Winding Brook Manor Homeowners Association
Neighbors,

Although the frigid winds of winter are behind us (despite a few frost warning nights), this is probably the best time to bring up the topic of natural gas conversions for home heating and cooking. You are correct if you are reading this and thinking "but we don't have gas in the neighborhood".

One of our neighbors, Bill Derby, has been exploring the options of bringing natural gas into Winding Brook Manor. It seems that there is natural gas in the vicinity at Cross Creek and Princeton, and UGI may be interested in expanding their coverage area. Natural gas and/or propane can be used to either convert your home from electric heat, or it can be used to supplement our heating systems. It also can be used for domestic hot water generation, cooking and to barbecue.

UGI was able to provide Bill with a spreadsheet that helps to compare operating costs and payback time for a conversion, and also helps to compare propane usage to natural gas usage. One of our families had volunteered electric usage data for their home as it represented the average size home in our neighborhood. Another family had volunteered propane usage data for their home as they had converted to propane a number of years ago.

With so much discussion and data, Bill had asked if the Homeowners Association would help disseminate details of his discussions with UGI figuring that a number of you may want to explore this possibility as well. Right now, there are some tax credits and rebates available for homeowners that update their heating systems.

If you are interested in looking at this further, there are two things for you to do. First, read the details from Bill below. Although he mentions 2 spreadsheets, I combined them into 1 and attached it to this email. If you are still interested, then please contact Bill Derby at bderby@ptd.net. Depending on the responses received, it may make sense to get UGI to host a forum somewhere (township community center?) and give an in-depth presentation on these options, costs and next steps. A copy of this email, Bill's email and the attachment will be posted as a link on our website homepage @ www.wbmhoa.com.

Thanks for your time and attention to this matter. We've already seen our electric rates increase, and know full well that they will continue to do so. Meanwhile, huge new sources of natural gas have been discovered and are already being extracted. The price of any energy is volatile depending on many factors, but as with anything, educating yourself as a consumer is your best way of protecting your valuable income.

Best regards,

Glen Mitchell

* Please note that this email along with any attachments or links should not be construed as an endorsement, direct or implied, by the Homeowners Association, or any member thereof, for any energy source used in your home. This information is provided in the interest of the general public good.

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With your help I am attempting to get UGI to expand their gas service into Winding Brook so that we can have the option of converting or supplementing our existing electric heat with natural gas.  I am convinced that gas or propane is the best option for my family to economically and efficiently heat our home and domestic hot water now and in the future.  In the past month I have been in contact with Mike Bacci, a UGI marketing employee,  who provided me with information that allowed me to compare natural gas and  propane fuels with our current electric rates at PPL.  UGI provided  2 spread sheets, one that compares operating costs and payback time to convert to a natural gas fired boiler heating system.  The other compares propane usage to natural gas usage.

Bacci used the Rubino family March electric bill for the data in the electric to natural gas spread sheet for a comparison over the past 6 months (bar chart on the bill) of their electric usage.  The "real" electric rate was calculated by dividing the total March bill by the total KW's used.  The payback time and cost savings for conversion will not be accurate because it assumes electric usage is totally for heat and hot water!  Each family can input their own individual data by changing the input on the spread sheet.  I suggest that for more realistic answers to payback and savings you may want to guess what percentage of the electric KW usage is for heat and use that to modify your electric input.

PPL offers a rebate of $550 for RTS customers that convert to any high efficiency fossil fuel furnace.  Even without the rebate the RTS customers have the greatest savings over current electric costs because of elimination of their 400 gallon tank of water that will not be heated during heating season.  There is a deadline for this rebate and I believe it is June 1, 2010.  Check PPL's web site. There are Federal Energy Tax Credits up to $1,500.  You can check the link: www.energystar.gov.

The second spread sheet is for comparing cost between propane and natural gas usage.  I will be using propane before natural gas will get to my house, if it ever does.  The DeNardo's provided the data since they had converted to propane some years ago for their 4500+ sq. ft. home.  In talking to Mike Bacci we discussed how UGI got some of their numbers from their spread sheet and their results are a little over optimistic for natural gas.  Using the propane BTU's for the DeNardo home for 1 year I calculated the required quantity of natural gas based on equivalent BTU's and its cost from UGI.  The cost savings was $982 or 45% less than the propane cost.  This savings are in the ballpark of UGI's numbers and look very favorable if natural gas can make it to Winding Brook.

UGI is interested in expanding their services into our development and where the potential consumers are located.  I can be a contact person for that response.


Click here to download the spreadsheet mentioned above
Bill Derby