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How bad is my gas stove?

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Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#351

Post by giaour »

jtbayly wrote: post #281
amluto wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tempe…

Whoah! But it is expensive! $1500 for one pan at a time?!?

I have a one-pan induction cooktop that I got at Best Buy for $50 that I use whenever I need more precise temperature control than I can get from my gas range (e.g., when I make candy or meringue).

I bet the Breville cooktop is much better than mine, but you don't need to spend anywhere near that amount to get something decent.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#352

Post by meristem »

Question for the folks who switched to induction, from someone in the initial process of thinking about it: 1. what is the plan for when there is no power (I live in an area currently prone to seasonal brownouts/blackouts) and 2. what did you do re: oven?

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#353

Post by rootusrootus »

jacquesm wrote: post #81
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…

It could be that your gas lines are old and porous, leading to slow release of gas. Usually not a problem, unless the space is enclosed or poorly ventilated, in which case it can cause pooling of the gas and possibly an explosion. Gas is dangerous, lines should be checked every couple of years (pressurized or vacuum tested) and the rubber connection hose for the range should be replaced every five years or so.

Rubber hose for gas? Is that really a thing? For years now all the appliance-to-supply line connections I've seen have been flexible stainless steel.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#354

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

wallacoloo wrote: post #68
logifail wrote: post #54

Can anyone recommend (ideally inexpensive) devices/kits to measure CO2 and NO2 levels in a residential home? Ideally capable of sending data to be stored & processed locally (Home Assistant or similar).

if you have a high-uptime PC, you can find USB-enabled SDS011 sensors for $30 on Amazon or anywhere else, and free software that creates a web dashboard that shows VOC count by time. can’t remember if these devices measure CO2/NO2 specifically though. https://github.com/seandlg/sds011docker

Any other recommendations for stand alone units?

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#355

Post by rootusrootus »

maxwell86 wrote: post #156
asteroidp wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good induction is light years better than good gas stoves. Ours has 4.5kW _per plate_, and its awesome. Silent, instantaneously hot, instantaneously cold, full control over the heat, no gases, etc. For heating and hot water, "remote heat" is infinitely cheaper, both in acquisition and maintenance costs, and infinitely more environmentally friendly than gas and electric heating. Sure, if you live in a remote region or…

> Ours has 4.5kW _per plate_

That's impressive. The top-of-the-line Bosch induction cooktop, which retails for $2500 USD, tops out at 3.3kW on the largest plate. The rest are all most like 1.7-2.2 each.

A four burner range that could pull off 4.5kW per plate would probably require a 100A 240V circuit. Woof.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#356

Post by brianwawok »

lukeschlather wrote: post #322
brianwawok wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gas stove gets super super low too. Not sure how to compare it to 100 degrees; but it’s very very little BTUs. It’s a double burner with a normal one and a inner smaller one. I 100% run my vent while cooking. Curious how much of the bad gas I vent…

I see sources claiming that a gas stove on low can go as low as 137F, but I think that's a bit misleading because the heat is so uneven. If you've got a pot of water, maybe the water will be heated to 137F, but the temperature where the water meets the metal will be much higher; this is why double boilers exist. But it sounds like induction legitimately makes double boilers obsolete (and rather quaint and limited to…

My gas on low is around 300 BTU. It’s low enough to warm chocolate without a double boiler.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#357

Post by kibwen »

detritus wrote: post #319
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 was resoundingly in the 'induction hobs are crap' camp until this NYE when we found ourselves staying away in the countryside in a place with a basic plug-in induction hob. I sighed and presumed my Absolutely Necessary morning tea would take until the heat death of the universe to boil, but nup, it was done in significantly less time than it takes me at home, when using gas. If a crappy plug-in hob can boil water t…

> there's a part of me that still wonders at the future benefit/end to end efficiency

The future is in completely abandoning residential gas infrastructure, which will have immense benefits in allowing us to stop maintaining and expanding millions and millions of miles of leaky underground pipes. No amount of tweaking the mixture will change the fact that electricity is broadly useful for everything, and that gas is only useful for a small number of things that are quickly being overtaken by electricity.

Hell, if we had devices that could instantly summon sufficient quantities of water from thin air, I'd get rid of my water hookup, too, even though water lines aren't nearly as bad for the atmosphere as gas lines are.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#358

Post by tempest_ »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #349
tempest_ wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a cast iron one sorta like this https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/lodge-cast-iron-wok... Yeah, it is heavy. You cant really toss things in it like you would a carbon steel wok.

I can’t access that page from Europe, it gives me a “to our valued customers: fuck you!” page. If it’s heavy cast iron, it’s not a wok but a wadjan. Does it have 2 handles as well ? A wadjan is an Indonesian wok-like pan, but unlike a wok a wadjan retains heat due to it being heavy cast iron. A wok should be thin sheet steel so it heats up and cools down very quickly. Wadjans are very good for things that have to ste…

I have seen wadjan but I did not know the name, the one I have is sorta a cross between the two. No flat bottom inside the pan but it has handles like the wadjan (probably due to the weight).

Here is a link that might be more useful

https://i.imgur.com/NKXQpXZ.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/4MlLayk.jpeg

Yeah, it isnt quite like a carbon steel wok but most people in North America wont have a a wok burner to hold the round bottom so they need the flat part.

You also definitely cant cook in them quite like a wok since as you say the cast iron holds so much heat. I usually just get it real hot on the burner for 5 or 6 minutes and then stir fry something. You have to take the food out when it is ready though because moving so much iron off the burner doesn't cool it down as quick.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#359

Post by fnbr »

adrianN wrote: post #236
zrail wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, This won't happen. What will happen instead is that the gas to cook your omelette in the morning will cost three times more than going to a restaurant would and you'll make your own decision about shutting down your gas lines.

Uh, no. You can make Methane from CO2 and electricity with something like 70% efficiency. So while gas will become a lot more expensive, it won't become too expensive to use it for cooking. You don't need all that much gas for cooking.

I think it’s more likely that we’ll see carbon taxes make it prohibitively expensive than the cost of production itself. In Canada, we’ve got a tax going up to $170/ton by 2030. If most homes go fully electric, I bet that goes up even further.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#360

Post by thurn »

What kind of air quality monitor is being used here? I've been looking for a good one to purchase for myself, would be good to get one with N02 capability.
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