Everyhing in our houses can be run by electricity, from heating to hot water and cooktops. That makes me think natural gas can only be useful to produce electricity in gas power plants.
Electricity higher efficiency and lower leaking or dispersion, suggests a win-win situation.
Problem is, if the grid goes down - you suddenly lose everything. And the grid can occasionally go down, whether due to malfunction or malicious intent (as was the case in North Carolina recently)
Unless it has a pilot light it needs electricity to function. So most modern gas appliances are as useless as electric ones when the power is out. The only exception I can think of is a stove where a normal person could probably safely get it lit with a match or lighter.
Well I’ve never seen a gas stove that couldn’t be more or less safely lit with a match. My own technically has an electric igniter, but it’s broken, so I use a lighter
Yeah, that’s why I called stoves out as the exception. Ovens are 50/50 depending on the design. Modern gas water heaters, furnaces, and fridges are not safe to take a lighter to though.
Fair
You could have smaller local gas power plants in the meantime…
How small? Takes a lot of energy to keep the heating on, not to mention stuff like stoves and fridges.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but rather that it’s not that simple
I’m talking about one relatively small gas powered plant per large city, not for small villages. Gas power plants are so easy to build…