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How bad is my gas stove?

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Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#271

Post by ashtonkem »

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.

You need to factor in the fact that in many areas natural gas is literally a waste byproduct of the oil extraction process, which is why it’s cheap enough for us to cook with. It’s not just that we would need to make methane at 70% efficiency, it’s that we’d be transitioning from something that’s artificially cheap to something that must be made special purpose just for cooking right as alternatives are getting cheaper. And then there’s the distribution network. That’s not free to maintain, and in a world where better electric options are available municipalities are going to want to stop paying for it.

This is the same thing I say to petrol heads about gas. Sure, there might be some left for enthusiasts. But enthusiasts alone will not be able to afford the massive economies of scale that make that consumption anything close to affordable.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#273

Post by Jailbird »

maxwell86 wrote: post #169
gerikson wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We searched high and low for a stove with an induction top that used knobs and finally settled on a stove from Bertazzoni. Expensive but worth it for us. IMHO touch controls are popular because they are cheap to make and offer a simple way to integrate the hob onto a counter. For a lot of people that is important. For us (my partner is blind) it is not.

We bought one from a restaurant on ebay. The "professional" models for restaurants don't have touch controls or fancy electronics. Just knobs. 100% recommend.

Mind naming the brand? We got a single pot model (59500P) by Vollrath to test out induction. We love it and wish all hobs had controls by single digit percentage. We cannot seem to find a cooktop equivalent.

Edit: I read further and realized you got single plates too. The search continues....

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#275

Post by eyeball »

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…

Flat bottom wok doesn’t really work. You lose the heat going up the sides. I bought one of those butane table top burners just for wok use. Induction is great for everything else.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#276

Post by neutronicus »

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.

Certainly the case with electric cars.

Subsidy in the form of a tax credit (so you need to front the government the money until tax season), so that you can buy something that basically only works if you own a house, into which you've already installed some infrastructure, itself subsidized via tax credit.

I can't help but think it would have been better to subsidize the purchase of used hybrids (or, you know, transit)

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#277

Post by briHass »

fma wrote: post #249

"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...…

The problem is, you need a source of makeup air entering the building to actually move that much CFM out. Even with my basic 400 CFM (likely overstated) hood, it's only when I crack a window on the other side of the kitchen that I clearly see all the steam fly up the hood.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#278

Post by jonnycomputer »

adrianN wrote: post #241
jonnycomputer wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Probably. Or I think another trick might be to put the container holding the milk inside another larger container of water. As the water goes to boiling, it steams away, and I think the boiling temp of water is slightly lower than milk.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#279

Post by ospzfmbbzr »

lumb63 wrote: post #224
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got some studies you could share on that? It's something I've heard rumoured but not had a look at the data myself yet.

Here's a source that references induction stovetops specifically: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22674188/ For a more comprehensive treatment on the health and ecological consequences I'd recommend The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg. It discusses the topic in depth with respect to humans, insects, birds, trees, and more, across hundreds of years of history. It's very well researched; its references are 2/3…

> The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg

Great title and good book but the implications are depressing. Hopefully our situation is not THAT bad.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#280

Post by Jedd »

My problem with both is in trying to achieve very low simmer-like temperatures.

With gas the challenge is to ensure the flame hasn't gone out.

With induction the challenge appears to be partial cycling (microwave-style) or simply just reducing power down to bare minimum.

For some things, say an authentic bolognese sauce or a chakchouka, I desperately want a tiny amount of heat, but neither modern gas cookers, or most induction cookers, will give me that. Xiaomi (yes, that Xiaomi) have a 0-99 induction cooker that nearly got me there, but even then I had to utilise a diffusion plate.

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