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Good news. Electricity is several times more expensive than gas per unit of energy in CA, and I generally find electrical appliances to be inferior at the pres
by georgeburdell 4y ago
Good news. Electricity is several times more expensive than gas per unit of energy in CA, and I generally find electrical appliances to be inferior at the present. The ban was just too soon.
- kube-system 4y agoHeat pumps are a lot better than they used to be, and in mild climates they can attain insane effective efficiency ratings... several times more efficient than gas furnaces per unit of energy. I do like cooking with a flame though, even though it's terrible for indoor air quality.
- hnav 4y agoI imagine that a proper range hood makes more of a difference than the stove technology the second you start pan frying anything.
- htag 4y agoI don't imagine that's the case for boiling things, which is 90% of my stove use.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zarzavat 4y agoBuy a kettle.
- yellow_postit 4y agoElectric kettles in the US are so much more frustrating to use than UK given the electric standard differences. I never knew I’d miss fast booking so much but have yet to pull the trigger on something like a zojirushi boiler to use throughout the day.
- inferiorhuman 4y agoEven at 120VAC, electric kettles are still faster than stoves.
- zarzavat 4y agoYou could also probably just buy two kettles and if you want the full 240V experience.
- kube-system 4y agoUS kettles aren't lower wattage just to spite the users, they're lower wattage because of the wiring in our houses. Whether you can run two kettles depends on the age of the house (i.e. which version of the electric code it was built to) and which outlets you choose. If you want to draw a full 3000W the way a quick European kettle does, you can't do that on a single 15 or 20 amp American branch circuit. Now it is possible to mildly overload breakers for a period of time without tripping them, but this hardly a good recommendation. If you want 3000w of electricity in an American house, just buy an 240v appliance.
- inferiorhuman 4y agoGrossly oversimplified but most American kitchens built in the past 40 years will only be wired with 20 amp circuits (= rated for 80% continuous load or about 1900 W). However, I've never seen a 20 amp receptacle in a kitchen (until my idiot GC insisted on it because he doesn't understand the NEC), and pretty much any US spec kettle will only have a 15 amp (NEMA 5-15) plug. But… there will almost certainly be a few different circuits in your kitchen so pulling 3000 W (a.k.a. 15 amp * 0.80 * 2) isn't so crazy. Whatever. My kettle is rated at 1500 watts and it's still quite a bit faster than the shitty gas range. And it'll keep water at temp for half an hour. And it's adjustable so I can boil water or heat it up for whatever tea or coffee. There's a pretty strong convenience factor here. A 240 V kettle is probably not worth the hassle though, especially not if you want your local building inspector to sign off on anything.
- htag 4y agoI should buy a kettle for boiling noodles?
- zarzavat 4y agoYep. Boil the water in the kettle, then pour it in the pot.
- kodah 4y agoIf you have an adequately sized ranged for your stove then it'll suck up whatever noxious gases are emitted and not burned. It's also not that difficult to test on your own. Additionally, the main impacts on climate change from natural gas don't come from peoples homes or lateral lines, which is what a lot of these bans are based on. [1] [2] 1: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/natural-gas-and-the-environment.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/natural-gas-... 2: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/flow/CO2-spaghettichart-2021.pdf https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/flow/CO2-sp...
- robocat 4y agoA range hood can suck out a lot of a room’s warm air. That could change the efficiency of gas cooking, depending on circumstances and climate. Do heat exchangers exist on range hoods?
- hnav 4y agoI don't think so, you just have a flap that absent a pressure gradient stays closed. When extraction is on, you usually are producing heat so it's not as big of a deal.
- kodah 4y agoI don't think that's the case. The flame applied to the bottom of the vessel is where heat goes. Anything you feel outside of that is technically wasted.
- Rebelgecko 4y agoIME boiling water has a nearly negligible impact on air quality. What really moves the needle is when cooking oil or the oven get involved.
- eBombzor 4y agoInduction is 10x better. Just got a portable unit for the hell of it and I never want to use anything but
- kube-system 4y agoI have heard this but my caveman brain has an unreasonable desire to see the fire in action.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mullingitover 4y ago> Electricity is several times more expensive than gas per unit of energy in CA Fossil fuel usage is vastly more expensive when the externalities are accounted for. This is like saying it's more financially responsible to just put everything on credit cards and ignore the ever-growing balance statements.
- Gigachad 4y agoNot to mention the huge amount of air pollution created from burning gas indoors.
- refurb 4y agoNatural gas was the largest source of electricity generation in California in 2021, accounting for nearly half of the power generated in the U.S. state. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287660/california-electricity-generation-share-by-source https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287660/california-elect...
- themoonisachees 4y agoNatural gas plants are entire factories designed to extract as much energy per unit of gas as they can. If you want to just compare carbon emissions, it's better to burn gas in a plant to generate electricity to do whatever you wanted than to pipe the gas to a home. This is not even accounting for the fact that this also removes the danger piping highly flammable gas to people's homes, and that it also removes the source of pollution away from population centers.
- HDThoreaun 4y agoThe whole point of externalities is that they’re not accounted for though.
- Johnny555 4y agoMy total energy bill decreased after I installed a heat pump, even though the season was colder (based in degreee days). Electricity may be several times more expensive than gas, but heat pumps are several times more efficient, especially in mild climates like Berkeley