Kitchen Aid Cook Top

[toggleswitch]

Please dont criticize either energy source unless you have a

gas: "cheaper to run",
but when the big picture is looked at:

Don't forget to factor in as costs-
More frequent painting
Wall washing
Cabinet washing
Curtain and window washing
floor washing...

etc.

and not just the kitchen, either.

Paying an extra $10 to $20 per month in energy costs to keep the house pristine is worth it to me.

In the summer, huge amounts of added heat from gas cooking fight the A/C therby RAISING the cost of cooking with gas to perhaps a greater cost than pure electric cooking, which tends to send heat into the cooking vessel or cavity rather than the room.

 

[toggleswitch]

Tigher (weatherproofed/insulated) homes require mechaincal assitance to create a greater number of air-changes per hour.

In countries with tremendous building insulation reguirements these are required by law.

Below is a linkie to Honeywell ventilators.

http://yourhome.honeywell.com/Consu...ucts/Ventilation/Energy+Efficient/Default.htm

 

[tomturbomatic]

The first winter I lived in my present house we had a very windy, very cold spell. The governments closed office buildings to save electricity and gas and some poor unfortunate people even lost their natural gas supply and had to be evacuated. I used that opportunity to find air leaks and seal them. Depending on which direction the wind blows, I find a few more from time to time.

The reason for the soaring popularity of induction ranges is the European maker FAGOR, the same company that makes the pressure cookers sold here. Their induction ranges are in many commercial kitchens in Europe, including the kitchens of fine restaurants. The company is a major manufacturer of induction ranges and is introducing its own line in the US sometime in 2007. Many brands of fine European cookware, Silit & WMF, to name two, have lines that are marked on the bottom with symbols that indicate they work on induction coktops. Old standbys like porcelainized cast iron & steel work just fine also.

Halogen elements have almost gone by the wayside. They were used to give fast, visible heat and burned out pretty fast also. New radiant elements use the ribbon heating elements that glow red only slightly slower than the halogen tubes did and last longer.

As for the oven setting off the CO detector: In a story in the Washington Post several many years ago an employee of the EPA or an adjunct agency had been monitoring the levels of pollutants during rush hour at one Washington intersection. The monitoring equipment was in a briefcase-sized carrier that did not have to be opened; merely turned on or off. He finished his monitoring and traveled home. When he arrived home, he set the case down near the back door in the kitchen. He grabbed something out of the freezer and popped it into the gas oven. He went about his routine in other parts of the house until an alarm in the kitchen brought him back there. It was the monitoring equipment in the briefcase. He had not turned it off and his kitchen air was so filled with one or more of the monitored pollutants that the alarm had sounded.

 

[hydralique]

Pturo, I wasn't suggesting that good insulation was pointless, just that people will sometimes defeat even the best technology if they aren't comfortable with some aspect of it. I once was in a musuem in Dresden, Germany in the winter and saw that a window had be purposely cracked open, even with the sky-high energy costs in Europe, to provide a little ventilation.

Heating and cooling can be expensive here too; I've seen 117 degrees on my back patio under the cover and I'm in the city of L.A. so you can imagine air conditioning costs for those guys out in the desert. The State of California also requires an energy analysis done by a licensed professional with state approved software for any new habitable building, or to add space to an old building . . . no Building and Safety department will even accept plans for plancheck if this analysis hasn't been performed.

 

[toggleswitch]

~just that people will sometimes defeat even the best technology if they aren't comfortable with some aspect of it.

How many time have I heard "There is no air in here" when the ceiling vents in my office are literally whistling from the high velocity of air pupming through.

Psychological needs can be very real to some people, despite all logic and reasoning to the contrary.

Most that I know of will circumvent the automatic "Climate-control" in their cars (the ones that maintain a set temperature) if favor of a full-blast "on" or complete "off". Apparently some people also have issues with "gray". Things have to be "black and white", (all or nothing.) Methinks moderation is the key!

 

[dalangdon]

I don't care what anyone says! You'll pry my fabulous 400 from my cold dead hands, after being grossed out by my pollution clogged lungs! ;-)

Seriously, I agree that a newer stove would be more efficient and make for a cooler house in the summer, but I just don't like the looks of them. And I want two ovens, and you can't get that for under 3k.

The long term plan here is for a modern gas cooktop and electric double wall ovens, but that won't be happening anytime soon.

 

[toggleswitch]

Those are great but costly!

I may settle myself for a gas free-standing 30" wide self cleaner @ circa $375 and a micro-convecton range-hood.

Two ovens, two different energy sources, low cost, not space consuming. The SS interior of the micro-convection will prevent problem of paint wearing off and arcing!