What began as a political dunk on a federal agency exploring options to reduce the “hidden hazard” of indoor air pollutants has snowballed into a one-year waiver of the sales tax on certain gas-powered appliances for Floridians.
Starting July 1, indoor gas stoves and ranges will be sold in Florida free of local and state sales taxes. That means savings of between 6% and 7.5%, depending on the county, or tens to hundreds of dollars in reduced costs depending on the item.
If your home already has a gas connection, it might be a good time to consider upgrading your appliance or making the switch from electric to gas.
But if you’re among the majority of Florida homeowners who aren’t connected to gas, the financial investment to make the switch and take advantage of the sales tax break could profoundly outweigh any savings.
More: Which type of range cooks best, gas or electric?
A small percentage of homes in Florida, fewer than a million, have a natural gas hook-up.
“Florida doesn’t have that heat demand” during winter that other states do, said Dale Calhoun, president of the Florida Natural Gas Association.
“I always tell everybody, Florida’s natural gas is kind of a luxury. Even propane is a luxury because it wasn’t something that we had to have at every single house to heat,” he said.
So, just how many homes use gas stoves in Florida?
Just 8% of Florida households, or about 640,000, had indoor natural gas cooking appliances, according to a 2020 survey conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. New York, the fourth most populous state behind Florida, had nearly 4.7 million homes with indoor natural gas cooking appliances, or 62% of the households. The only state with a smaller percentage than Florida was Maine, with 7%.
But this figure — which was widely reported when Gov. Ron DeSantis first announced the gas stove sales tax break in February — doesn’t account for other types of gas that fuel Florida homes, Calhoun said. He estimated that half a million homes in the state also use propane, for example. Gas stoves have mechanisms that allow them to receive either natural gas or propane.
“Ultimately, it’s a bigger umbrella,” he said.
The key roadblock to growing natural gas use in Florida homes and businesses is the lack of piping and infrastructure to distribute the fuel, concluded a 2020 economic impact report prepared for the state association.
“Gas is more prevalent in Palm Beach County than it has been previously,” said David Rykus, who works in sales at Rosner’s Appliance in West Palm Beach. “There’s a lot more builders building on land that allows gas to run through it.”
Interested in switching to a gas stove? A few things to keep in mind.
For a homeowner who is curious about natural gas, the first step is to contact the local gas distributor — if there is one.
Most residential natural gas customers are supplied by one of the state’s six investor-owned natural gas utilities, the largest being Peoples Gas, which is owned by the same parent company as Tampa Electric Company. There are also roughly two dozen municipal gas utilities. The Florida Natural Gas Association has an online tool at floridagas.org to find the local gas distributor by ZIP code.
If there is no distributor that covers your area, you can’t get natural gas. The alternative would be installing a propane tank above or underground.
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After reaching the local gas distributor, the next hurdle is determining whether there’s a natural gas main on the homeowner's or business' street. If so, it’s a matter of running a line to the property, hiring a plumber or gas installer to connect the appliances to gas, then getting an inspection.
Hope isn’t lost if your home is covered by a local gas distributor but there’s no main line on your street. You could go with propane, pay potentially thousands of dollars to extend the natural gas line to your street, or round up interested neighbors to split the costs. Some utilities will extend the line for free if a certain number of residents on a street commit to switching.
“Then, the gas utility knows that there won’t be a real big cost to the ratepayers to run that. Then they would actually get a return on that investment,” Calhoun said.
Getting an estimate on how much a conversion to natural gas will cost will take some time and patience
Getting even a range for the potential costs for a homeowner seeking to switch to natural gas from the gas utilities, installers and appliance sales people was difficult.
One utility, Gainesville Regional Utilities, noted that running a service line from a main to a meter could cost $10 a foot. Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, which owns Florida Public Utilities, said the cost of getting natural gas service and a meter could cost up to $2,800. Costs can run from less than $100 to thousands of dollars, said Vanessa Aragon, a gas sales representative for GRU.
With so many variables in the process, it’s a tailored experience for each homeowner.
- Do you want stainless steel piping or copper?
- What about the distance from the main line to your home?
- Do you live in North Florida or South Florida?
- Did you hire a plumber or gas installer?
- If you’re going with propane, will you rent your tank?
- Will it be above ground or below?
- How many appliances will you hook up to gas? It’s not just stoves, but water heaters, fireplaces, pool heaters, clothes dryers and, of course, space heaters.
Calhoun, who lives in Tallahassee, said he paid about $1,800 to get natural gas service for his tankless gas water heater, gas range, fireplace and generator.
“It’s not cheap,” said John Smith, a gas tech with the Tampa-based plumbing contractor Gasmasters.
Gas utilities may offer rebates to customers who are going from electric to natural gas appliances, and some have rebates for replacing old gas appliances.
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There could be nominal savings to your monthly electricity bill.
Gas stoves connect to your standard 110-volt outlet, instead of to an electric stove that requires a 240-volt system. You’ll pay less in energy costs for that stove — which, considering air conditioning typically makes up the greatest energy usage, may not make a significant dent in the monthly bill — and you’ll be on the hook for a gas bill.
The appliances themselves can run anywhere from $350 to upwards of $15,000 for professional equipment.
Still, some prefer cooking with natural gas over an electric stove. But there are safety precautions to consider, including carbon monoxide detectors, good ventilation or even an air purifier. Natural gas is odorless, but a chemical called mercaptan is added to give off a sulfuric rotten egg smell, which will make it easier to detect if there’s a leak.
If you smell that, utilities advise to leave the house immediately, do not turn on or off any electrical switches, and call the utility’s emergency line or 911.
“There’s always a chance something gets turned on accidentally,” Rykus said. “You have to be careful.”
What sparked the political heat?
DeSantis in mid-June signed Florida’s record-breaking $116.5 billion budget, which included $2.7 billion in tax savings.
Part of that was $6.9 million set aside for the year-long sales tax break on gas stoves and ranges.
How did it all begin?
In January, Bloomberg interviewed a commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission about the agency taking a look at how to address indoor air pollutants. A study by Stanford University found that all gas stoves it tested leaked methane gas when turned off. Methane is a greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to climate change. The commission was also concerned about how the air pollutants were connected to childhood asthma.
The commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr., said that “everything’s on the table” when it comes to tactics to reduce these pollutants, including a potential ban on new gas stoves, calling them a “hidden hazard.”
That didn’t sit well with right-leaning politicians, who took the commissioner’s words and ran with it, even suggesting that the federal government was trying to take away citizens’ appliances.
“They want your gas stove and we’re not going to let that happen,” DeSantis said during a February news conference announcing the next state budget. At the time, he proposed that the gas stove sales tax break be permanent. The governor also acknowledged that Florida doesn’t have many gas line connections, but the tax break was proposed on “principle.”
The agency later released a statement rejecting the notion and is continuing to seek information on hazards surrounding gas stove emissions and potential solutions.
The state of New York became the first to ban gas stoves and other appliances in most new buildings over climate concerns. Florida politicians passed a law that prevented local governments from banning the use of gas stoves, which DeSantis signed on Thursday.
Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.
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