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Heat pumps twice as efficient as fossil fuel systems in cold weather, study finds
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Technology
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Gas is great if you need to boil a pot of water right now. Like in a restaurant kitchen.
Any application that is not in a massive rush is just fine on electric.
Even modern radiant electric boils water faster (pretty typical for even a pretty low-end electric top to have a 3500-5000W quick boil burner). And induction or a kettle both do it a near order of magnitude faster. Not to mention none of them hugely heat up the room or require a superpower ventilator that sucks out your conditioned air. If boiling water fast is the task you care about, gas is almost certainly the worst choice. At least for home use.
Commercial kitchens are a different story that isn't even part of the discussion. Even with three-phase power, to run an all-electric mid size-large commercial kitchen would likely require some crazy service level that wouldn't be available in many places. It'll be a while before that is an option.
Well technically electric ranges are worse, but other than that you're right.
Technology Connections on YT did a side-channel experiment on this very thing.
https://youtu.be/eUywI8YGy0Y
Normally I wholeheartedly recommend his stuff, but the side-channel content gets very long winded and rambling, linked video included.
Really, the only thing you can't do on an electric range that you can do on a typical gas cooker is, for example, directly fire a pepper.
And you really don't need to do that. You can just do it under the broiler, for example. I also don't even insist on induction. A mid-range radiant top is STILL better than gas, in my opinion, though the induction is worth it if you can afford it.
People will bring up woks a lot, but a gas range also can't draw out the real advantages of a wok and you're better off with an outdoor chimney cooker or a dedicated wok burner (induction with a small torch or gas bottle) if that's what you really care about.
Plus, I must again point out how fucking AWFUL it is to clean a gas cooktop compared to how trivially easy it is to clean a glass-top electric cooker. The time saved cleaning more than makes up for the advantages people list with gas even if we grant those advantages exist. Which I clearly don't.
many people just have a lil' torch for when they need flame, presumably vastly more efficient than turning on an entire burner just to scorch a chili
They don't; not from gas. The obscene heat it generates in the kitchen alone is horrible for everyone working there.
I've found induction cooktops do just as well as gas at boiling water. The frustrating thing about them right now is the market is immature, so the good ones cost well over $1000 per burner and the cheap ones are so much worse (lousy coil sizes and poor heating precision) they aren't worth using as anything more than a camping stove for tiny little pans where you don't need precision. It's like nobody in the industry wants to make these things good enough to actually replace the old technology, they just want to price gouge for all it's worth while it's still seen as the "expensive, hard to make, premium option".
I have both a gas and the cheapest induction range/oven combo I could find and the induction is way better.
People saying gas is better are just wrong.
Gas should be incentivized out of residential new construction, and probably banned from new multi family dwellings
Very good induction cooktops are nowhere near $1,000 per hob and can boil water in a fraction the time as gas. Don't buy the Frigidaire crapola and the stating price for a very good full induction convection range with 4-5 hobs is ~$1,250. Spend twice that and you'll have a machine with no downsides.
Induction is much, much faster.