Nanny state rant

[athena53]

No doubt the replacement window industry guys and gals made a few extra boat payments thanks to you.

The windows are made in the USA. There's that.

 

[marko]

Our dryer runs on natural gas.

Gas, (especially stoves) is the latest boogeyman.

My town is talking about banning all new gas hookups.

 

[Koolau]

Gas, (especially stoves) is the latest boogeyman.

My town is talking about banning all new gas hookups.

Yeah, I don't get it.

I recall when the power was out in our area for the better part of 2 weeks due to an ice storm. We were fortunate NOT to lose power, but my mom who lived 6 blocks away had no power. BUT she had a gas stove which was enough to take the chill off the house and save the pipes from freezing. NOT ideal, but when you lose electricity, you lose virtually everything - except the gas stove, if you have one. You can cook food. You can warm yourself. You can prevent pipes from bursting, etc. What's not to like. OH, and gas is typically anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 the price of electricity for cooking though YMMV.

 

[freedomatlast]

I trust your fire insurance is paid up.

Agreed. Dryer fires due to built up lint are a lot more common than some may think. In my old house, we had a GE dryer with the lint screen just inside the door, which wasn't real effective. Every year, during the week between Christmas and New Years, I'd pull the dryer out, unplug it, vacuum out the duct, and take the back off the unit and vacuum out all the stray lint on the inside. Then reassemble, vacuum under it and plug back in.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My DH’s aunt died because an electrical problem with the refrigerator caused a house fire.

Yep. Safety first.

 

[Fermion]

My DH’s aunt died because an electrical problem with the refrigerator caused a house fire.

Yep. Safety first.

Was it something that a arc fault breaker would have tripped on?

You can have a house fire from putting an electric heater too close to a flammable object (curtains, etc.) and the circuit breaker is just going to happily deliver the 15 amps until the walls burn enough to melt the wires.

 

[skyking1]

That is an apples to oranges example. A heater is a resistive load, a fridge is a low amp inductive load. Whatever happened to that fridge would have likely tripped on an arc fault or GFCI.

 

[RobbieB]

CA wants to ban gas from all homes, run everything off electric. Which uses gas fired power plants.

You can't buy a new home in CA with a solid fuel appliance (EPA certified stove or fireplace or pellet stove)

No more gas powered weed wackers either.

Good thing it's only a 3 hour drive to Reno -

 

[Andre1969]

Don't those GFCI outlets tend to have a shorter lifespan than regular ones? I hadn't thought about it before, but in 2021 one of the outlets by the pool went bad. IIRC, it had a little red light that came on and wouldn't go off.

I replaced it myself, but also remember googling it, and found their average lifespan is only something like 7-10 years?!

 

[RobbieB]

Of course. They have electronics in them for all that sensing. Not to mention "fail safe" so if just a little thing upsets them, you are in the dark. And your food spoils and your pipes freeze and your house floods.

But hey, you're safe eh?

 

[MC Rider]

Our electrician said he was not a fan of the GFCI outlets. I don't know why, other than not really needed, but he did put one next to the bath sink at our request.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, bathrooms I agree with.

So when the blow dryer falls into the tub where you are soaking...

Yeah, even though you ain't supposed to do this.

Gotta protect people (clueless, stupid, ignorant, rushed) from themselves.

 

[MC Rider]

Yeah, bathrooms I agree with.

So when the blow dryer falls into the tub where you are soaking...

Yeah, even though you ain't supposed to do this.

Gotta protect people (clueless, stupid, ignorant, rushed) from themselves.

RIP, responsibility for your actions.



I guess I'll move that toaster and extension cord away from the bath tub edge.

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, bathrooms I agree with.

So when the blow dryer falls into the tub where you are soaking...

Yeah, even though you ain't supposed to do this.

Gotta protect people (clueless, stupid, ignorant, rushed) from themselves.

Heh, heh, not to mention the upset spouse (accidentally) dropping the hair dryer into the tub with their spouse.

 

[RobbieB]

We are just feeding the Idiocracy.

Left to their own devices, Darwin would weed these people out.

 

[old medic]

Note that you are not required to have this if the dryer is hard wired into the system, but who does that? Still, how many times do you unplug your dryer? Be honest!

HONESTLY.... Every time we use it... With living in an RV, using the garage for storage and extra room, Laundry day involves moving both the washer and drier out and set up... Its a PITA but beats going to the laundromat.

 

[Alan]

Gotta protect people (clueless, stupid, ignorant, rushed) from themselves.

Probably more to do with protecting companies from lawsuits.

 

[Badger]

Gas, (especially stoves) is the latest boogeyman.

My town is talking about banning all new gas hookups.

Every restaurant uses gas for cooking. Will they be given a pass on the ban or will they just have to shut down? Will it prevent new restaurants from opening?

Cheers!

 

[MRG]

We're ditching our gas stove. Why? Not because of a nanny state. Twice in the middle of the night, I've accidentally turned it on, allowing gas to fill up our open floor plan home. Good thing the gas alarm alerted us. Otherwise, the pilot light on the gas parlor stove detectors would.

I've seen two houses blow because of gas, it's not pretty.

 

[REWahoo]

We're ditching our gas stove. Why? Not because of a nanny state. Twice in the middle of the night, I've accidentally turned it on, allowing gas to fill up our open floor plan home. Good thing the gas alarm alerted us. Otherwise, the pilot light on the gas parlor stove detectors would.

I've seen two houses blow because of gas, it's not pretty.

+1

When we built our house in 1998 we decided not to opt for gas (actually propane as there is no other gas option in our area). We tried to incorporate some features into the house that would allow us to live here long term if we chose - like single story design with wider doorways and hallways. After seeing some of our elderly relatives have near-disasters with gas appliances we went all electric.

 

[Andre1969]

Totally irrational, I'm sure, but when I was a kid, I saw a horror movie called "Dark Night of the Scarecrow." Of all the things that happened in that movie, the one that left the deepest imprint on my childhood brain was when a house with a gas stove blew up.

I've never seen it happen in person, although gas explosions do make the news every once in awhile. To this day, I'm leery of gas heat/appliances in a house.

 

[Car-Guy]

Yeah, bathrooms I agree with.

So when the blow dryer falls into the tub where you are soaking...

Yeah, even though you ain't supposed to do this.

Gotta protect people (clueless, stupid, ignorant, rushed) from themselves.

Yes, I agree with them being installed in bathrooms and kitchens.... Other areas, not so much.

 

[Time2]

Perhaps because, with a hardwired connection, there's less chance of water ingress?

I guess the CPSC is looking into banning gas stoves - because of supposed emissions inside homes. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/gas-stove-ban-proposal-when-and-why-rcna65078

I wonder who did THAT study.

This research was supported in part by internal funds of RMI...


From their webpage,

"Our Work

We identify the interventions and work to scale transformative change in the global energy system to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 50% by 2030."


https://rmi.org/

 

[fh2000]

the new code has the GFCI breaker, not an outlet.

I do not have one. When I tried to get a new home owners insurance through Geico last year, I was denied and was given that reason. Geico later found me another company, though more expensive.

I eventually may have to upgrade my breaker.

 

[Venturer]

We bought our second home in 1972, which was total electric with wall heaters thruout. We lived like that in it for 2 years, freezing in the winter because of it. One day we were in a neighbors house and she was cooking on a gas stove. I ask if they had an underground propane tank. No it was natural gas. I found out that the gas line ran right beside my house too but when it was built the builder chose electric because it was much cheaper for him. I went to the gas co. and found out if I made gas my primary heat source and installed 1 other appliance they would run the line and hook it up free.My father in law helped me plumb and install a gas flooe furnace,gas water heater & gas countertop range and we were set. We lived in that house for 29 years and several times over the years we would be glad we had those when the power would go out. The floor furnace and the water heater had a pilot light and the cooktop could be lit with a match so no worries about being cold. Now we have a propane fireplace as supplemental heat if we need it because the heatpump goes with the power. I will say that as heat is much warmer because it is a humid heat.