In my area (South Louisiana), it is around 10k plus 3-4k extra from the plumber.

Gas wasn't an option due to our location. Since our 6 year old almost blew up our rental house a couple of months ago, I am happy to have an all electric house. We went with a 25kw solar panel system to offset the cost of going all electric. We should have a 5 year ROI.

Thats a lot of money. We paid $9 a foot after the first 75 or so, so about the same rate. Payback will depend on where you live-- gas will save ~40% on your heat bill vs oil. The $4K we paid will pay back in just a couple years. (plus I would have paid that much just to have a gas range) For $35K you might be better off buying a lot of insulation and perhaps a ground source heat pump.

You can ask if they will give you a better rate if you provide your own trench. Also, do you have any neighbors who could share cost?

No, they will probably not run cable fiber or electric at the same time or (more importantly) in the same trench. In MA they have to have different trenches, with a minimum separation between.

Can you check to see with other property owners close to you if you all bundle the drop together if the costs can be lowered?

How big is your house?

Seems like a better idea to throw that money into insulation +- ground source heat pump.

If your house is smaller then it makes the money much harder to recoup. I mean $20k on insulation on a 2,000 sqft house could make it nearly free to heat (like There are really so many questions that it is hard for a forum to give you the right answer. But as a general rule, the bigger the house, the easier it would be to get that $25k back.

If it were me, I'd focus on passive solar and monster walls - like 2 inches of foam on top of r-21 2x6s. or double walls but something like r-30. Then you might be looking at $100 in propane, $300 for heat pump a year which would compare favorably to the NG cost to heat a conventional house.

Solar the hot water or at least heat pump.

If you can afford it, pay to have natural gas. We didn't because we were on a tight budget but I wish we would have done it anyway.

I would pay money to NOT hook up to Natural gas. As David points out, its hard to make recommendations on so little info but the trend in high performance housing is good building envelopes, heat pumps and avoiding combustion appliances altogether.

Even heat pumps water heaters are a better choice for most climates especially when designing from scratch. Combustion appliances can be done correctly but they introduce unnecessary risk considering the better performance options available.

Shel.....What is your elect rate? Is your elect regulated in your area? That's over 1/2 mile away. Is there any chance a developer might develop in that area?

This post was edited by robin0919 on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 22:36

Sounds like oil heat and an electric stove would be a good option for you.

This post was edited by edlincoln on Wed, Sep 10, 14 at 11:12

Thanks for the advise so far. There are 6 other houses somewhat nearby. The Electric company said that if all houses signed on the run would extend 8000ft and it would be $6800/hookup. Now my main concern is that "Winter is Coming" so they couldn't get to the construction phase until after March 31st. The Builder has already put in the forced air furnace and the water heater ordered is for propane. So it looks like we have to go propane at least for this winter. Electricity is regulated here at .14/kwh. So maybe change to an electric water heater? Our problem now is that the local propane company is Amerigas and I have read nothing but bad things about them. There is a Propane Coop just down the road but their sales department has yet to return my call even after I have called twice in two weeks.

The house is a ranch style ~1400sqft finished with an unfinished walkout basement. It has 2x6 walls with, I believe, R19 fiberglass insulation and double hung two pane low e argon filled windows.

Natural gas at the rental just 2 miles away is .65/therm and propane is normally between $2.30/gallon and $5/gallon depending on polar vortexes.

Please let me know your thoughts. Can we heat this house in Southern Wisconsin with a candle? Thanks!

What SEER heat pump did the GC install? I hope it's at least a SEER 14 or better 16. You would never have 'any' kind of payback with nat. gas at those prices. Since elect is regulated, go with elect. Prices for fossil fuels are priced by the greedy **$^#&%^() on Wall St. and could fluctuate considerably. We have a 1600sf house ranch, 2x4 walls. Our elect is also reg. at .11/kw. My elect runs an average of $81/month over 12 months all elect house.