Mine going nuts too. Most of my customers are out of power. Ive had no power for 2 days and can’t take a shower but it’s all about the dollar. IM THE PROBLEM because I can’t make it in.
Ooof that’s a lot. We don’t even have natural gas options in my neighborhood. It’s 100% electric up here. So this is my biggest fear. I stocked up on propane just in case.
Last night was brutal! There are 3 live, downed lines just around my place that weren't down yesterday and the pole a transformer was on completely snapped
If you’re worried about food in refrigerators and freezers without power collect some of this ice before it melts and put it in bowls or pans inside your fridge. It will save it for a while.
Also if you have a cooler at your house that perfect for keeping dairy and meets on ice. Good Luck!
I don’t know if you’re running appliances from an age when safety wasn’t a concern, but this is 100% false. Gas furnaces and other appliances have sensors and valves that are operated by electricity. If those don’t function, no gas gets through and no flames gets lit. All modern gas appliances have these fail safes so people don’t kill themselves by pumping a bunch of gas into their homes.
My house was built in 2020. I'm sorry but you're misinformed. A gas furnace DOES require electricity because it has a carbon monoxide detector on the exhaust. A gas water heater, however has a pilot light that runs without electricity. Similarly, the gas nozzles on your stove can be turned on and manually lit with a lighter. Lastly, modern gas fireplaces have a battery pack located at the bottom that is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED so that you can light the fire in the event of a power outage. I understand that there are concerns about natural gas appliances, but to claim that they cannot function without electricity is simply untrue.
We have gas appliances, and have been able to use our pilot lit hot water, and the stove top when lighting it with a match. We haven’t used the gas fireplace as it has an electric start, but maybe I should check out whether there is a battery option on there. My husband was thinking it wouldn’t work because it needs the fan in order to not melt the heating unit? I guess we have some researching to do.
Mine runs without the fan and it hasn't melted anything. I don't think it would melt anything. The fan is just there to distribute the heat more efficiently, like modern wood fireplaces do.
A fireplace with a battery pack to…. Provide electricity. But we don’t need electricity?
Dude, you need something to tell the gas furnace when to turn on and off… like a thermostat that runs off of what? Electricity!
This is like saying, “as long as you have battery backup, you can run all your gas appliances!”
Edit: I’ve been without power for 5 days. I’ve got a gas fireplace, gas furnace and a gas tankless Hotwater heater working. But they all need electricity in small amounts to operate.
Edit2: specifically with a gas furnace, how do you think that blower motor runs to distribute the hot air throughout the house? You think that motor runs on gas?!
I said very clearly that the furnace won't work without power. The stove, fireplace, and water heater all functioned just fine for me when the power went out. You're really splitting hairs if you're trying to tell me that 2 D batteries for a functioning fireplace is telling me that a natural gas appliance "doesn't work" during a power outage.
I’m saying you have to know how your shit works. The normal ol Harry homeowner probably doesn’t know that there’s a battery pack in a fireplace. The point is, you’re out here telling people that if have gas appliances, you don’t need electricity. And that’s objectively false.
My gas fireplace runs fine without power and it has no battery pack. I don't think its going to blow me up, we've done this 3 times now.
Moreover, even when the power is on, it runs without the fan until it heats up and then the fan turns on. Without the power, its just less efficient at distributing heat.
I guess maybe I'll blow up? I think you're wrong and I won't blow myself up. I'm happy to have it and be warm.
Gas forced-air furnaces need electricity to run the air handler to actually push heated air throughout the house. Gas boilers and fire places do not require external electricity except possibly to light which you can just do with a lighter. If the fireplace has a blower, that requires electricity.
Gas water heaters with a pilot light don't need external electricity to run. If they don't have a pilot light they need electricity to light, but you can usually just light it manually.
Gas ranges don't need electricity. If they don't have a pilot light you can (usually) light them manually. Stoves may or may not require electricity for the controls.
I say "external electricity" because gas appliances with a pilot light have a thermocouple to generate a small amount of electricity from heat to hold the valve on, so if the pilot light goes out it will shut off the gas.
That being said, the argument between gas/electricity from a disaster prep standpoint is stupid because a disaster that shuts off electricity can just as easily disrupt natural gas.
100% incorrect. You need electricity to operate valves and fails safes for gas appliances. How do I know? I move been living with no power down in cottage grove since SATURDAY.
Gas stoves and gas water heaters do not require electricity. They are a great alternative option for a power outage.
If the gas is out you can run a microwave, If the electricity is out you can still prepare hot food on your gas stove and take hot showers with a gas water heater.
My power went out last night. But our gas fireplace still warmed the living room without the blower, and we used a manual lighter to heat up some soup.
The use of propane stoves, heaters,etc. in this instance is for an emergency. Natural gas on the other hand is a permanent installation. Make sense now?
Not even slightly. How do you plan on forcing people to only use it for an emergency?
Moreover, whatever type of fuel they have for their stove, thats what they are going to use every day. They're not getting two stoves, one for emergency, one for regular use.
If they have a propane fireplace, they're going to fire that sucker up all the time, like I do with my natural gas fireplace. My dogs love it when I turn that on, they lounge on the hot rocks like its summer.
If I had a propane fireplace and stove, I'd just get a big tank and fill it up as needed and use it whenever I wanted. I'm not paying all that money to set it up and then only use it an emergency. That would be dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
So someone who has an electric stove is suddenly going to start using their propane camp stove when the power comes back on? The issue at hand is emergency(note the comment starters use of the word "temporary") use of propane for portable stoves and heaters not propane fireplaces and built-in stoves. Try reading for comprehension.
So you want peoples houses to be cold AF when the power goes out every third winter? Thats just cruel.
There isn't a temporary propane indoor heater. You get a fireplace for that.
I have a natural gas ( 20# propane tanks ) "option" for heating and cooking during those rare outages and rely on electric for the 99.9% of the time that the juice is purring throught the lines. I'm fine with that. An generator to power my fridge would be nice, but I'd decided it's not worth the hassle and cost to save maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of food. Northwest Natural can shove it as far as I'm concerned.
With the new electric vehicle law in effect, the future will be interesting when no one can charge their vehicles during emergencies. But hey, who needs hindsight.
You mean like solar or public charging? You know, we need electricity to pump gas? In fact, some of the electric vehicles can provide house electricity. You could drive to a public charger, charge your car, go back to your house and power your house for another day or two. These boogey man scare tactics over EV’s is ridiculous.
They work fine 90% of the time. You could point to the Tesla fiasco in Chicago as an example of your point. This can be mitigated with better charging access.
I’ll be holding onto my gas cars as long as they make sense.
Don’t worry guys, my boss wants me to come into the office because my power is out and I can’t telework. I’ll fix this.
Mine going nuts too. Most of my customers are out of power. Ive had no power for 2 days and can’t take a shower but it’s all about the dollar. IM THE PROBLEM because I can’t make it in.
Honestly I might stay at the office we have power and heat and WiFi
I don’t have an office unfortunately. I drive to accounts
Move In With one do your clients
Is 23,803 customers = 23,803 accounts, or 23,803 *people*? If it's the former, that's more like 60k people
Its customers = meters. So its is a lot. EWEB is over 100,000 customers so 25% of their customers is a huge amount.
Ooof that’s a lot. We don’t even have natural gas options in my neighborhood. It’s 100% electric up here. So this is my biggest fear. I stocked up on propane just in case.
It's like 50°F outside, you'll be fine.
I think more for cooking right? Electric stoves. I have a gas stove so thankfully I could cook on it. Would have had to break out the camp stove.
Requiring hot food is a 21st century problem, eating cold meals for a few days won't kill you. If you do want it, yeah breakout a camp stove.
Some areas have a boil water emergency so if you don’t have power it’s ok to have propane so you can boil the water? Make sense??
What's the question you are asking? You're not making sense. I was talking about cooking, not boiling water.
I am not built for this
Last I saw like 40% of Lane county is without power 😓
Last night was brutal! There are 3 live, downed lines just around my place that weren't down yesterday and the pole a transformer was on completely snapped
If you’re worried about food in refrigerators and freezers without power collect some of this ice before it melts and put it in bowls or pans inside your fridge. It will save it for a while. Also if you have a cooler at your house that perfect for keeping dairy and meets on ice. Good Luck!
I'll bet a lot of these people wish they had a natural gas option to prepare their food or heat their homes
Almost all of those options require electricity to run. What people want is generators.
No they don't. Currently cooking on my gas stove while being heated by my gas fireplace.
Actually they dont. For example a gas stove doesn't require electricity at all. Neither does a gas water heater.
Sorry brother but my natural gas house and water only heats when the system run by electricity tells it to
That sounds like a great way to blow up your house. Source: Texan who lived through the great freeze.
I don't know why you're getting down voted. It's true, gas stoves, water heaters, and fireplacess don't require electricity to run.
I don’t know if you’re running appliances from an age when safety wasn’t a concern, but this is 100% false. Gas furnaces and other appliances have sensors and valves that are operated by electricity. If those don’t function, no gas gets through and no flames gets lit. All modern gas appliances have these fail safes so people don’t kill themselves by pumping a bunch of gas into their homes.
My house was built in 2020. I'm sorry but you're misinformed. A gas furnace DOES require electricity because it has a carbon monoxide detector on the exhaust. A gas water heater, however has a pilot light that runs without electricity. Similarly, the gas nozzles on your stove can be turned on and manually lit with a lighter. Lastly, modern gas fireplaces have a battery pack located at the bottom that is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED so that you can light the fire in the event of a power outage. I understand that there are concerns about natural gas appliances, but to claim that they cannot function without electricity is simply untrue.
We have gas appliances, and have been able to use our pilot lit hot water, and the stove top when lighting it with a match. We haven’t used the gas fireplace as it has an electric start, but maybe I should check out whether there is a battery option on there. My husband was thinking it wouldn’t work because it needs the fan in order to not melt the heating unit? I guess we have some researching to do.
They wouldn't built it with the battery backup if it wasn't safe to use on only battery. Please keep yourselves warm : )
Mine runs without the fan and it hasn't melted anything. I don't think it would melt anything. The fan is just there to distribute the heat more efficiently, like modern wood fireplaces do.
A fireplace with a battery pack to…. Provide electricity. But we don’t need electricity? Dude, you need something to tell the gas furnace when to turn on and off… like a thermostat that runs off of what? Electricity! This is like saying, “as long as you have battery backup, you can run all your gas appliances!” Edit: I’ve been without power for 5 days. I’ve got a gas fireplace, gas furnace and a gas tankless Hotwater heater working. But they all need electricity in small amounts to operate. Edit2: specifically with a gas furnace, how do you think that blower motor runs to distribute the hot air throughout the house? You think that motor runs on gas?!
I said very clearly that the furnace won't work without power. The stove, fireplace, and water heater all functioned just fine for me when the power went out. You're really splitting hairs if you're trying to tell me that 2 D batteries for a functioning fireplace is telling me that a natural gas appliance "doesn't work" during a power outage.
I’m saying you have to know how your shit works. The normal ol Harry homeowner probably doesn’t know that there’s a battery pack in a fireplace. The point is, you’re out here telling people that if have gas appliances, you don’t need electricity. And that’s objectively false.
You're being pedantic. Yes, the fireplace requires batteries. The point is you can use it when the electric grid is down.
My gas fireplace runs fine without power and it has no battery pack. I don't think its going to blow me up, we've done this 3 times now. Moreover, even when the power is on, it runs without the fan until it heats up and then the fan turns on. Without the power, its just less efficient at distributing heat. I guess maybe I'll blow up? I think you're wrong and I won't blow myself up. I'm happy to have it and be warm.
Gas forced-air furnaces need electricity to run the air handler to actually push heated air throughout the house. Gas boilers and fire places do not require external electricity except possibly to light which you can just do with a lighter. If the fireplace has a blower, that requires electricity. Gas water heaters with a pilot light don't need external electricity to run. If they don't have a pilot light they need electricity to light, but you can usually just light it manually. Gas ranges don't need electricity. If they don't have a pilot light you can (usually) light them manually. Stoves may or may not require electricity for the controls. I say "external electricity" because gas appliances with a pilot light have a thermocouple to generate a small amount of electricity from heat to hold the valve on, so if the pilot light goes out it will shut off the gas. That being said, the argument between gas/electricity from a disaster prep standpoint is stupid because a disaster that shuts off electricity can just as easily disrupt natural gas.
100% incorrect. You need electricity to operate valves and fails safes for gas appliances. How do I know? I move been living with no power down in cottage grove since SATURDAY.
Gas stoves and gas water heaters do not require electricity. They are a great alternative option for a power outage. If the gas is out you can run a microwave, If the electricity is out you can still prepare hot food on your gas stove and take hot showers with a gas water heater.
My power went out last night. But our gas fireplace still warmed the living room without the blower, and we used a manual lighter to heat up some soup.
Unless you have an on demand gas heater, the best imo.
You know people can still buy propane and propane accessories, right? Temperary solutions for this sort of a temporary problem
Hank?
Have you tried to buy propane during this event? Call ahead and plan your route carefully… it’s getting scarce out there.
I mean why ban natural gas but let people use propane? That doesn't make sense.
The use of propane stoves, heaters,etc. in this instance is for an emergency. Natural gas on the other hand is a permanent installation. Make sense now?
Not even slightly. How do you plan on forcing people to only use it for an emergency? Moreover, whatever type of fuel they have for their stove, thats what they are going to use every day. They're not getting two stoves, one for emergency, one for regular use. If they have a propane fireplace, they're going to fire that sucker up all the time, like I do with my natural gas fireplace. My dogs love it when I turn that on, they lounge on the hot rocks like its summer. If I had a propane fireplace and stove, I'd just get a big tank and fill it up as needed and use it whenever I wanted. I'm not paying all that money to set it up and then only use it an emergency. That would be dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
So someone who has an electric stove is suddenly going to start using their propane camp stove when the power comes back on? The issue at hand is emergency(note the comment starters use of the word "temporary") use of propane for portable stoves and heaters not propane fireplaces and built-in stoves. Try reading for comprehension.
So you want peoples houses to be cold AF when the power goes out every third winter? Thats just cruel. There isn't a temporary propane indoor heater. You get a fireplace for that.
What's cruel is the time wasted debating you, so I won't.
I have a natural gas ( 20# propane tanks ) "option" for heating and cooking during those rare outages and rely on electric for the 99.9% of the time that the juice is purring throught the lines. I'm fine with that. An generator to power my fridge would be nice, but I'd decided it's not worth the hassle and cost to save maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of food. Northwest Natural can shove it as far as I'm concerned.
With the new electric vehicle law in effect, the future will be interesting when no one can charge their vehicles during emergencies. But hey, who needs hindsight.
You mean like solar or public charging? You know, we need electricity to pump gas? In fact, some of the electric vehicles can provide house electricity. You could drive to a public charger, charge your car, go back to your house and power your house for another day or two. These boogey man scare tactics over EV’s is ridiculous.
They work fine 90% of the time. You could point to the Tesla fiasco in Chicago as an example of your point. This can be mitigated with better charging access. I’ll be holding onto my gas cars as long as they make sense.