Entries in Natural Gas (3)
As Natural Gas Costs Rise, Dollar Leakage Worsens
The amount of money leaking out of communities to pay for natural gas is rising as the price of natural gas rises. Even little Santa Fe County, New Mexico, with about 42,000 residential gas accounts, now loses more than $40 million annually as residents purchase the non-local heating fuel. Numbers from the analysis done by Local Energy are shown below, and a flyer for distributing the data can be downloaded here. I'll work on getting commercial numbers too.
Mark Sardella
in Santa Fe, Dollar Leakage, Natural Gas, Energy Prices, Energy Self-Reliance
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Cost of Natural Gas Heating is Up Again
Residents in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico who heat their homes with natural gas are now paying an estimated $14.08 per million BTU of delivered heat – up from $13.78 per million BTU a year ago, while gas-fired heat for domestic hot water is $18.08 per million BTU this year compared to $17.31 per million BTU last year. All prices are calculated for the period beginning July 1 and ending June 30.
The cost of heating with natural gas has been trending upwards at more than 12 percent per year over the past 10 years.
Mark Sardella
in Santa Fe, Dollar Leakage, Natural Gas, Energy Prices, Economics
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1 Reference
Thermal Access Ports
Question: What can communities do to begin getting their heating needs met locally?
Many commercial facilities -- especially schools and large commercial buildings -- already have hydronic heating systems, with the water in most cases heated using propane or natural gas. Every large facility building with hydronic heating should install a Thermal Access Port™ in the facility’s boiler-return pipe to enable energy from an outside source to be injected into the building. A revenue-grade BTU meter must be installed across the heat exchanger to track the energy delivered to the facility. Local Energy installed such a system at the Santa Fe Community College, and successfully tested the system. Installation of the port cost less than $12,000, including engineering, parts, and subcontract labor. See Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1. Installation of a Thermal Access Port™
Mark Sardella
in Santa Fe, Natural Gas, Propane, Economics, District Energy, Energy Self-Reliance, Education
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