Benefits of Natural Gas

Enjoy the Comfort and Convenience of Natural Gas

Whether it's heating your home, cooking your food or drying your clothes, natural gas is the comfortable, efficient answer to your home appliance needs. If you're thinking about choosing natural gas appliances for a new home or replacing older appliances in an existing home, Citizens can steer you in the right direction. Just call 317-927-4328 for more information.

Why Choose Gas?

Comfortable

• The temperature of gas heat at the register is between 110 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which warms your home quickly and efficiently. By contrast, an electric heat pump delivers air that is between 90 and 95 degrees, which is below your body temperature, so it feels cool.

Reliable

• A properly maintained natural gas furnace will provide about 20 years of reliable service.

• Most natural gas cook tops, ranges, water heaters and fireplaces work in a power outage, letting you cook, bathe, and warm your home without interruption.

Efficient

• Natural gas furnaces and water heaters now can achieve efficiency levels as high as 98 percent.

• All natural gas appliances are more efficient than electric when one considers the whole energy supply chain. While the natural gas supply chain from wellhead to household burner tip is about 90 percent efficient, the electric supply chain from most power plants to household outlet is only about 30 percent efficient.

Convenient

• Natural gas provides instant heat with an adjustable temperature that can be controlled on gas cook tops or ranges and by thermostats.

• Natural gas water heaters reheat water about twice as fast as electric models -- an economical approach that also means less waiting for hot showers in the mornings.

• A natural gas fireplace lets you avoid the wood-chopping, hauling or messiness that comes with owning a wood-burning fireplace.

• Enjoy outdoor cooking on a natural gas grill throughout the year at a flip of a switch.

Clean

• Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel emitting extremely low levels of pollutants blamed for ground level smog. Compared to other fossil fuels, natural gas emits significantly less greenhouse gases, which are being blamed for global warming.

Why Not an Electric Heat Pump?

• It blows cool air - An electric heat pump delivers air that is between 90 and 95 degrees, which is below your body temperature, so it feels cool

• Doesn’t work well with a programmable thermostat - With an electric heat pump, you can't take advantage of the energy savings available with a programmable thermostat because a heat pump takes hours to bring the home's temperature back to the desired level.

• Works poorly when it’s below freezing - An electric heat pump will not heat your home effectively when the outdoor temperature drops below 30 to 35 degrees. At that point it requires a backup heating system - usually an electric resistance furnace - and that gets expensive.

• Units have short life - Because a heat pump tries to do both heating and cooling, it operates more hours during the year - and won't last nearly as long as a gas furnace. In fact, gas furnace warranties are typically 20 years, compared to 5 years for most heat pumps.

• Makes your home drafty - Heat pumps require greater air flow, which makes your home feel drafty.