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How bad is my gas stove?

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Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#241

Post by adrianN »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #179
clusterfish wrote: post #122

Apparently unpopular opinion: despite growing up with gas stoves and cooking every day I do not find them any better at it than decent electric ones (not talking about induction). Granted, my kitchen is not Michelin rated, but I have no idea what fancy temperature control people are constantly raving over with gas. Electric has a bit of thernal inertia, yes. If you cooked more than a few times on your own, you know w…

So, here is an example. To make yogurt, I first heat up milk to just below boiling for about half-an-hour (this denatures the whey in the milk making for a thicker yogurt). If it boils, then it will usually boil over and make a mess. My electric stove heats on an on-off cycle. That means it goes through periods of being a lot hotter than average, and a lot cooler than average. If I set the electric stove so that the…

You can make this a lot less severe by using a pot with a higher thermal inertia, e.g. something with a heavy bottom.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#243

Post by amluto »

samwillis wrote: post #110

To anyone considering switching to an induction hob and hearing anecdotal stories of how some people don’t think they are “as hot” or “slower” than gas. I guarantee these are all related to the pans being used. It is of upmost importance that you get a really good set of pans “designed” for induction. We have found “tri-ply” stainless steel pans work really well, better than on gas. Cast iron is also brilliant, I inh…

I recently bought a Polyscience/Breville Control Freak, and I’m increasingly convinced this is the future. It heats dramatically faster than a supposedly high end gas stove I compared it to despite being a lowly 1.6kW or so device. (Gas stoves are stupendously inefficient. That 15kBTU/hr stove may well deliver 15kBTU/hr to the air but not to your pan.). It heats quite evenly. And best of all, it has closed loop temperature control. Want to sauté some onions? Just do it and watch the onions — there is no longer a need to fiddle with a knob to keep the pan at the right temperature.

I wish this type of functionality was more widely available. There is absolutely no need for devices like this to be expensive.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#244

Post by stinos »

mc32 wrote: post #164

Gas in general may cause incidental gas pollution —but I see a problem by the author. The author mentions high pollution results when cooking —which for the author does using a gas range. However the author doesn’t discuss results from alternate ranges. I have an induction stove and every time I cook the indoor air pollution also spikes (lots of frying). It’s likely less than that caused by gas stoves but never the l…

Author also mentions pollution from the gas furnace though, so no cooking involved. But you're right: would be interesting to know amounts of NO2 released by frying though.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#245

Post by noduerme »

lettergram wrote: post #242

I’d like to see a comparison with a wood burning stove (what the majority of the world likely still uses). I’m installing a wood burning and an electric stove in my current house.

The good Norwegian ones, cast iron, burn almost all the fuel in a single log and put out an immense amount of heat, and are perfectly safe if they're vented properly. It's almost as close as you can get to perfection in terms of safety and efficiency. The only downside is it's damn hard to control the heat. (So work on your wok stir fry skills).

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#246

Post by NikolaNovak »

asteroidp wrote: post #133
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #129

I'm surprised this person was surprised. Do the American home building standards not take account of this? Fairly certain it's already law for a while in other places, e.g. if you have a gas stove or central heating then you need greater ventilation and maybe carbon monoxide alarms and so forth. New houses in some places aren't allowed to have gas connections at all, which is partly greenhouse gas related, but the he…

I am glad I don't live anywhere near places that are prohibiting gas appliances Gas furnace, stove, dryer and water heater are much nicer than the electric counterparts

Interesting. We are gas everything in the great white north, but the only reason is the almost prohibitive cost differential. I would not claim that gas is "nicer" than alternatives.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#247

Post by amluto »

frobozz wrote: post #153
samwillis wrote: post #110

To anyone considering switching to an induction hob and hearing anecdotal stories of how some people don’t think they are “as hot” or “slower” than gas. I guarantee these are all related to the pans being used. It is of upmost importance that you get a really good set of pans “designed” for induction. We have found “tri-ply” stainless steel pans work really well, better than on gas. Cast iron is also brilliant, I inh…

I moved from induction to gas recently (not by choice). Anecdotally, the gas feels slower. It seems to take an age to bring things up to the boil compared to my old induction. Also, cleaning up after spills is a pain compared to a glass surface.

You can mitigate one of these problems with a Turbopot :)

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#248

Post by lr4444lr »

What I want to know is, what data is there on food service workers? Because their exposure is well above the average person's, and reduces a lot of other potential other noise in the data when compare to their counterpart subpopulations of the same SES and geographic region.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#249

Post by fma »

"The more likely norm is unused range hoods, furnace flues that spill chemicals into the air we breathe, and ultimately higher rates of illness..."

The range hood on average American houses are weak, because they are the cheapest. Till I got a range hood built by an Asian manufacturer(Fotile) did I know what I was missing out. Range hoods are measured by the amount of air it can move, CFM.

Futile starts out at 850...while regular ones (GE, for example) are 300, 400. And it's not even a price thing...there are range hoods near the price of Fotile which still only do 400 CFM!

I turn on the fan before turning on the gas stove, and leave it on for a bit after cooking.

The reasons I call out Chinese range hoods is because stir frying is a huge part of cooking and you gotta have something powerful enough to pull out everything.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#250

Post by adrianN »

crisdux wrote: post #187
mrblampo wrote: post #47

My wife and I decided to switch to induction after the NYT article on this topic a few months ago. Not only did we have a gas stove that was probably spiking NO2 levels when we actually used it; we also seemed to have a gas leak. It was not a big one, just a faint smell, but it was hard to pin down. A plumber concluded the connection between the range and the pipe wasn't the problem. No specific part of the range sme…

> We should be subsidizing conversions like this. This is the epitome of the current green movement. Proponents want an unnecessary luxury green product subsidized for higher income households, even though there are perfectly fine substitutes that are just as good for the environment at 1/5 the cost you just described. I just can't get on board with a movement like this.

So choose the amount you subsidize so that the cheapest reasonable solution becomes affordable to most people. There are induction stoves costing just a few hundred dollars for example. There is no need to subsidize $3k, but subsidizing electrical or plumbing work to replace fossil fuels with electricity makes perfect sense.
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