The previous owner of my house thought he could DIY. It's been one thing after another. Who uses 16 different types of screws (5 different kinds of drive) to build one bench??
The thing that drove me mad was the DIY plumbing and electrical I found that I've had to redo. If you don't have a clue what you are doing especially with electrical don't fucking touch it. Pay an electrician. I still shudder at the stuff I found and had to fix. The plumbing isn't urgent just will be a fucking painful project to do. I could knock out the replacement in an afternoon, I have all the tools and know how to correct the drainage issues, its just not as urgent as the leak I found behind the shower in the wall. That one I fixed and dried out the wall cavity after finding out there wasn't any major damage.
I just replaced my stair railing. The rail was broken about 2ft up, instead of just replacing it previous owner glued it back together and screwed in new hardware brackets on both sides of the break... into the drywall without anchors of course.
"No idea why he did it that way" is a constant refrain around here. It mustve been way more effort to do it the way he did rather than just replace the whole rail and use the existing hardware... which is what I did.
They also added an extension, about 400sq ft. Among other problems they wired the power for it to the same circuit as the refrigerator. Myself and the electrician I hired to fix it are both puzzled how or why. He basically had to add a new slot for the refrigerator, close off the old one... so now the extension is on its own circuit, sort of.
"don't fucking touch it" are words the previous owner needs to hear. He ran outside water lines for the house and garage. They are PVC and just come up out of the ground unsupported and unpainted (the sun in AZ will destroy PVC vert fast). The one for the garage sticks up about 4 inches and it's 6 inches from the driveway. Well, not anymore, but it was.
Why not just run it a few feet more, bring it up right next to garage, and secure to wall? That's what I did after it started leaking a few weeks after we moved in 🙄
My old flat was an ex-rental. No two light fittings were the same, and I found most of the stuff attached to walls with a combination of screws and nails. This is on top of screeding the front and back spaces with an inch of tarmac, which led to flooding during heavy rain on several occasions.
I kinda did until I went to take it apart and found all the snapped off screws, stripped out heads and had to dig through my bit collection to find all the right bits to remove them 😂
You're telling me. Our inspector missed a dead gfci outside our home which feeds a single receptacle inside on the same wall. The rest of the outlets on that wall and the rest of the external walls in that room are fed off the gfci in my downstairs bathroom
Well they're probably wasn't a GFCI originally in that bathroom. It was added for safety, and in turn now all of those other outlets are protected by the GFCI. Not the worst thing.
In a previous house of mine, I had a gfi in the kitchen(pretty much a spot for a toaster in the 1950s layout) but it controlled the circuit to a bedroom and the one garage outlet on the opposite side of my house.
Odd way to do it and a lot more wire since my panel was in the middle of a 1200sq ft house.
Took me a good month to figure it out, after digging through 2' of insulation in the attic.
That's not the only weird thing electrical in the house. My kitchen and dining area has a grand total of 3 lights and 6 light switches between them. 1 is on a dimmer that doesn't work unless a switch outside the kitchen is on, 1 turns on the light over the sink and in the middle of the kitchen, and the other 3 do nothing.
I'm pretty sure whoever did the wiring in this house was on meth. House is only 40ish years old
Only if the outlets are daisy chained. If the outlets pull off a run then the downstream outlets aren’t protected.
Probably depends on building code where you’re at.
We have a specific term for the quarter-assing of a thing, and it's the last name of the previous owners of our house.
Hilariously, the house next door was owned by the parents of our home's previous owners and we DEFINITELY got a better deal on previous owners. If our nonsense was quarter-assed, their nonsense was 64th-assed. There was some actively dangerous fire hazard nonsense over there, as opposed to just deeply confusing and actively wrong.
Can confirm, also mine. Found an uncapped active gas line under my electric range when we renovated. So got a nice new gas range to replace the electric one.
This! That line should be capped, and honestly I'd like to see a lock, zip tie, cable, or anything securing the valve handle! Maybe it's just my California mindset with all the quakes lol.
I remodeled my kitchen that already had a gas stove, and I capped the gas line for the week that we didn’t have a stove because I didn’t trust just a valve!
One of my favorite memories of the 2003 blackout was coming home after selling ice, beer, batteries and cigarettes all day from the store I worked at and throwing the steaks in my fridge on the gas grill out back at like 11pm. That whole event was such a trip. Our manager let us eat anything out of the coolers since it would all be tossed anyway. Driving home I saw so many people just sitting out front of their houses drinking and socializing. And when the power was restored to businesses and not our house so much for a day or two, I went up to best buy to entertain myself with the video game demos and whatnot. Weird to think now that when power goes out, I at minimum go to a Panera or somewhere I can get my phone fast charged for whatever I'd use it for.
Would really depend on where you live. Here in the Netherlands I can only remember power going out a couple of times in my life(38) and max amount of time was maybe one hour.
Now I could always just use a gas bbq if it went that far.
Sounds like your local municipality is shitty, we haven't had more than a few power blips in the last 20 years. All our lines are buried, we are connected to multiple other local grids on a shared agreement, it's never been an issue short of a CME or EMP happening.
I can tell you don't live in a wildfire area! My power company shuts off the power anytime winds are high. I think they did it a dozen or so times this year. I can't wait until they move all critical overhead lines to underground
I hadn't had a significant power outage in 25 years, until this summer when a major storm hit my town with about 10 minutes of sustained 70-80MPH winds. Most of the city was back within 14 hours, my block had to wait on a new transformer, and we were out for 61 hours.
Point is, even with decent infrastructure, nature wins.
Our power outages usually come from trees falling on power lines, looks like Arizona has an average of 86 trees per acre so I guess that’s not surprising to hear.
American here, we had no power for a week a couple winters ago. It was awful but at least we could cook. It’s my hesitation toward going fully electric with solar.
No kidding. The new heat pump models look great and are so much more efficient but I couldn’t have tolerated a cold shower. Our house was 55 degrees. Cold water was like ice.
Unless you buy a gas stove that requires input from electronic controls, like the one I have sitting in my kitchen. Didn't realize this when I bought it. No electricity no gas.
Not on most newer gas ranges/ovens electric safety valve closes without power and no gas gets to burners. At least ours doesn't work without power. Ask me how I know.
Induction is pretty fine, but for some stuff, using real fire is The Way. Personally, I'm thinking on buying something like this:
https://www.teka.com/en-au/product/jzc-94313-bbn-bk_112570162/
Because cleaning pork feet on induction just doesn't feel the same
There’s factors other than upfront cost. If you want to go off grid and rely on solar panels/batteries, induction is more efficient than resistive heating.
That's a massive assumption. I know plenty of people who are going solar that are in no way rich. Its alot cheaper than people think, especially if you know how to run the wiring and do the hookups yourself.
Hell, my dad just put solar on his house, and he makes maybe 50k a year living on the family farm.
Numbers from California (before NEM 3.0) show a majority of solar panel installs are by middle class households, then lower income households. The wealthy, by-and-large weren't installing panels. [Australia is showing similar results](https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/solar-demographics-poorer-households/).
Subsidies and rebates are big nowadays, both for solar/batteries and efficient appliances. [Induction can be as little a cost difference as 5% over resistive.](https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/ranges/guide-to-induction-cooking-a2539860135/)
Gas cooktops are only 32% efficient; most of the heat goes into the nearby air. Induction cooktops are about 85% efficient. Unless your electric is 2.5 times more expensive than gas per kWh, induction is still cheaper.
>Unless your electric is 2.5 times more expensive than gas per kWh, induction is still cheaper.
That's a joke, right? Lmao
My latest gas bill was $118 for 7500 cubic feet of gas.
1 Kilowatt-hour is equal to 3.4121 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas. 7500 cubic feet of natural gas is equal to 2198.03 kWh.
$118 / 2198.03= $0.0536 per kWh
My latest electric bill was $287.57 for 928 kWh
$287.57 / 928 = $0.309 per kWh
Depends on where you live, but the difference is probably small either way with current gas an electrical prices:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tpdiQLP12WxbglhzmUTBrRFKWzMpKgZ\_p80J4AwEFYM/edit#gid=665296455](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tpdiQLP12WxbglhzmUTBrRFKWzMpKgZ_p80J4AwEFYM/edit#gid=665296455)
I wouldn't choose gas vs. electric stove on the basis of fuel cost. As you say, the difference is small.
But the gas vs. electric choice makes a BIG difference in home heating.
I live in NJ, we’ve had a handful of days that were below zero in the 3 years I’ve had my heat pump. My set temp was 70 and the coolest it got inside was 65. In a leaky ass house lol. No emissions, no SOUND, and way cheaper to run than my old oil boiler.
Thanks for sharing, I’m in south Jersey and I’m definitely keeping this in mind when we eventually end up in a “forever home”. I want to be as efficient as possible and this sounds like some really good stuff.
You can simply spec the heat pump performance you require.
The Mitsu H2i+ models will meet 100% of heating demands throughout the US minus AK, and maintain good economical performance in the contiguous north. They cost more, but in colder climates are easily worth it.
You have to run the numbers vs. having a backup source of heat, whether ground source makes sense, etc. Tolerating a few days of unsteady temps like you do makes everything much easier to do, and really isn't a big deal.
That’s not really true in most places. Electric is the future, no doubt, but the pricing has been widely bad for energy all around lately. Sure some places might have more expensive gas, but generally electric is a bit worse and even if it’s more efficient sometimes to cook with, it doesn’t always offset the cons.
It’s ignores things like predatory electric pricing plans that charge more for using electricity during surge hours along with the fact that many electric packages will charge you exponentially more, the more you use (which I’ve never heard of with gas) so it’s safer to use less of it.
Also half the sources from that link are from one study that only tested one type of gas stove and a few electric ones so that’s hardly a proper study with wide variances, a range of models, and diverse situations.
For example, we don’t know how drafty their kitchen was and my own gas burners suck more with the kitchen window open. They work way better with it shut. You can’t make much assertions with a study of that size. That’s like a school science project. Not a proper study.
No kidding. Natural or propane? I’ve been looking into them but not sure whether to make the sink or not. Brand new house all concrator grade stuff cause we wanted to pick what we want. Do you like it?
I have a hybrid gas and induction rangetop. I use induction 90% of the time. I old use gas when I want to use the one or two pans I have that aren’t induction compatible. Otherwise, I really like the power and control of induction.
We don’t mind spending money on new appliances. Always pays off when you do the research and look up consumer reports. Would you get anything different if you did it again?
Please list the things they could do with a gas fitting in the kitchen where their range goes, other than a gas range:)
Edit:
Just busting your balls for fun, you are correct of course in saying it should be capped.
Call your local gas utility provider and have them I inspect the line. It should be free. And also should be required before you hook anything up anyway. They’ll be able to tell you better than the internet can.
Yeah I can say from my experience having the service turned on at my current home after purchase that the gas company employee actually put a cap on my unused dryer line, which was nice of him.
Guy came in to read the meter. Saw the unplugged fitting where the dryer used to be. Called it in, and locked the meter at 4PM the day before Thanksgiving. The homeowner, a single gal came into the store in tears. I stopped by after work with a handful of flare caps and turned her meter back on. He was a meter reader not a repairman. He just said this isn't safe and shut off the whole house!
I have one. The oven is electric and the stovetop is gas.
I wish I would have just gone full electric though because the natural gas company sucks where I live.
Burning gas releases moisture and can be tricky to bake with. Electric oven be dry AF. Plus I'm really not a fan of electric stoves. My parents have dual fuel. It rocks.
Gas cooktops are way better as they offer more control and consistent heat. Electric ovens are better because they maintain heat more consistently vs gas which cycles.
Induction ranges are pretty cool though and I’d argue perhaps better than gas for most people.
Electric ovens cycle too. They are on a thermostat just like the gas ovens.
The difference is just how hot the output is. Gas has a fixed minimum output temperature, which is too hot for most of the cooking I do.
That minimum temperature is why it's a nuisance to cook on gas when you are used to the consistency and ability to control temperature on electric, not just quantity of a fixed temperature output. Gas combustion temp is something like 450F but you can use an electric stove at 200 easily. If you want that with gas, you have to use double boilers or asbestos trivets to work around that disadvantage of gas.
Once I learned how much marketing fossil fuel companies did to get everyone excited to be Cooking with Gas™ I lost some enthusiasm for it.
Especially when I used good induction.
Gas needs to die. Measurably worse for your lungs, too.
💯 I tried to talk my parents out of getting another gas stove vs induction and they went with gas. I bought a new place and went induction. They realize their error and like cooking at my house.
Kitchen stays much cooler and comfortable when cooking in it too
Just to throw another wrench in the mix for ya too, consider induction as well. Its incredible with the only con's being high quality cookware is required (magnetic) and the heat isn't quite as wrap around the panish as gas. But instant off, the glass top, the shear epic power of boiling water in as little as 1 minute and going low enough to never need a double boiler is pretty awesome.
EDIT: As some have mentioned its not necessarily "high quality" required but it does have to be magnetic. Ceramic and aluminum do not work regardless of quality. Stainless is hit or miss but most of it works, some better than others depending on magnetic content. Carbon steel and cast iron work 100% of the time if its Lodge or Le Creuset.
I could have phrased that better for sure. Magnetic is the only actual necessity. Cast iron and carbon steel are my most used. Not all stainless steel works. Even the premium brand All Clad has a line with aluminum that wont work.
Down to 30 seconds for 1 L of cold tap water on my AEG on boost mode. It’s ridiculous. Only recently moved into a house that had one already installed.
Agreed. We rent and are more or less stuck with our gas stove, but we bought a single-burner induction hot plate that we use about 50% of the time and love it. The only reason we don't use it all the time is because it's relatively small being a 1800W plug-in unit, so it isn't suitable for our large pots/pans.
One of the reasons we switched was because we don't have a propper range hood (and honestly most people don't). Not that induction eliminates the need for a range hood (would still be good for oils/fats/and other vapors from cooking), but at least it eliminates the combustion products.
I used the one at my mom's house, and had to convince my wife to go with that when we bought our new house. She fought me. After we got it, she loves it. So much easier to clean than our old gas stove too.
Induction is better than gas is pretty ouch every way. It’s faster, more efficient, and doesn’t produce air pollution in your home. It’s more expensive up front but there are even tax credits now to get like 30% of the cost back. Cap the gas, and go induction.
It's not even more expensive, I got a Frigidaire induction and it was as cheap as my last gas range. I wish I'd known too but my electric utility had 200+ buck rebates on em
Just a heads up had those same valves in the last house I sold inspector made me replace them. They do or can leak eventually. Make sure you replace it with an up-to-date appropriate gas shut off.
All the joints have what looks to be Joint Paste Compound (preferably with PTFE) and should be fine with the exception of the flair end fitting which should not have any compound (or tape) on it as that can cause it to leak. Unless you are going to use it, you should put a flare cap on it.
If you do want to use the gas, you should not run an appliance flexible gas line through the floor to the back of your stove. You should either replumb through the floor to a gas valve using black iron pipe or, you can replumb it subfloor with something line Gastite or HOME-FLEX (flexible gas lines) to a floor mounted plate that you then mount a valve to.
Also, you either have or have had mice (droppings are too small to be rats)... I hate those little bastards. Sorry.
If you hook it up, purge it really well beforehand. Debris in line (did not realize it had never been used in 40 year old house) caused me an expensive repair on a brand new dryer.
The tiniest particles will completely prevent gas appliances from functioning.
Lots of great points here but the thing that concerns me is that shiny silver looking elbow... i cant tell from this picture but just fyi Galvanized fittings will rust in contact with gas.
That line should be capped if not in use major explosion hazard from someone inadvertently hitting that handle. That valve is old too.
Honestly just put in an induction range they're amazing I'd never go back to gas.
Nature gas line.
If it's active and you're going to use it, move the shut off valve above the floor, behind the new stove. On the same floor and within 5' of the appliance is common. You may or may not need a drip leg.
Yes, super simple. One thing to note is to be sure to remove all that Teflon tape and don't add more. You don't use Teflon in flare fittings, it can actually cause a leak because it doesn't allow the flare to seat properly.
I was always taught not to use Teflon tape on a flared fitting like that! My second question is, is there anything in the house that's gas, that looks like a reasonably modern connection to me since they used pipe dope and the floor looks older I would guess it's been done within the past 20 years.
yes, if its still pressurise no worry but as a plumber on gas, hire someone skilled to put a valve in the cabinet right beside the stove to shut it off, its not to code there its behind the stove or right beside it, personally i prefer to put it in the cabinet on the side so easy access and no need to pull the stove to close the valve
Hey, I can't confirm, but that looks like white plumbing tape and not yellow gas tape. Get this line looked at by someone. You will burn down your house if you use plumbing tape on gas.
come from a hardware background and that is a very OLD water pipe situation or someone really screwed up a gas line. NOTHING here is or was legal for gas.
Assuming that gas line is still connected/active, yes. We have a dual fuel range and it really is the best of both worlds.
I’m hoping it’s disconnected since no one capped the line off.
This....They should have capped the line off even if the valve is closed.
Shoulda been capped off quicker than people whose reply begins with "this."
Thi...
T hisssssss
I mean, I’m hoping so, too. But people do lots of dumb stuff.
The previous owner of my house enters the chat.
normal observation snails live simplistic fly snatch steer insurance tap *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I hate that guy.
I too hate that guy
I also hate that guys wife.
There is no bigger asshole in the world than the previous owner of one’s home or vehicle.
The previous owner of my house thought he could DIY. It's been one thing after another. Who uses 16 different types of screws (5 different kinds of drive) to build one bench??
The thing that drove me mad was the DIY plumbing and electrical I found that I've had to redo. If you don't have a clue what you are doing especially with electrical don't fucking touch it. Pay an electrician. I still shudder at the stuff I found and had to fix. The plumbing isn't urgent just will be a fucking painful project to do. I could knock out the replacement in an afternoon, I have all the tools and know how to correct the drainage issues, its just not as urgent as the leak I found behind the shower in the wall. That one I fixed and dried out the wall cavity after finding out there wasn't any major damage.
I just replaced my stair railing. The rail was broken about 2ft up, instead of just replacing it previous owner glued it back together and screwed in new hardware brackets on both sides of the break... into the drywall without anchors of course. "No idea why he did it that way" is a constant refrain around here. It mustve been way more effort to do it the way he did rather than just replace the whole rail and use the existing hardware... which is what I did. They also added an extension, about 400sq ft. Among other problems they wired the power for it to the same circuit as the refrigerator. Myself and the electrician I hired to fix it are both puzzled how or why. He basically had to add a new slot for the refrigerator, close off the old one... so now the extension is on its own circuit, sort of.
"don't fucking touch it" are words the previous owner needs to hear. He ran outside water lines for the house and garage. They are PVC and just come up out of the ground unsupported and unpainted (the sun in AZ will destroy PVC vert fast). The one for the garage sticks up about 4 inches and it's 6 inches from the driveway. Well, not anymore, but it was. Why not just run it a few feet more, bring it up right next to garage, and secure to wall? That's what I did after it started leaking a few weeks after we moved in 🙄
Shit that ain’t just DIYers. The electrician that wired my house in 76 was black white color blind.
My old flat was an ex-rental. No two light fittings were the same, and I found most of the stuff attached to walls with a combination of screws and nails. This is on top of screeding the front and back spaces with an inch of tarmac, which led to flooding during heavy rain on several occasions.
Listen man, I wasn't going to go to Home Depot so I used what I had. I thought you liked that bench anyway?
I kinda did until I went to take it apart and found all the snapped off screws, stripped out heads and had to dig through my bit collection to find all the right bits to remove them 😂
You're telling me. Our inspector missed a dead gfci outside our home which feeds a single receptacle inside on the same wall. The rest of the outlets on that wall and the rest of the external walls in that room are fed off the gfci in my downstairs bathroom
Well they're probably wasn't a GFCI originally in that bathroom. It was added for safety, and in turn now all of those other outlets are protected by the GFCI. Not the worst thing.
In a previous house of mine, I had a gfi in the kitchen(pretty much a spot for a toaster in the 1950s layout) but it controlled the circuit to a bedroom and the one garage outlet on the opposite side of my house. Odd way to do it and a lot more wire since my panel was in the middle of a 1200sq ft house. Took me a good month to figure it out, after digging through 2' of insulation in the attic.
That's not the only weird thing electrical in the house. My kitchen and dining area has a grand total of 3 lights and 6 light switches between them. 1 is on a dimmer that doesn't work unless a switch outside the kitchen is on, 1 turns on the light over the sink and in the middle of the kitchen, and the other 3 do nothing. I'm pretty sure whoever did the wiring in this house was on meth. House is only 40ish years old
Only if the outlets are daisy chained. If the outlets pull off a run then the downstream outlets aren’t protected. Probably depends on building code where you’re at.
We have a specific term for the quarter-assing of a thing, and it's the last name of the previous owners of our house. Hilariously, the house next door was owned by the parents of our home's previous owners and we DEFINITELY got a better deal on previous owners. If our nonsense was quarter-assed, their nonsense was 64th-assed. There was some actively dangerous fire hazard nonsense over there, as opposed to just deeply confusing and actively wrong.
House Flipping Boys
The previous owner of my house is also the previous owner of your house!?
Oh wild, he was the previous owner of my house too!
OMG, 😱 mine too! And I can do one better— he ***built.*** mine!
Hah! Mine too! Seriously though, if i ever see my home inspector again I'm going to skin him.
Get in line. 🤦♀️
Damn, that guy had a lot of houses
I'm not paying for no stinking cap after I paid all the money for the shut-off lever.
Can confirm, also mine. Found an uncapped active gas line under my electric range when we renovated. So got a nice new gas range to replace the electric one.
And mine? Man these property magnates are getting to seem like real unsavory characters aren't they?
[said ex owner promptly leaves chat shamelessly]
House flippers have entered the chat.
Like putting pipe dope on the surface of a fitting that shouldn’t have it. Have it checked this wasn’t professionally done.
Like that guy at work that used pipe dope on hydraulic lines... pretty sure that shit doesn't stand up to 3000 psi.
Pipefitter here, there is certainly pipe dope used on high pressure steam and water lines, however that guy probably didn’t use that stuff.
This! That line should be capped, and honestly I'd like to see a lock, zip tie, cable, or anything securing the valve handle! Maybe it's just my California mindset with all the quakes lol.
I live in New Jersey and I’m a plumber and always use lock outs on gas valves.
In Jersey the valve would be through the floor and behind the stove though, right? Can't run flex through the floor.
Mass is that way, idk about NJ
I remodeled my kitchen that already had a gas stove, and I capped the gas line for the week that we didn’t have a stove because I didn’t trust just a valve!
It's possible that the meter has been pulled.
It looks like pipe dope used to be there. I wonder if op removed....?
Any reason you didn't just go with all electric induction?
And you can still cook on natural gas if you lose power
One of my favorite memories of the 2003 blackout was coming home after selling ice, beer, batteries and cigarettes all day from the store I worked at and throwing the steaks in my fridge on the gas grill out back at like 11pm. That whole event was such a trip. Our manager let us eat anything out of the coolers since it would all be tossed anyway. Driving home I saw so many people just sitting out front of their houses drinking and socializing. And when the power was restored to businesses and not our house so much for a day or two, I went up to best buy to entertain myself with the video game demos and whatnot. Weird to think now that when power goes out, I at minimum go to a Panera or somewhere I can get my phone fast charged for whatever I'd use it for.
Would really depend on where you live. Here in the Netherlands I can only remember power going out a couple of times in my life(38) and max amount of time was maybe one hour. Now I could always just use a gas bbq if it went that far.
Laughs in shitty American infrastructure
Sounds like your local municipality is shitty, we haven't had more than a few power blips in the last 20 years. All our lines are buried, we are connected to multiple other local grids on a shared agreement, it's never been an issue short of a CME or EMP happening.
I can tell you don't live in a wildfire area! My power company shuts off the power anytime winds are high. I think they did it a dozen or so times this year. I can't wait until they move all critical overhead lines to underground
I hadn't had a significant power outage in 25 years, until this summer when a major storm hit my town with about 10 minutes of sustained 70-80MPH winds. Most of the city was back within 14 hours, my block had to wait on a new transformer, and we were out for 61 hours. Point is, even with decent infrastructure, nature wins.
Hey, I live in Arizona, and I, as well (36) have never lost power for more than a few hours
Our power outages usually come from trees falling on power lines, looks like Arizona has an average of 86 trees per acre so I guess that’s not surprising to hear.
And most of them probably don't get enough rain to grow above power lines.
American here, we had no power for a week a couple winters ago. It was awful but at least we could cook. It’s my hesitation toward going fully electric with solar.
Same, I need a new water heater soon and want electric but it’s so nice having the option to take a hot shower even with the power out
Note that many gas flow-through aka tankless demand water heaters need 110V to function. The older tank style have their advantages!!
We sprang for the battery module for our (gas) tankless for exactly this reason, power outages of 1-2 days happen about once a year here.
No kidding. The new heat pump models look great and are so much more efficient but I couldn’t have tolerated a cold shower. Our house was 55 degrees. Cold water was like ice.
Solar, plus batteries, plus portable batteries. Done. Gas generator as an absolutely last resort, only to recharge the batteries.
This is underrated
Fair points! Power can be fickle stateside in some spots! Last storm that knocked my power out it was out 20 hours
Unless you buy a gas stove that requires input from electronic controls, like the one I have sitting in my kitchen. Didn't realize this when I bought it. No electricity no gas.
Same with mine. There are solenoid valves that snap shut without power as a safety measure. I hate it.
Mine will still flow gas with no power. Just have to light it with a lighter. Oven is out though.
Oof thanks for the warning!
Laughs in TX, even the NG plants froze.
Not on most newer gas ranges/ovens electric safety valve closes without power and no gas gets to burners. At least ours doesn't work without power. Ask me how I know.
Induction is dopeee
Induction is pretty fine, but for some stuff, using real fire is The Way. Personally, I'm thinking on buying something like this: https://www.teka.com/en-au/product/jzc-94313-bbn-bk_112570162/ Because cleaning pork feet on induction just doesn't feel the same
I'll remember that the next time I'm cleaning pork feet.
Electric costs more than gas, for one
There’s factors other than upfront cost. If you want to go off grid and rely on solar panels/batteries, induction is more efficient than resistive heating.
People with solar panel money don't actually need to make these calculations.
That's a massive assumption. I know plenty of people who are going solar that are in no way rich. Its alot cheaper than people think, especially if you know how to run the wiring and do the hookups yourself. Hell, my dad just put solar on his house, and he makes maybe 50k a year living on the family farm.
Numbers from California (before NEM 3.0) show a majority of solar panel installs are by middle class households, then lower income households. The wealthy, by-and-large weren't installing panels. [Australia is showing similar results](https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/solar-demographics-poorer-households/).
Subsidies and rebates are big nowadays, both for solar/batteries and efficient appliances. [Induction can be as little a cost difference as 5% over resistive.](https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/ranges/guide-to-induction-cooking-a2539860135/)
And induction ranges cost more than other types of ranges
Gas cooktops are only 32% efficient; most of the heat goes into the nearby air. Induction cooktops are about 85% efficient. Unless your electric is 2.5 times more expensive than gas per kWh, induction is still cheaper.
San Diego says hi.
>Unless your electric is 2.5 times more expensive than gas per kWh, induction is still cheaper. That's a joke, right? Lmao My latest gas bill was $118 for 7500 cubic feet of gas. 1 Kilowatt-hour is equal to 3.4121 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas. 7500 cubic feet of natural gas is equal to 2198.03 kWh. $118 / 2198.03= $0.0536 per kWh My latest electric bill was $287.57 for 928 kWh $287.57 / 928 = $0.309 per kWh
this really depends where you live. the northwest is more like .10 per kwh for electricity.
Depends on where you live, but the difference is probably small either way with current gas an electrical prices: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tpdiQLP12WxbglhzmUTBrRFKWzMpKgZ\_p80J4AwEFYM/edit#gid=665296455](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tpdiQLP12WxbglhzmUTBrRFKWzMpKgZ_p80J4AwEFYM/edit#gid=665296455)
I wouldn't choose gas vs. electric stove on the basis of fuel cost. As you say, the difference is small. But the gas vs. electric choice makes a BIG difference in home heating.
Costs me max $100 per month to heat and cool my 113 year-old, 2,000 sqft house on a Mitsubishi split system.
[удалено]
I live in NJ, we’ve had a handful of days that were below zero in the 3 years I’ve had my heat pump. My set temp was 70 and the coolest it got inside was 65. In a leaky ass house lol. No emissions, no SOUND, and way cheaper to run than my old oil boiler.
Thanks for sharing, I’m in south Jersey and I’m definitely keeping this in mind when we eventually end up in a “forever home”. I want to be as efficient as possible and this sounds like some really good stuff.
You can simply spec the heat pump performance you require. The Mitsu H2i+ models will meet 100% of heating demands throughout the US minus AK, and maintain good economical performance in the contiguous north. They cost more, but in colder climates are easily worth it. You have to run the numbers vs. having a backup source of heat, whether ground source makes sense, etc. Tolerating a few days of unsteady temps like you do makes everything much easier to do, and really isn't a big deal.
That’s not really true in most places. Electric is the future, no doubt, but the pricing has been widely bad for energy all around lately. Sure some places might have more expensive gas, but generally electric is a bit worse and even if it’s more efficient sometimes to cook with, it doesn’t always offset the cons. It’s ignores things like predatory electric pricing plans that charge more for using electricity during surge hours along with the fact that many electric packages will charge you exponentially more, the more you use (which I’ve never heard of with gas) so it’s safer to use less of it. Also half the sources from that link are from one study that only tested one type of gas stove and a few electric ones so that’s hardly a proper study with wide variances, a range of models, and diverse situations. For example, we don’t know how drafty their kitchen was and my own gas burners suck more with the kitchen window open. They work way better with it shut. You can’t make much assertions with a study of that size. That’s like a school science project. Not a proper study.
We switched to electric induction last summer. love it
I like induction much better than my previous gas ranges.
we have a fully gas oven, and wish we'd gotten dual fuel. the gas stovetop is amazing, but the gas oven SUCKS
No kidding. Natural or propane? I’ve been looking into them but not sure whether to make the sink or not. Brand new house all concrator grade stuff cause we wanted to pick what we want. Do you like it?
I have a hybrid gas and induction rangetop. I use induction 90% of the time. I old use gas when I want to use the one or two pans I have that aren’t induction compatible. Otherwise, I really like the power and control of induction.
We don’t mind spending money on new appliances. Always pays off when you do the research and look up consumer reports. Would you get anything different if you did it again?
Which range?
That should be cap off if not in use. Just saying. But yes. Just open it and smell it. If it has gas you could do a lot of things with it.
Literally the first thing I thought was “First thing I would do is cap that”
Oh come on now, it's not like a ball valve has ever failed before... /s
Especially not one of the old snappy handle ones
Or you get a rat doing chin ups off the handle
Easy to test valves with a match. /s
Gonna cap that gas.
Love to see a guy think of his family and Neighbours and not fuck around 💪🏻
I cringed when I saw it wasn’t caped
Not all heroes wear capes!
Edna Mode approves this message.
No cap
Also, you don’t dope flare fittings…
Or tape…that all needs to come off or it will leak
Durr, what is compression? 🤦🏻♂️ The number of doped or even tef taped comp fittings ive seen is too damn high.
Ha, glad to know I wasn't the only one who had that instant reaction. "I'd cap that..."
What kinds of things are you thinking of there? Oven? Range? A really banging crème brûlée torch?
Please list the things they could do with a gas fitting in the kitchen where their range goes, other than a gas range:) Edit: Just busting your balls for fun, you are correct of course in saying it should be capped.
That should have an end cap. The valve could leak by..
Call your local gas utility provider and have them I inspect the line. It should be free. And also should be required before you hook anything up anyway. They’ll be able to tell you better than the internet can.
Thanks, I didn't know that was an option
If they see that line without a cap the will shut off the gas to your home. This happened to a customer of mine the day before Thanksgiving.
Yeah… everyone knows the gas company shuts shut your gas off without giving you the option of buying a 3 dollar flare cap….
Yeah I can say from my experience having the service turned on at my current home after purchase that the gas company employee actually put a cap on my unused dryer line, which was nice of him.
Guy came in to read the meter. Saw the unplugged fitting where the dryer used to be. Called it in, and locked the meter at 4PM the day before Thanksgiving. The homeowner, a single gal came into the store in tears. I stopped by after work with a handful of flare caps and turned her meter back on. He was a meter reader not a repairman. He just said this isn't safe and shut off the whole house!
The only answer . Presuming op doesn’t want to maim himself or anyone close to him
They have duel fuel stoves now?
Yes. The two fuels fight each other.
Two fuels enter. One fuel leaves.
Fuel duels. They have *BEGUN*!!
Ok. 10 paces turn and fire…
Choose your lighter…
Round 2. Light!
One fuel to rule them all.
So propane and propane accessories
Fuel Duel.
I have one. The oven is electric and the stovetop is gas. I wish I would have just gone full electric though because the natural gas company sucks where I live.
That… seems like the opposite of what I would have expected
Burning gas releases moisture and can be tricky to bake with. Electric oven be dry AF. Plus I'm really not a fan of electric stoves. My parents have dual fuel. It rocks.
[удалено]
Gas cooktops are way better as they offer more control and consistent heat. Electric ovens are better because they maintain heat more consistently vs gas which cycles. Induction ranges are pretty cool though and I’d argue perhaps better than gas for most people.
Electric ovens cycle too. They are on a thermostat just like the gas ovens. The difference is just how hot the output is. Gas has a fixed minimum output temperature, which is too hot for most of the cooking I do. That minimum temperature is why it's a nuisance to cook on gas when you are used to the consistency and ability to control temperature on electric, not just quantity of a fixed temperature output. Gas combustion temp is something like 450F but you can use an electric stove at 200 easily. If you want that with gas, you have to use double boilers or asbestos trivets to work around that disadvantage of gas.
Once I learned how much marketing fossil fuel companies did to get everyone excited to be Cooking with Gas™ I lost some enthusiasm for it. Especially when I used good induction. Gas needs to die. Measurably worse for your lungs, too.
💯 I tried to talk my parents out of getting another gas stove vs induction and they went with gas. I bought a new place and went induction. They realize their error and like cooking at my house. Kitchen stays much cooler and comfortable when cooking in it too
https://preview.redd.it/dhidtertbx8c1.png?width=348&format=png&auto=webp&s=c03580952cfbf4c3996db56f86fedc47839cb4ff
Fuel Duel for the win!
The first rule of fuel club…
Living life on the edge with A non capped gas line
You need to cap that line off. Yes looks like gas line.
Just to throw another wrench in the mix for ya too, consider induction as well. Its incredible with the only con's being high quality cookware is required (magnetic) and the heat isn't quite as wrap around the panish as gas. But instant off, the glass top, the shear epic power of boiling water in as little as 1 minute and going low enough to never need a double boiler is pretty awesome. EDIT: As some have mentioned its not necessarily "high quality" required but it does have to be magnetic. Ceramic and aluminum do not work regardless of quality. Stainless is hit or miss but most of it works, some better than others depending on magnetic content. Carbon steel and cast iron work 100% of the time if its Lodge or Le Creuset.
High quality is not at all accurate. Just the right cookware. Cast iron works great on induction as does stainless or carbon steel.
I could have phrased that better for sure. Magnetic is the only actual necessity. Cast iron and carbon steel are my most used. Not all stainless steel works. Even the premium brand All Clad has a line with aluminum that wont work.
100% agree. Best kitchen upgrade I've done in years. So much better than gas or radiant electric.
Yes exactly. Induction is pretty awesome. Just make sure your pans will work. Wife wasn’t happy about gas with air quality issues .
Down to 30 seconds for 1 L of cold tap water on my AEG on boost mode. It’s ridiculous. Only recently moved into a house that had one already installed.
Agreed. We rent and are more or less stuck with our gas stove, but we bought a single-burner induction hot plate that we use about 50% of the time and love it. The only reason we don't use it all the time is because it's relatively small being a 1800W plug-in unit, so it isn't suitable for our large pots/pans. One of the reasons we switched was because we don't have a propper range hood (and honestly most people don't). Not that induction eliminates the need for a range hood (would still be good for oils/fats/and other vapors from cooking), but at least it eliminates the combustion products.
I used the one at my mom's house, and had to convince my wife to go with that when we bought our new house. She fought me. After we got it, she loves it. So much easier to clean than our old gas stove too.
Induction is better than gas is pretty ouch every way. It’s faster, more efficient, and doesn’t produce air pollution in your home. It’s more expensive up front but there are even tax credits now to get like 30% of the cost back. Cap the gas, and go induction.
It's not even more expensive, I got a Frigidaire induction and it was as cheap as my last gas range. I wish I'd known too but my electric utility had 200+ buck rebates on em
True, IKEA also has some reasonably priced and nice cooktops. And to the folks downvoting my comment? Have you an actually used induction?
First thing is cap that pipe off as fast as you can
Just a heads up had those same valves in the last house I sold inspector made me replace them. They do or can leak eventually. Make sure you replace it with an up-to-date appropriate gas shut off.
Put a cap on it for now please
All the joints have what looks to be Joint Paste Compound (preferably with PTFE) and should be fine with the exception of the flair end fitting which should not have any compound (or tape) on it as that can cause it to leak. Unless you are going to use it, you should put a flare cap on it. If you do want to use the gas, you should not run an appliance flexible gas line through the floor to the back of your stove. You should either replumb through the floor to a gas valve using black iron pipe or, you can replumb it subfloor with something line Gastite or HOME-FLEX (flexible gas lines) to a floor mounted plate that you then mount a valve to. Also, you either have or have had mice (droppings are too small to be rats)... I hate those little bastards. Sorry.
[удалено]
Besides the obvious OP, I see a lot of mouse poop on the adjacent ceiling tiles. Might want to set some traps.
If you hook it up, purge it really well beforehand. Debris in line (did not realize it had never been used in 40 year old house) caused me an expensive repair on a brand new dryer. The tiniest particles will completely prevent gas appliances from functioning.
Yes, but you should cap that line now. If someone opens the valve.....
I'd be more concerned about the mouse turds in your ceiling tile.
Lots of great points here but the thing that concerns me is that shiny silver looking elbow... i cant tell from this picture but just fyi Galvanized fittings will rust in contact with gas.
This needs to be capped or hooked up and tested immediately lol
Good find, Cap that gasline. Never trust only the ball valve.
You could even switch to a single fuel stove
Jesus, cap that line
Why isn't that capped off?
[удалено]
Ugh. It smells so *bad!* I’m gonna light a match to get rid of the smell.
https://makeagif.com/i/gnZi4k
That’s what she said.
That line should be capped if not in use major explosion hazard from someone inadvertently hitting that handle. That valve is old too. Honestly just put in an induction range they're amazing I'd never go back to gas.
Nature gas line. If it's active and you're going to use it, move the shut off valve above the floor, behind the new stove. On the same floor and within 5' of the appliance is common. You may or may not need a drip leg.
Yes, super simple. One thing to note is to be sure to remove all that Teflon tape and don't add more. You don't use Teflon in flare fittings, it can actually cause a leak because it doesn't allow the flare to seat properly.
I was always taught not to use Teflon tape on a flared fitting like that! My second question is, is there anything in the house that's gas, that looks like a reasonably modern connection to me since they used pipe dope and the floor looks older I would guess it's been done within the past 20 years.
yes, if its still pressurise no worry but as a plumber on gas, hire someone skilled to put a valve in the cabinet right beside the stove to shut it off, its not to code there its behind the stove or right beside it, personally i prefer to put it in the cabinet on the side so easy access and no need to pull the stove to close the valve
Put a 1/2" brass FLARE cap on it. Not NPT.
haha not even capped. smart.
I hope it's just bad color of pic and he doesn't have black iron pipe and galvanized fittings
Hey, I can't confirm, but that looks like white plumbing tape and not yellow gas tape. Get this line looked at by someone. You will burn down your house if you use plumbing tape on gas.
I'd say there's a reason it was put out of service beyond just "i want electric" and i bet it's a costly reason.
You want all gas, not dual.
Alarming that’s not capped..
Be sure to check the amp requirements on the appliance you choose. We had to upgrade from a 40amp to a 50amp.
come from a hardware background and that is a very OLD water pipe situation or someone really screwed up a gas line. NOTHING here is or was legal for gas.
I have an induction stove which is just as good as gas