that close until a year or two ago).
As for salt water - yes, I lived on the coast for several years. You definitely don't want to buy used cards from there or anywhere north where they use salt on roads (on the other hand, NM and AZ can be good, provided you get them checked for drug residue, as nothing corrodes much in the desert).
As for solar - the price had been coming down (may again, as China is surpassing us, once again) and becoming more efficient. I've seen paybacks closer to 20 years in some areas and if you go solar hot water only, as little as 5. A maintained and working system will also increase equity, so you can consider that when looking at payback terms (if you only need to recover 30% of the cost, perhaps, the payback might be fine).
You do have to set it up for off-grid use; many are using grid tie-ins only (it's cheaper) and those won't work when the main power is off, either.
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Yes, natural gas stayed on as did water and landline phone. I have a gas stove and use that to keep warm along with two space heaters. Hopefully, will have hot water heater and boiler installed next week. I am fortunate, though, there are still thousands of people in my area unable to return home. A couple of towns mostly deserted. Yachts still strewn in people's yards. Sand covering roads. My insurance company told me they had 9,000 cars flooded but few homes as they don't insure houses less than 5 miles from the ocean.
Fortunately, temps are forecast to be in the 50s.
I don't care for propane either. And oil even less so.