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Gas stoves. Yeah, real smart to use a source of pollution inside your home. Electric ranges have been available for decades. Recently available induction stoves are like magic. Yet people cling to cooking with fire.
I live in a country with abhorrently unreliable electricity.
Even now that I have solar and even if I mostly (85%+) cook on a plug-in resistance hob and electric oven, gas is just unbeatable as a backup during the winter. No sun? Grid down? Milk boiled over and got into the hob’s thermostat? Need to cook more than one pot at a time? Israel decided to bomb a fucking residential substation for no reason again? Power company operator decided to accidentally pull an epic prank and route the wrong voltage to everyone’s house, frying a whole town’s fridges, during a year when people couldn’t afford to replace them (I can’t find an English article to link but I promise this happened)? No problemo
I also got a plug-in
inductioninfrared plate and while it is pretty much magical it also makes my inverter shit itself uncontrollably (all my LED lights flicker and it makes an uncomfortable noise) so I really only use it when the ”good” grid is on (the bad one can’t handle it, the good one is the one from the prank above).You can pry my backup butane from my cold dead hands. I replace the tank less than once a year, it’s fine. Not everyone who wants this option to stay is a regressive cultist.
Can you get a battery to handle the unstable input and output nicely since there's a buffer?
I do have an oversized battery buffer. Most people are discouraged from cooking or using any resistive load on the batteries, but I opted to invest in a bigger battery backup specifically to be able to do that, it’s why I said 85%+ and not like 40%. The battery buffer really is the point of this system, having 24/7 electricity in my home that I can pull over 20 amperes out of at the drop of a hat is without a question the most decadent luxury I have ever experienced. That’s not something I can just hook up to my house.
If I reconnect the grid-charging circuit, it is more than enough in the winter months nowadays (the grid was down more often in 2020-2023). But that gets really expensive, and relying on the grid is not wise.
If I use the secondary (mafia) grid more frequently (as I did in 2020-2023 out of necessity) I can pull a tiny amount of amps at an extortionate kWh rate, that’s enough to keep things like the fridge and lights and the water pump running. But turn on one hot plate or accidentally use the microwave, turn on the heater to the wrong setting (or the AC to the right setting but at the wrong time) and you have to cover up to get to the freezing street to switch the breaker back on. Sounds obnoxious? Well pre-solar that was the only option for 12+ hours of the day. I remember going down to flip the breaker over twenty times one day as a kid.
Let’s not get into the water situation. I just spent a weekend grappling with neighbors and floater valves.
Agreed, but I really miss the sheer power of gas stoves. Wondering if they make (or if I can make) souped-up versions of electric or induction stoves. Or do I just have a really weak electric stove?
My induction hob can heat things up faster than gas
It's a combination of high power and high efficiency
Yeah same. Water in a pan begins to sound like it's going to boil soon pretty much as soon as it's turned on.
Those that prefer gas over induction must have had some crappy induction hob to compare to.
My wife has a pacemaker, Induction stoves are not an option.
An induction stove with booster can outheat any gas stove.
Or do I just have a really weak electric stove?
I think you might just have a really weak one, or poor compatibility pots? I've had both, and if anything my gas burners feel a little slower and cooler than my induction stove did.
Our induction plate rivals the power of the electric range in this apartment. Our previous induction plates were on par with our gas stove. Am hoping for even more power when I upgrade to a built in induction range that’s wired into 240v.
I like cooking with fire. Temperature changes (especially reduction of heat) are much faster than resistive electric, and when cooking on an unfamiliar stove, it's easy to tell what's going on; I don't have to guess what "6" means on a dial because I can look at the fire and see.
Both the awareness that gas stoves are a significant source of pollution (mostly nitrogen oxides) and availability of induction are fairly recent and not universally distributed. I'd accept the pollution for a better cooking experience than resistive electric, but induction is pretty compelling all things considered.