Most Americans want to electrify their homes — if they can keep their gas stoves
A poll finds less than one-third of Americans want a fully electric home. It jumps to 60 percent if people can continue cooking with gas.
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Two things here. I was forced to go induction when I moved house about fifteen years ago, and I love it. It's just better than gas. I'm terrible at many things, but I'm a good cook, and I can say, there's nothing I can do - nothing - that isn't better on induction. Admittedly, not crazy about the waste of new things, but even so, worth it.
Also, turns out, Big Natural Gas lied to you. It's dangerous (which the article states). This is a carrot and stick. I'm all electric, and working on solar soon.
Agreee, and a third thing. Gas usage for cooking is so small, it's really a non-issue.
Gas usage for heating is the big one we need to curtail. Having a culture war on cooking ranges is a distraction.
It's not a distraction so much as it's the bait. Gas cooking gets the utility serviced to the building, which enables the gas furnace vs electric heat pump conversation. Gas furnace is cheaper up front, so that's what goes into suburbia.
Builders and developers will always do the absolutely cheapest thing possible to stay competitive, and will only do better when they're either legislated to or consumers demand it. Home builders associations lobby to keep minimum requirements ... minimal, and most consumers just see pretty showers and big kitchen islands, so this is why we still build houses like it's 1980.
Always amuses me how many people care about gas mileage on a $50k car but couldn't give two shits if their $2m home is efficient.
Source: I'm a home designer who frequently has this conversation and that's usually how it goes down.
Then you are living in an area that is running a bit behind.
Once you electrify heating, no one is going to pay for a gas line in new construction.
We (Netherlands) had these conversations go down like this 5 years ago. Now, no new home construction is running a gas line.
Canada, and yeah when it comes to how we build we are definitely behind. Oil and gas is so entrenched in the economy, especially western provinces, that any going against that is blasphemy to a significant chunk of the population. It will get better though. We can already do better, the incentive just isn't there.
I'm a certified passive house designer and I'm always jealous of all the products and materials available in Europe!
Do you guys all have fireplaces and generators?
No, our electric grid has been extremely reliable.
I couldn’t trust that, and it only gets to like -11F around here.
If you don't have reliable electricity, then get a generator or wood stove.
That's what rural folk do all around the world.
That’s why I led with that
Wood stove as backup is pretty common in some parts of the US anyways. Heat pump + wood stove = not much physical labor + cheap to operate + backup heat for ice storms
However, gas stoves will still kill you. They won't kill the environment as bad as they kill you, true, but you're still dead.
the issue about it being literally poisonous for humans is kind of a big deal, regardless of how much gas you use. Domestic range hoods do FA.
If you want to keep your gas stove despite the very real health implications, that is a poor choice.
Agreed on both points. As a trial we got a cheap induction hot plate and really like it. We also learned that we want a range that doesn’t have a noisy fan and has a continuous very low setting.
Those Ikea induction hot plates are really nice and a great way to try induction cooking.
I strongly recommend getting one that's just a touch fancier, and which has a thermostat in it. This lets you set the temperature of the pot so that you can fry without making the oil smoke.
Weirdly, I'm in the opposite boat. I have solar, I grew up with an electric oven/stovetop and my previous house had an induction stovetop. I hate, and I mean hate induction and electric for stovetops.
My new house has gas and it is just the best. I love cooking on my wok, my pans heat up in no time, and I feel like I can gauge and control the heat better.
Yes, air flow, exhaust, and air purifying is taken into account to use it safely too in my home.
If your pans are taking time to heat up, you probably had resistive plates, not induction. Induction is FAST - fast to heat up, but also fast to cool down. It's very similar to cooking on gas.
They probably had glass-ceramic. A lot of people confuse those for induction, since they basically look the same when it's off: a black glass plate.
When it's on, the glass-ceramic lights up and becomes red or purple, while induction stays black.
Induction is faster than gas. I have never met anyone who prefers gas to induction after using induction for a while.
Buying an induction cooker has made cooking in apartments with shitty coils so much better, I don't even want gas in the future anymore. We're considering getting a cover for the range and just buying 2 more induction tops
Try curved induction plate. Wok doesn’t work with flat induction plates because the moment you start moving it, you’re not heating it anymore.
Induction is objectively superior in heating speed and heat control. But if your cooking technique doesn’t work with it, the previous statement is meaningless.
If your cooking technique involves flipping rice past the flame so oil catches fire a little, then gas is the only option.
Well, firewood too :)
Now I want to try smoky fried rice.