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Grex > Cooking > #180: Gas vs. electric: The great stove debate | |
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| 25 new of 60 responses total. |
keesan
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response 7 of 60:
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Aug 28 17:54 UTC 2001 |
I figure I use $1-2 a month worth of electricity for cooking, so why pollute
my indoor air with gas?
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scott
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response 8 of 60:
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Aug 28 19:09 UTC 2001 |
For a half-day simmer I'd just use my crock-pot, so whether the stove can do
it has been moot.
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mary
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response 9 of 60:
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Aug 28 22:20 UTC 2001 |
Radiant burners (under ceramic cooktops) are pretty close to instant
on and off, unlike coil electric elements. High is up to temperature
within seconds and cools almost as quickly.
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cmcgee
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response 10 of 60:
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Aug 28 23:18 UTC 2001 |
re: #8: I too use direct heat electric utensils instead of my electric
cook top elements. Crockpot for long cooking, electric kettle for boiling
more than a cup of water, and the microwave for most things that take less
than 8 minutes to cook. 8 minutes is the break even point that I
calculated earlier this year after a discussion about how to measure
electrical usage for ovens and cooktops.
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i
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response 11 of 60:
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Aug 29 00:14 UTC 2001 |
My impression is that it takes very fancy & expensive gas burners to have
the heat range of cheapo electric burners. I can easily melt large blocks
of chocolate in a simple saucepan on an electric stove, which is something
that people i talk to & cookbooks seem to think is a double-boiler-only
task. Even the fanciest electric burner (with it's special use & care
needs and pot/pan limitations) can only approach gas for fast & visible
response to controls.
Last i heard, there were real respiratory health downsides to cooking with
gas. Nothing resembling smoking, but statistically quite significant. I
don't have overly healthy lungs and both my folks have worse, so that's it
for me & gas stoves.
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keesan
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response 12 of 60:
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Aug 29 14:28 UTC 2001 |
Gas stoves, particularly ovens or stoves with pilot lights, produce a lot of
poison gas - the natural gas (methane) itself and also carbon monoxide. This
is particularly harmful for anyone who already has respiratory problems
(asthma, low hemoglobin = anemia) and for children. Studies have shown more
respiratory problems in children who live in houses with gas stoves (or with
smokers). Venting the fumes helps some. A friend of ours who worries about
everything is still using a gas stove. We brought over a carbon monoxide
detector and it registered unhealthy levels in his kitchen, even though it
is open on two sides to a large 3-story drafty house. He now cooks with his
window open. He has decided that electric fields are more worrisome than gas
fumes, but after detecting strong EMF (ELF) fields all over his house due to
knob and tube wiring, has not bothered to get it changed. Some people just
like to worry.
The older smooth-top stoves were extremely slow to heat and cool since the
ceramic is an insulator. The newer ones I think compensate by using higher
wattage burners. Coil units may still be more efficient. It helps if they
are kept flat (no depressions in the coils) and contacting the pot (also flat
on the bottom). Has anyone used induction burners?
We have electric frying pans, woks and even a pressure cooker. We tried an
electric pot but the lid fit very poorly and also it was not well
thermostatted and had only two temperature settings - on and off - so did not
work well. I have not seen any new ones (this was 1940s). Electric
percolators with the innards removed heat water well. Our electric kettle
has a much larger spout hole so is less efficient at retaining heat.
Crock pots do not heat efficiently because the insulation is to the interior
of the heating element. I have a few 'natural ovens' in which the liner is
non-insulating porcelain enamel coated steel. Low wattage so they heat slowly
but efficiently as there is fiberglass in a double-walled enclosure, into
which you put the porcelain-enameled inner pot. They come in pot size and
oven size and have temperature controls.
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scott
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response 13 of 60:
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Aug 29 15:37 UTC 2001 |
Sounds like Mary may be using induction burners, from the description.
I've had a CO detector in my kitchen for about a year now; I think it once
registered a very low amount; normally even when I'm cooking it sits solidly
on "0".
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keesan
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response 14 of 60:
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Aug 29 18:04 UTC 2001 |
Perhaps the newer gas stoves are less polluting than the older ones? There
are also ceramic-top stoves with halogen burners, which are instant (though
probably not as hot as the coil type, and the bulbs need replacing).
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scott
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response 15 of 60:
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Aug 29 18:56 UTC 2001 |
Pollution might also be a result of a mis-adjusted air mix on the burners.
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mary
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response 16 of 60:
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Aug 29 23:41 UTC 2001 |
I'll have to look at the manual to see what I've got. I thought I
knew until you guys threw out so many options. ;-)
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scott
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response 17 of 60:
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Aug 30 00:09 UTC 2001 |
Clearly somebody who doesn't know what they have doesn't deserve such a
high-end stove. ;)
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mary
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response 18 of 60:
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Aug 30 20:19 UTC 2001 |
Hey, I walk up to it, make my unborn veal in white truffle sauce, and move
on to other things. I let others worry about details. ;-)
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scott
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response 19 of 60:
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Aug 31 19:18 UTC 2001 |
Anybody ever use a stove with one of those old "heat minder" electric burners?
This is the kind where one of the burners will have a sensor in the middle
of the coil and a control knob calibrated in degrees. I don't think I've ever
used a stove with a correctly-working unit.
I just replaced the control unit on the defective heat-minder on my new
antique stove with a standard control knob instead of fixing the sensor stuff.
It's not *that* hard to get the temperature I want.
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otter
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response 20 of 60:
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Sep 1 16:18 UTC 2001 |
The only electric stove I've ever liked is the one we have now. It is
from around 1948. It is very narrow, about 22 inches, but since I seldom
use more than two burners at once, everything fits. The control settings
are S, VL, L, M, H. I love having a "simmer" setting! Best part: the left
rear burner space is a sunken slow cooker! It has a ceramic coil in the
bottom, and holds a pot (with cover) that is flush with the cooktop. I
gave my crockpot to Goodwill.
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keesan
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response 21 of 60:
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Sep 1 19:22 UTC 2001 |
I think there is insulation around the sunken slow cooker. I never saw one
of those on a narrow stove. Sounds like a really nice stove you have.
Jim fixed the sensor control for the burner on our Euro-style electric stove.
It is not calibrated in degrees, but it has lots of markings for fine control.
The idea is that you can set it to simmer at a particular setting, which is
not dependent on the pot size or contents. I have never used that feature.
The burner itself only heats up at half the regular speed, which is a nuisance
since that is the only burner the right size for our pressure cookers. The
other large burner is for large frying pans. We also have a temperature
sensor thing on our double-wide sixties stove, in a burner that can be 6" or
8" (separate inner and outer coil) and that stove has push buttons, probably
five settings like otter's. The book at the library explained how these
worked. I think it involves some combination of 120 and 240 voltage producing
different amounts of heat in different parts of the coil.
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danr
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response 22 of 60:
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Sep 11 02:49 UTC 2001 |
I've always cooked on electric stoves until I moved into this house,
which has a gas stove (but an electric oven). I like the adjustability
of the gas burners, but as someone pointed out, the lowest setting
seems to be too high to really simmer stuff. Also, the heat output at
the high end seems to be lower than the electric burners as it takes
longer to boil water on this stove. Overall, it's probably a wash.
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keesan
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response 23 of 60:
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Sep 20 18:56 UTC 2001 |
The most efficient and also fastest way to cook is with electric appliances,
where more of the heat goes into the pot or pan. We have a couple of
insulated 'natural ovens' with insulation outside the heating element, some
electric frying pans and woks, electric water boilers and even an electric
pressure cooker.
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orinoco
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response 24 of 60:
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Sep 20 22:50 UTC 2001 |
If you use an electric stove on city power, fuel is being burned to produce
heat, the heat is being converted into motion, the motion into electricity,
and the electricity is being turned back into heat. A gas stove just burns
the fuel and is done with it. Are gas stoves really more wasteful?
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keesan
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response 25 of 60:
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Sep 21 16:09 UTC 2001 |
There are also differences in how efficiently the heat of the stove is used
to heat the pot or pan. If you turn a gas stove up high and the flames lick
around the ends of the pot, the heat is being wasted. I still think heating
the pot or pan directly (electric appliance) is probably even more efficient
than gas. It is certainly much less likely to put carbon monoxide or methane
into your lungs. Anyone with both gas and electric burners want to experiment
by measuring the temperature of the air just above burner height and next to
a pot on a hot burner, to see how much is escaping?
Efficiency seems sort of not very important in the case of cooking considering
how little fuel is used for it compared to heat or hot water (or motor
vehicles). If you want to be efficient, use a pressure cooker or at least
boil things with the covers on. Baking is much more wasteful than boiling
because a larger space is heated and a lot of the heat goes out a hole in top
of the stove.
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scott
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response 26 of 60:
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Sep 21 16:47 UTC 2001 |
When I take my teakettle of the (electric) burner because the water is
boiling, the burner stays red-hot for a couple minutes after I've turned the
burner off. That's wasted heat.
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keesan
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response 27 of 60:
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Sep 21 21:12 UTC 2001 |
So turn off the burner a few minutes before the water boils. Or boil a cup
of water in the microwave oven, or in an electric pot. When we cook with a
pressure cooker we turn it off before it comes to full pressure, then let it
cool off naturally. Rice can be cooked (brown rice) by bringing it to about
10 pounds, turn it off, it goes to 15 pounds, then cools and it is cooked.
Same for presoaked beans.
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md
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response 28 of 60:
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Sep 23 14:41 UTC 2001 |
I don't like electric stoves. An electric frying pan or an electric
crock pot or wok or bread machine can be very handy, but gas is best
for ordinary stovetop cooking, at least for my money.
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keesan
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response 29 of 60:
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Sep 24 12:05 UTC 2001 |
What do you cook most often on your ordinary stovetop?
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md
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response 30 of 60:
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Sep 29 23:08 UTC 2001 |
All kinds of stuff. One thing that makes gas better is that you can
turn it down instantly. Roaring flame to nothing in less than a
second. No pasta boilovers, for example. Also, there are infinite
gradations of adjustment, all visible to the eye merely by looking
under the pot or pan. I can tell by the way the olive oil smells
whether the heat needs to be adjusted a tiny bit up or down. The
difference between tender golden bits of garlic at the end of cooking
the veal medallions, and darker overcooked bits mixed in with the
medallions might be a slight reduction of the flame. You sort of look
at it and nod. If you have any kind of cooperation at all going on
between hand and eye and nose and brain, all this is essential. (Also,
when the power goes out, I'm still cooking.)
I understand that some people are inexplicably married to electricity.
They are welcome to their obsession. I wouldn't think of trying to
convert them.
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md
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response 31 of 60:
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Sep 29 23:10 UTC 2001 |
[Btw, fwiw, we heat the house with gas and dry our clothes with gas,
too.]
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