cooking stove ~ natural gas VS electric VS ?

Muzhik wrote:
One compromise might be to get a gas stove with an electric lighter.  Uses a 110V outlet, and there's no way to leave the burners on "just a little" without them being lit.

PeterD wrote:
Not sure what the prices are currently over there but here its .22/kwh for a set amount and higher charge over that amount. But the thieves get $70 every 3 months just to be hooked up without even a single kwh being used or charged on top of that.

Len wrote:
Before you try too much, see if you can find a counter top induction unit. They plug into a 120v socket (1400 watts) and yet heat faster than a 2400 watt coil. They are 90% ef. gas is 45% and most electric ranges are 55%. At less than $100 I replaced our 4 coil burners with 3 of them. They have been fine so far ... about 1.5 years.

One note though, unplug them while not in use, ours draw 6watts when turned off so I have switched them.

Walk wrote:
Induction stoves are the most efficient and the biggest source of magnetic fields.

johnlvs2run wrote:
An average priced induction burner on Ebay is $125, and is 1800 watts. 
Apparently one burner will replace a stovetop as they're faster, which is fine.

That's a lot of wattage though.  Do they really use less energy?

johnlvs2run wrote:
Thank you for all the feedback and ideas.

I've decided to get two induction burners, and to put them on a cutting board top in place of the stove.

The induction burners have 10 settings and the heating is instant, so they are more like a gas stove in that regard, however cook in about 1/2 the time.  There are quite a few ratings on this link with good information that helped me to decide.  I believe the settings go from 100 to 1800 watts, so using mostly settings 1 to 5 would not use as much energy.  Also they run on a 110v outlet.

Len wrote:
Before you try too much, see if you can find a counter top induction unit. They plug into a 120v socket (1400 watts) and yet heat faster than a 2400 watt coil. They are 90% ef. gas is 45% and most electric ranges are 55%. At less than $100 I replaced our 4 coil burners with 3 of them. They have been fine so far ... about 1.5 years.

One note though, unplug them while not in use, ours draw 6watts when turned off so I have switched them.

paul wheaton wrote:
15) If you use electric heat in your home, cooking anything on an electric stove in the winter is effectively free.  Getting 2kwh of heat from your stove or oven will almost exactly displace 2kwh of heat from your heating system.

Len wrote:

At less than $100 I replaced our 4 coil burners with 3 of them. They have been fine so far ... about 1.5 years.

One note though, unplug them while not in use, ours draw 6watts when turned off so I have switched them.

paul wheaton wrote:
14) I once tried to figure out how much oxygen one gas burner would use.  I calculated that a gas burner would empty a standard sized kitchen of oxygen in about 45 minutes - assuming the kitchen was air tight.  Since 79% of air is nitrogen, then the air that comes in to replace the oxygen is mostly nitrogen.  No matter how you slice it, the kitchen air will become oxygen depleted.  Frankly, the thought of using gas for cooking in a kitchen really freaks me out.
quote]

can I get you to post up the math on that
I've always hated electric stoves so I'm hoping to punch holes in your argument there cause otherwise I'm gonna have to learn to cook on the wood stove

Home gas test

Try this simple test for yourself. In the evening, turn on a gas appliance. Then turn off all of the lights in the room and watch as your gas flame burns. Look for the blue colors. That's methane gas burning. Methane gas makes up most of your natural gas supply and it burns with a blue color.

If there are yellow, orange, green, purple or red colors in your flame - that ... could be Benzene, Toluene, Tar, Oil, Dust, Rust, Gas Odorants or - PCBs. Notice how the colors burst out and jump about. The colored condensates bursting in your flame are some of the hazardous chemicals in your gas.

johnlvs2run wrote:
Was that $100 each?  I'm curious how you space them with your wiring.
I have decided to keep one on each side of the kitchen, each on it's own outlet.

The 6200 uses 0 watts when off and plugged in, though I unplug it anyway.

The stove is cold, except from the pot, and cools rapidly when the pot is removed..

johnlvs2run wrote:
Home gas test

don miller; MountainDon wrote:
I also have access to a finger clip blood oxygen saturation meter. I'm going to monitor my blood oxygen saturation

A higher level of methemoglobin will tend to cause a pulse oximeter to read closer to 85% regardless of the true level of oxygen saturation.

It also should be noted that the inability of two-wavelength saturation level measurement devices to distinguish carboxyhemoglobin due to carbon monoxide poisoning from oxyhemoglobin must be taken into account when diagnosing a patient in emergency rescue, e.g., from a fire in an apartment.

A Pulse CO-oximeter measures absorption at additional wavelengths to distinguish CO from O2 and determines the blood oxygen saturation more reliably.

don miller; MountainDon wrote:

For the cabin though propane is the only reasonable fuel to use for cooking. We have a good off grid electrical system, but not enough to cook with.

We don't even use candles or oil lamps because of their products of combustion, but the range seems to be a good compromise. We'll see what I think after the O[sub]2[/sub] tests.