Life without gas

[toggleswitch]

So are those vented or unvented?

 

[combo52]

UNVENTED GAS STOVES

If you have any concerns about being near unvented gas appliances the gas stove is by far the worst offender. Be sure that you have a good range hood vented to the outside and use it even when you turn on the tea kettle. I love gas appliances but draw the line at having a gas stove in my kitchen [ I have one on out on my screened porch in case of power outages ]. Gas stoves are allowed to emit over four times the carbon monoxide by AGA than gas furnaces and water heaters which must be vented to the out doors.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Marc. I am glad that your troubles are almost over. Tom

 

[mavei]

Life without gas...

...is now over. Gas company serviceman cane over about 2pm today,replaced the meter,and turned on the gas.Even suggested spraying grass and weed killer around the meter so I won't cause damage to the line by using my string trimmer. very friendlyand courteous man.

I was also surprised to find out how many gas appliances are now illegal:
unvented gas heaters(for apparent reasons)
antique radiantfires (same as above)
floor furnaces(burns)
vented wall heaters(even though they are vented, and new ones have combustion spill switches to shut off the burner in case of a blocked flue, there is still a problem of backdrafting because of their design and combustion products spill out the bottom of these heaters)
antique gas ranges with match-lit ovens/burners
antique coil water heaters(no safety devices)

Thanks to everyone who contributed their suggestions and stories.

 

[DADoES]

 
My grandmother has both a gas range and an old-style, freestanding gas space heater. Local/state codes prohibit gas taps in bedrooms and bathrooms, so it's in her kitchen opposite side of the house from the bedrooms. Bathroom has an electric heater/vent in the ceiling. The gas heater and a window unit with heat (also in the kitchen) are her main heat sources in the house. I run the window unit to pick up the kitchen heat, circulate it across the house, with the thermostat set so that it doesn't trigger unless the small gas heater can't keep up.

 

[toggleswitch]

Quote: Gas stoves are allowed to emit over four times the carbon monoxide by AGA than gas furnaces and water heaters which must be vented to the out doors.

Thank you John! I'm thankful that at least you dont think I'm nuts when I say and state/repeat the proven research that gas stoves (and ALL UNVENTED GAS APPLIANCES) are a health hazard. GAS APPLIANCES ARE SAFE ONLY WHEN PROPERLY VENTED!

Studies n the UK DEFINITIVELY show that children who grew up in homes with gas cooking have PERMANENT repsiratory ailments at TWICE the rate of those that grew up in homes with electric cooking.

Why woould anyone want to breathe in carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sufuric oxides and nitrous oxides? The body itself is trying to get rid of carbon dioxde; it is a poison to us- plain and simple.

"My grandmother had unvented gas heaters for 50 years" doesn't mean there is not a better way.

 

[combo52]

GAS STOVE & INDOOR AIR POLLUTION

I have had several very good customers over the years who were devoted gas stove owners. But when they got a cancer diagnosis the stoves left the house fast. Remembering one good neighbor who lived down the street from us, when they remolded the kitchen around 1987 asking what sort of range to buy, I suggested a GE electric one. To which she said never. I was shocked when I drove by the house a year or so later to see a box out by the driveway from a new GE electric range. I short time later her husband told me she had been diagnosed with brain cancer. She went on to full recovery and lived 15 years longer, but every-time I saw her she couldn't stop talking about how wonderfully the GE range cooked and baked. My question is why wait till you have cancer to enjoy all the wonderful advantages of Electric Cooking?.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I have told the story before about the EPA researcher who had a meter for measuring air quality that he was using to take readings at a busy intersection along 14th St, NW in Washington, DC at evening rush hour in the 1980s. He recorded his readings, but forgot to shut if off when he went home. He got home and set the meter near the door in his kitchen, turned on the gas oven to fix dinner and went upstairs to change clothes. When he got back down to the kitchen, the meter was going crazy with higher readings for nitrous oxide and other pollutants than it had measured at the rush hour intersection along a major commuter artery with bumper to bumper traffic for blocks. It scared the hell out of him when he considered what he had been inhaling right in his kitchen.

You also have to face the fact that when many of us were growing up, the stove was on for three meals a day unless no one was there for lunch. There was no microwave oven and no fast food, shocking as that may seem to you youngsters reading this. Granted, houses were not as tight as newer ones are, but almost none had vented range hoods. I also remember that many evenings, especially in the winter, when mom was fixing dinner, the normally blue flames would have orange flashes in them. I asked her what that was and she said it was impurities in the gas due to high demand. I don't know if that was right, but it was something that did not happen at other times.

Does anyone remember entering an apartment building and immediately detecting the smell of gas stoves? If you inspected the stoves, you would find a little deposit of carbon glowing orange along the edges above the pilot lights. Maybe it is different now with more of the ranges changing over to pilotless ignition, but it was an unpleasant odor to me and could not have been healthy to breathe over a long period of time.

 

[toggleswitch]

I noticed that orange and yellow tinges to a normally blue natural gas flame tend to exist more at times of rain and or high humidity.

I have also noticed that the heat emitted from the flames while cooking APPEARS TO VARY varies based on the high or low pressure weather patterns. (Well, it may be the boiling point of water that varies sightly! Not the flame-size (gas pressure) delivered to the burner). LOL

Good feng-shui or not, I avoid gas cooking when I can.

 

[polkanut]

Call me oblivious to the obvious but, we all have to die of something sooner or later.  So for now, I'm keeping my gas stove because I'm too damn stubborn to change.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I hope you use a vented exhaust fan when operating your gas stove.

 

[polkanut]

I live in a 1925 bungalow, so ventilation isn't a problem.

 

[mavei]

My great-grandmother lived in a house,built in the early 1900s,in the middle of the city,that was wired for electricity,but not piped for gas. She had asthma and couldn't stand the smell of burning gas. She cooked and heated with COAL.That didn't bother her and actually was very theraputic. By the time I came into the world, the house,unfortunately had been piped for gas and there was a gas space heater in one of the front rooms and the coal range had been replaced with a gas one.My dad said she knew when someone lit the heater even though she was in the back of the house.They never used it for that reason. She died in 1967,and I still remember her tan base burner coal stove in front of one of the fireplaces.

I think I have inherited some of that tendency. I can't stand the smell of an old-style unvented gas heater. I thought it was my imagination,but then I found out there was some truth to it with all the articles about how bad they are.The new ODS heaters don't seem to bother me as much-I think they may be cleaner burning.

 

[circlew]

My sister has an electric wall oven, but a gas (propane) cooktop. The house was built in the mid to late 1800's, but they renovated it in '93, so it's pretty tight. For some unknown reason, they didn't install a vent hood over that cooktop. I've noticed the ceiling in the kitchen has yellowed somewhat since it was painted about 3 years ago. She is an RN and should know better than to use a gas appliance without proper ventilation. Maybe this is why they have so many respiratory problems. The youngest boy (15) has major sinus problems.