Induction stoves are becoming more popular, as more people look at removing gas from their home. Up to one-third of people plan to consider induction for their next range.

But only having had two real options for decades, people might wonder how much a switch to induction really costs. So we asked homeowners who took the induction leap to look up their receipts and share how much it costs to install their stoves. We also priced out the best-selling and most well-reviewed induction stoves at appliance stores.

Here’s what 90 recent induction stove buyers told us it cost them to buy and set up their induction stoves and ranges.

Average cost of an induction stove

Among the 90 people who responded to our survey, the average cost of their induction stove was $2,231. They ranged in price from $600 to $9,200, though only four of them cost more than about $4,000.

Induction prices

We surveyed the best-selling models at Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy, and priced out the best-reviewed models on editorial review sites. We saw a price range of roughly $1,100 to $4,400 for the most popular models. 

There’s a noticeable jump between standard models costing as little as $1,100, and feature-rich models costing $3,000 or more. The higher-priced models tend to have the knobs that some cooks strongly prefer to touch-sensitive controls.

Electrical work and installation

Many homes that were built with gas stoves don’t have the proper electrical wiring for induction stoves. So we asked a few questions about the cost of electrical work.

Among those we surveyed, only 15 people (about 16%) said they had to upgrade their electrical panel, and 11 of them did so as part of a larger remodel or construction project. 

39 people (43%) had a new 220-volt outlet installed and wired for their stove, but it was part of a larger project for 20 of them.

Unsurprisingly the percentage of homeowners that had to pay for electrical work was higher among those switching from gas stoves than traditional electric. 59 people (65%) that switched from gas had to pay for electrical work. By comparison, only 4 (13%) people that switched from a traditional electric stove had to pay for electrical work.

The average cost for all the electrical work was $987 among homeowners that had to pay for this work.

Some noted that their induction stove was part of a wider project to upgrade their electrical systems. For example, one homeowner wanted to “Bring a 1950s kitchen up to code”. A handful of people were making room for not just an induction stove, but also rewiring for an electric vehicle charger. One respondent planned to replace their furnace and hot water heater, presumably with a heat pump and hybrid water heater.

Rebates (or lack thereof)

Only three of our 90 respondents reported receiving rebates for their induction stove upgrade: $300, $380, and $600, for stoves that were relatively expensive. 

We didn’t ask where they received rebates, but given the lack of rebates available for switching to induction, we assume these came from the manufacturers, not government programs.

Satisfaction and motivation

We also asked people how happy they were with their induction stove, and what motivated them to switch from what they had before. Their responses, on a scale of 1-10, averaged 9.25.

So why did the homeowners we surveyed choose to buy an induction stove? 

Cooking performance

• “Boils water quickly + very fine-grain control of heat”
• “Easy to clean, fast heating, good looking, has an air fryer and convection baking in oven”
• “We have a family that cooks, and small children. No way would I let my daughter cook on a gas stove. [Induction has] little heat transfer to the glass (while it gets hot, it’s not that hot).”
  

Indoor air quality

• “Better control, better air quality, safer, push the technology forward”
• “Did not want new gas stove due to excessive heating in the kitchen and poor indoor air quality”
• “Indoor pollution—kids.”

Sustainability

• “First step to get natural gas out of my new construction”
• “Last thing to electrify whole house, now have to remove gas meter”
• “Stop burning natural gas inside the home”

Is induction worth the cost?

Compared to a gas stove, induction is safer, healthier, and easier to clean. Gas cooking has been shown to increase the risk of asthma in children by 42%.

Gas stoves are also bad for the environment. The methane that leaks from gas stoves every year—just the functioning stove, not any gas lines—has the same emissions potential as 500,000 gasoline-powered cars on the road.

For most homeowners deciding between an induction versus electric stove, it’s really a question of how much you’re willing to pay for a better cooking experience. 

Many professional chef’s love induction stoves. But the reality is that many people either don’t cook that much, or don’t really care about the performance of their stove. 

So if money’s tight, and the idea of a more responsive cooktop doesn’t speak to you, we recommend going with a traditional electric stove. Otherwise, splurge and get the induction stove.

But whatever you do, don’t install another gas stove. Electrifying your home, with as many efficient devices as possible, helps move us all closer to a world without fossil fuels. And that’s a world we can all aspire to.

The post How Much Does an Induction Stove Cost? appeared first on Carbon Switch.

If it’s time to replace your gas stove, or you’ve decided you’re no longer comfortable with indoor air pollution, you could be comparing an induction cooktop (or range) to gas.

If you’re willing to adapt your cooking style just a bit, there is almost no downside to induction. It’s faster, more efficient, and safer. It produces less ambient heat in your home and no harmful fumes. And it removes one more point of natural gas from your home, reducing your carbon impact and eliminating potential methane leaks. 

Induction stoves cost a bit more than gas, at least upfront, but given how much worse gas stoves are for human health, we think this is well worth the cost.

What is induction cooking? How is it different from gas?

A gas stove lights natural gas on fire, then controls the amount of gas flowing to that flame, either underneath a burner or inside a stove. That’s conduction: gas burns, the heat is conducted to your cookware, and your cookware then cooks your food.

Induction, by comparison, is direct heat. An electromagnet sitting just underneath the ceramic flat surface creates a magnetic field that reaches the pan sitting on it. That field induces a reaction with the metals in your pan that resist it, which warms the pan up and then cooks your food.

Induction has quite a few advantages over gas, including:

• Faster cooking, especially boiling liquids
• Faster response to temperature changes
• Less waste heat (cooler kitchen)
• Safer cooking without exposed flames
• Built-in timers and safety features against leaving a burner on
• Easier clean-up
• Eliminating the indoor air pollution of gas stoves
• No gas line capable of leaking
• Electrifying your home toward fewer carbon emissions

For far more information on induction cooking, and our recommendations on how to buy the right stove, check out our guide to induction stoves and cooktops.

Costs

Upfront purchase

New induction stoves cost more than new gas stoves. Some of this is to be expected, given that they’re a newer product category, and have more advanced capabilities (especially since most come with convection-driven, or “air fry,” electric ovens).

Shopping at big-box appliance stores, we saw a range of $550-$1,600 for a 30-inch or slide-in gas stove, at 5-6.5 cubic feet in size. There are certainly more expensive stoves, but we cut off the top range where prices started to jump for unique looks or attention-getting features.

The same sizes of induction stoves were $1,200 to $2,000 (similarly limited to mainstream models without expensive upgrades). More expensive induction stoves tend to start at $3,000.

It’s worth noting, too, that many appliance stores and chains may not have induction models available for immediate, local pick-up and delivery—at least at this stage in induction’s growth. You can likely get delivery for free on such a significant online purchase—and possibly even installation, if your kitchen is ready for it.

Installation

Some people won’t need to pay much to install their stove, gas or induction, depending on what was there before. If your home already has a gas stove, buying another gas stove is the path of least resistance. Similarly, it’s easier to install an induction stove where an electric stove was before.

Induction stoves, like electric, require a dedicated 220-volt outlet, connected to a 40-50-amp circuit breaker. If you’re moving on from gas, you may need to install high-capacity wiring, a new outlet, and, potentially, upgrade your electrical panel. Finally, you will want to cap your gas line.

This is likely work for a licensed electrician (and plumber, if a gas cap is needed), and the costs would depend on your existing wiring and panel, the distance from the kitchen to the panel, and other variables in your home.

It’s not too likely, but if you’re choosing between induction and a gas stove for a home that doesn’t yet have a stove: don’t. Natural gas prices are soaring and volatile at the time of publication. Gas stoves produce potent greenhouse gasses like methane, which cause climate change. And probably worst of all, gas stoves produce harmful indoor air pollutants that dramatically increase the risk of respiratory illnesses like asthma.

Adding a gas line to a kitchen now, just for the sake of a gas stove, is not a great investment. If you’re not sold on induction as a cooking technology, you should, at a minimum, buy an electric stove. It’s better for your indoor air quality, for the planet, and if you or someone else wants to switch to induction later, it’s much easier.

Cookware

Image via Marco Verch Professional/Flickr.

Induction cooking requires pots and pans that react to magnetism. The simple test is to see if a magnet is attracted to the bottom; if it sticks, the pan is ready for induction. If not, you’ll need to invest in a few new pans.

Many pots and pans already work with induction, even if they’re not specifically labeled or sold as induction-ready. Cast iron, many kinds of steel (stainless or otherwise), some non-stick pans, and Dutch ovens (which are cast iron coated with glass). Nothing will go wrong if you use the wrong pan; the cooktop will simply give you an error and won’t heat it up.

Cooking techniques

Induction cooking, compared to a gas burner, allows for much faster heat-ups, quicker temperature changes, and safer cooking without flames or burning-hot surfaces. Induction converts 90% of its energy to cooking heat, versus 74% for an electric stove, and 40% for a gas stove.

Because the pan should stay in contact with the burner, you’re better off stirring with a utensil than grabbing the pan and flipping food around (you can still do it, you’ll just see an error and lose the power for a moment).

And the mental timings you might have for your techniques and recipes need adjusting, because your induction cooking will go much faster. You might not have as much time to prepare ingredients while other things are heating, and, at first, you’ll have to watch things more closely, like garlic and onions browning. But having a meal done quicker is certainly a nice perk.

If you choose an induction stove, you’ll get the same kind of oven as electric stoves. Increasingly, that means a stove labeled as offering “air frying.” Air frying is essentially a trendy rebrand of a convection oven, where circulating air provides more even heating and crispy/browned foods than a traditional radiant-heat electric oven. Gas stoves also offer air frying, but, as you might imagine, electric ovens are more consistent and accurate.

Appearance

Induction stoves look remarkably similar to most other stoves. It makes sense: they have the same kinds of oven space as electric or gas, and then the flat-top cooking surface of most modern electric stoves.

One notable change for many induction stoves is that they tend to feature buttons, or touch-sensitive panels, rather than the knobs common to gas stoves. That’s a benefit of the technology—you can set many finer temperatures or power levels on the stovetop than simply nudging a dial where you roughly want it. 

But if you prefer the control and feel of dials, or don’t trust touch panels not to break, you can find induction ovens with knobs.

Maintenance, repair, and care

Most of what you’ll need to do to keep an induction stove running are the same as for a gas or electric stove. The inner stove needs regular cleaning. The flat stovetop needs cleaning whenever possible. And ventilation is important, as for any cooking appliance.

Cleaning up an induction stove is notably easier than a gas stove. The heat is inside the pan, not literally flaming up from underneath, so both your stove and your pans pick up fewer marks and burns.

The most significant difference with induction cooktops is their ceramic-glass surfaces. They can scratch or scuff if certain cookware slides around on top of them. While they don’t get nearly as hot as traditional electric cooktops, food can still get crusted onto induction cooktops, if it gets trapped underneath the cookware. And if you drop a too-heavy pot or pan on the cooktop, it could chip, or even shatter. None of this is likely to happen with common, cautious cooking, but it’s worth noting.

Follow your stove’s instructions for the best cleaning and maintenance tips. These will typically involve wiping down when cool with a non-abrasive sponge, or a glass scraper for tough gunk.

Environmental benefits

As noted in our induction stove buyer’s guide, “natural gas” is great marketing for something that is mostly methane, a gas that is 80 times more potent at warming the earth than carbon dioxide. The methane that leaks from gas stoves every year—just the functioning stove, not any gas lines—has the same emissions potential as 500,000 gasoline-powered cars on the road.

Just as importantly, induction stoves run on electricity. The U.S.’ electrical supply has a lot of coal and natural gas behind it, but it’s quickly adding more renewables. By cutting off gas and electrifying your home, you’re setting yourself up (and the future people who own your home) to help move the nation, and world, away from burning fossil fuels for everyday needs.

Health benefits

There have been many studies showing that gas stoves are a major source of indoor pollution. Gas cooking has been shown to increase the risk of asthma in children by 42%. Almost no home in America has the kind of ventilation needed to clear the nitrogen dioxide emissions caused by gas stoves.

Carbon Switch founder Michael Thomas recently measured the contaminants his gas stove was releasing in his house, and was shocked at the direct impact gas cooking had on his household air. You can read more about it in “How bad is my gas stove? (Part Two).”

Are there any downsides to induction?

We’ve heard from some induction stove owners about annoyances with their stoves. One of them summarized the main problem: there isn’t a big enough induction market yet for stove makers to prioritize better interfaces and potential flaw fixes.

A big complaint from one user was the touch controls present on many induction cooktops. Besides beeping responses to every change, the touch controls are often super-sensitive, such that stray liquids from cooking can activate them, or make them difficult to touch properly.

There’s also a downside to induction’s efficiency. Induction cooktops directly activate heat in the pan above them, but the heat doesn’t spread like it would with a gas flame or resistance coil. That means that if you’re cooking something across a pot or pan that’s wider than the cooktop itself, food at the edges of the pan won’t get as much heat. One reader said this was a more noticeable problem on pancake Sundays.

Some stoves also have safeguards that prevent a pan from getting too hot—generally wise, but annoying if you’re trying to sear something.

Is there any reason to go with a gas stove?

If your gas stove has failed, or you’ve decided you’re done with it, now is the time to switch to induction. Buying another gas stove locks your house into gas supply for however long that appliance lasts (probably not as long as you’d hope, but still a matter of many years).

At a minimum, if the higher cost, electrical work, and/or new cookware costs seem too much, or if induction’s style doesn’t suit you, consider switching to a traditional electric oven. It’s the same kind of roasting oven you’d get with an induction stove, anyways, but a resistive coil range.

The only gas stove worth using is one that’s already installed and still functional. Use it until it stops working, then commit to capping that gas pipe with your next stove.

The post Induction vs. Gas Stoves appeared first on Carbon Switch.

If your electric stove needs replacing, or you’re buying a new model after a renovation, you might be comparing stoves. Electric and induction can seem very similar in appearance and operation, if not always in price. Which should you pick?

Induction stoves offer a tantalizing upgrade over electric: they’re faster, safer, and warm up your home less. They can change the way you cook, and how soon meals are done, for the better. And if you’ve already got the space and wiring for an electric stove, most induction stoves are a simple replacement.

In this article, we’ll explore the differences between state-of-the-art induction stoves and traditional electric cooktops. 

What is induction cooking? How is it different than electric?

Induction cooking does use electricity, but it’s not “electric,” the way most people describe a stove. Here’s how induction differs from traditional electric stoves and cooktops.

An electric stove sends electricity into a resistive coil. In some cases the coil is exposed; in other cases it sits underneath a glass ceramic surface. Resistance creates heat, which radiates out from the coil and into your pan or pot. It’s conduction because heat is conducted indirectly to the pan, and eventually the food inside.

An induction stove powers an electromagnet, creating an oscillating magnetic field that induces currents inside the metals in the pan. The metal heats up, and your food gets cooked. It’s more efficient—90% energy efficiency, versus 74% for electric and 40% for gas. That efficiency also means far less heat is radiated out from your stove and into your living space, which is nice if you’re cooking on a hot summer day.

Induction has a number of benefits over standard electric:

• Faster cooking, especially boiling liquids
• Faster response to temperature changes
• Less waste heat (cooler kitchen)
• Safer cooking, without coils that stay hot long after cooking
• Built-in timers and safety features against leaving a burner on
• Easier clean-up than with burners and grates

Costs

Upfront purchase

Induction stoves cost more upfront than similar electric stoves, at least for now. Full-size induction stoves are a newer product, and most have more advanced capabilities than their electric counterparts (though both can come with additional premium features).

Browsing major appliance vendors, electric stoves cost between $550-$2,000, from the most basic, exposed-coil, knob-operated model to flat-top, air-frying models that clean themselves with steam.

In the same stores, most induction stoves start at $1,200 and run up to $2,000, within mainstream brands and common sizes. Premium models with more features start at $3,000.

You’ll also likely have to have your induction stove delivered, because your nearby appliance store may not have a model you like in stock. Delivery and installation are usually free on such online purchases.

Installation

If you’re switching from electric to induction, you likely won’t need to do much. Induction stoves require a dedicated 220-volt outlet connected to a 40-50-amp breaker, but that’s also what electric stoves should have. Assuming you have the wiring, and ventilation, in place, you’ll be good to go.

If you’re switching from gas, it’s a different job. You’ll need a licensed electrician to install that outlet and run that high-capacity wire back to your outlet. And you’ll want a plumber to cap the gas line and shut off the line.

Cookware

Image via Marco Verch Professional/Flickr.

Induction cooking works through magnetism. If a magnet doesn’t stick to a pot or pan, it’s not likely to work with an induction cooktop. So you might need to invest in some new cookware for an induction stove—take this as a plus or minus, depending on how you feel about your pans.

Many pans these days are labeled as induction-ready. Others may not be, but inherently work well: cast iron, some kinds of steel, Dutch ovens (which are cast iron enameled with glass), and some higher-end non-stick pans. 

Having the wrong kind of pan won’t hurt anything; the induction cooktop will show an error code and simply not power up.

Cooking techniques

Induction cooking is a bit faster than electric cooking, and your cooktop will react faster when you adjust levels. That’s not a bad thing, in most cases. But if you’re used to a certain rhythm, an amount of delay, you’ll want to watch your food more closely when you first start out with induction.

Because induction requires direct contact with the pan, you’ll be better off stirring food in the pan rather than pulling it off the burner to toss food around. You can still flip if you want; your stove will just complain about a lack of contact, and you’ll have a minute or so to return the pan and keep cooking before it turns off. Most induction users get used to this quickly, but it’s certainly an adjustment.

Appearance

Induction stoves look almost exactly like a flat-top electric stove. Their elements (or “burners”) are hidden underneath a smooth, ceramic-glass top. And their ovens are typically the same kind of electric–powered space, whether they offer convection, air-frying, or other versions of it.

Unlike more affordable electric stoves, the relatively lower-cost induction stoves tend to feature buttons and screens rather than dials. It’s helpful when setting the more precise temperatures induction can achieve: 300 Fahrenheit instead of “medium.” But many appliance manufacturers make induction stoves with knobs if that’s your preference.

Maintenance, repair, and care

Caring for an induction stove is the same as caring for a flat-top electric stove, if maybe a bit easier. Because the heat comes from inside the cookware, rather than radiated from underneath, food that gets onto the cooktop is less burned into it, making it somewhat easier to wipe away after cooking. And, because the cooktop doesn’t stay hot as long after cooking, you can get to that gunk faster. For the toughest stains, however, you’ll want a glass scraper.

As with electric flat-top stoves, you want to avoid moving heavy pots and pans around on the surface of your induction stove, so you don’t scratch the surface. This will be reinforced by the stove, somewhat, because lifting a pan off the cooktop will cause an error code and cut off that section’s power. It’s especially important with cast iron, which works well with induction, but has a rougher surface.

Most importantly, don’t drop heavy pots or pans directly onto the cooktop, or else you could chip or even shatter the cooktop.

Beyond that, you should follow the stove’s maintenance and cleaning procedures.

Environmental benefits

Both induction and electric stoves rely on electricity, so they’re inherently better than a gas stove. By going (or staying) electric, you’re reducing the demand for “natural gas,” which is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the earth at 80 times the rate of carbon dioxide.

As noted earlier, induction is more energy efficient than electric (and they’re both far more efficient than gas), but you’re not likely to see a big swing in your electric bill. What you are seeing is a home that’s ready for a future with far less carbon. Electrifying your home, with as many efficient devices as possible, helps move us all closer to a world without fossil fuels.

Is there any reason to go with an electric stove?

The main drawback of induction is the higher upfront cost. For most homeowners deciding between an induction versus electric stove, it’s really a question of how much you’re willing to pay for a better cooking experience. 

Many professional chef’s love induction stoves. But the reality is that many people either don’t cook that much, or don’t really care about the performance of their stove. 

So if money’s tight, and the idea of a more responsive cooktop doesn’t speak to you, we recommend going with a traditional electric stove.

The post Induction vs. Electric Stoves appeared first on Carbon Switch.

Induction is the most efficient cooking method, both for a speedy dinner and a carbon-free future. A portable induction cooktop can add cooking space to a small kitchen, let you try out induction on a small scale, and cook anywhere there’s a standard outlet. 

If you want fast, precise, and safe heat on any surface, the Duxtop 9600LS is the best portable cooktop for induction cooking. After using it for as much cooking as possible for two weeks, reading through hundreds of reviews, and considering ratings by esteemed publications, it’s our pick for the best portable induction solution, whatever your current setup is.

Why we like the Duxtop 9600LS

The Duxtop 9600LS is a powerful, versatile cooktop that hits the right price point for anyone just trying out induction, avoiding a bad stovetop, or taking their cooking on the go.

Duxtop has been making portable induction cooktops for some time. I purchased a Duxtop portable induction cooktop seven years ago, with fewer features and a slightly larger body size, but the same wattage and 8-inch induction surface. It’s been my go-to for faster pasta water, when the stove is too crowded, or if I want to cook something low and slow for hours, like stock or pasta sauce, without quite so many safety concerns.

The 9600LS wraps all the benefits of induction cooking up into a relatively nice-looking slab, with 20 different heat settings, an easy-to-read screen, and a shape and weight that’s easier to tuck into storage than you might expect. It warns you when its surface is hot, and it has both automatic and manual timers to ensure both safety and proper cooking. It reminds me of a little classic iPod-—one that could cook a whole chicken, if left long enough.

There are other induction cooktops that are cheaper, larger, smaller, or offer complicated timing and heating features. But the 9600LS adjusts rapidly, offers a wide range of temperatures, comes from a known brand, and looks as nice as an 8-inch electromagnet with a flat top can look. 

What it’s like cooking with the Duxtop 9600LS

How the Duxtop 9600LS will work for you depends on what you want from it. If you just want to boil water as fast as possible, it’s great at that job—there’s even a dedicated 10-minute button for it.

I timed how long it took for 3 quarts of unsalted water to reach a steady, pasta-friendly boil in a large, induction-friendly pot on both the 8-inch 9600LS induction top and the 8-inch burner on my electric stove. It took 15 minutes and 18 seconds on the 9600LS, and 18 minutes 39 seconds on electric. That’s longer than the 10-minute timer, but your timing will vary with different pots and water amounts.

The time savings over gas are greater. I don’t have a gas stove to test on now, but in my former home, my induction cooktop was always preferred over the stove. With induction, too, it’s far safer to walk away from boiling water, especially if you set a timer, versus gas or even flat-top electric. And, not for nothing, you’re not polluting your home’s air with harmful agents.

Frigidaire and other induction stove makers cite more drastic sped-ups, like 1 minute 30 seconds to boil in a small pan versus 5-7 minutes on gas or electric. Induction stove makers want induction to seem fast, but it’s true that cookware can make a big difference.

It’s not all about fast cooking with induction. You can set a specific temperature, from 100-460 Fahrenheit (38-238 Celsius), for slow simmers, for frying oil consistency, or to adjust from the last time you cooked this recipe. There are 20 heat settings; that’s quite a lot, compared to the five typical settings most people use on their stove knobs: low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, high.

The cooktop’s manual notes that the temperature sensor is underneath the glass, and that different cookware, with different thicknesses and metal mixes, will yield different temperatures. So the temperatures are “estimates,” but “accurate enough for daily cooking requirements.”

Fast boiling is mostly what I used my older Duxtop model for, but I wanted to try and cook everything on the 9600LS for two weeks. I already had a 12-inch non-stick pan, a 12-inch cast iron skillet, an enameled ceramic/iron Dutch oven, a large stock pot, and an 8-inch steel pan, all of which worked with induction. I planned for as many one-pan meals as possible, or switched out pans if I cooked in stages.

One thing I learned quickly is that, while a portable cooktop can be used almost anywhere, you should mostly use it near proper ventilation. While it sizzled and browned onions and peppers in a cast iron pan much faster than my electric stove, the stove has the advantage of a vent fan above it. If you can easily fit your induction pan on top of your stove’s cooktop, this is less of an issue, but at that point you should be considering a full induction stove.

If you lift a pan from the surface of the 9600LS, it will warn you that it’s lost its magnetic connection with an “E0” error (the same as if you put a non-induction-ready pan on it). But you’ve got a whole minute to put the pan back on. So while induction cooking encourages you to stir inside the pan rather than lift and toss, both are possible.

I learned that, as an actual stove replacement, a portable cooktop is less than ideal. But as validation for induction cooking, and a sidekick eager to simmer, boil, or occasionally fry, the 9600LS is more than worth the storage space.

What is a portable induction cooktop, exactly?

A portable induction cooktop takes the benefits of an induction stove or cooktop and reduces it to one or two cooking surfaces (or “burners,” despite their non-flammable nature) that you can pick up, move around, and plug in.

Shopping for a portable induction cooktop can be tricky, because the word “cooktop” more typically means a full set of multiple burners, the kind you would permanently mount on a kitchen counter, with or without a stove underneath. Cooktop is just a slightly more logical word for this kind of device than “burner,” since induction doesn’t burn anything.

How does an induction cooktop work?

A portable induction cooktop works the same as a full induction stove or cooktop. A powered electromagnetic creates an electromagnetic field inside the induction cooktop. The field passes through the ceramic top, but when it hits your metal pans, it creates swirling electrical currents that, in turn, heat up resistive metal when it tries to pass through.

Image credit: Nicole Kelner

Modern induction cooktops can monitor the temperature of the metal pan sitting on top of it, then adjust their current draw to heat, cool, or steady the pan’s temperature. You control most induction cooktops with buttons and small screens, rather than dials or knobs.

If you’re wondering what it looks like inside a device that electro-magnetically heats up pans, Mark Furneaux took apart an older Duxtop model and explored its innards.

Why is induction better than gas or electric cooking?

The most basic way that induction beats gas or electric cooking is that there’s one less element of heat transfer.

Gas and electric stoves—which are conductive—heat up your cookware by setting gas on fire, or heating up a resistive coil with electricity, which conducts energy into your pan. Whenever energy changes form, some of it is lost, and heat energy is especially prone to inefficient waste. Induction, well, induces your pan to heat up, creating a more direct interaction between the heat you want and the food you’re cooking.

There are lots of benefits to this direct, electronic cooking, including:

• Faster boiling liquids, oil heating, and other hot jobs
• Quicker response to temperature changes
• Cooler kitchens due to far less waste heat
• Portability
• Safer cooking, without exposed flames or red-hot coils
• Timers and safety controls alleviate “Did I leave the burner on?” anxiety
• Less indoor air pollution in your home
• Easier to clean than flat-top electric cooktops

Perhaps most beneficial for everybody is that induction cooking doesn’t require fossil fuels to run, like gas, and is far more energy efficient than a traditional electric cooktop. Induction cooking is one piece of the puzzle we need to solve in order to create electric, efficient, carbon-free homes.

What are the drawbacks of induction cooking?

One of the main drawbacks of induction cooking is the flip side to its major benefit. If your foods, liquids, and oils heat a lot faster than they used to, you have to learn new mental timings for your recipes, and, at least at first, watch them and react more quickly.

A drawback beyond the cooking realm is that people with pacemakers need to read up on some rare but present risks. A 2006 study found that a unipolar, left-side pacemaker, kept within 35 cm of a cooktop that had a pan far off-center, could receive interference. Most people don’t cook with their chests hovering less than a foot from a misaligned cooktop, but caution for pacemaker implants is still advisable.

Induction cooktops are generally more expensive than their comparable gas or traditional electric counterparts. Scanning a few larger appliance stores, induction stoves were typically $400-$800 more than similar gas stoves with like features.

Finally, the most significant short-term challenge to induction cooking, portable or otherwise, is having the right kind of pans. In order to cook on induction cooktops and stoves, you’ll need ferro-magnetic pans. 

What kind of pans do I need for induction cooking?

Induction cooking only works with pans that have ferrous metal inside. If a magnet sticks to it, induction will work with it. Some or even most of your pans may already be ready for the switch to induction: cast iron, Dutch ovens (Lodge and Le Creuset), and stainless steel (i.e. All-Clad)

If you’re just trying out induction with a single portable cooktop, you can start small. Look for an induction-ready pan, maybe a non-stick to keep it simple and affordable. Grab a pasta-sized pot, too, so you can experience the joy of 10-minute boiling water.
If your portable cooktop has converted you to the joy of induced heat, Serious Eats recommends good induction-ready cookware (that still work with your now antiquated-seeming gas or electric stove).

The post The Best Portable Induction Cooktop appeared first on Carbon Switch.

In the past, it was common knowledge amongst chefs that cooking with gas was better than electricity. Traditional electric stoves were slow to heat up, hard to control, and difficult to clean. 

But that was the past. 

Today the best way to cook is using an induction cooktop or stove (also commonly referred to as an induction range). Not only are induction stoves more environmentally friendly and energy efficient than gas stoves, but cooking with induction is just a better experience. 

Just ask chef Jon Kung, who recently made a video touting the benefits of induction over gas cooking. Or ask Rachelle Boucher, a professional chef who made the switch to an induction stove.

In this guide we’ll look at the benefits of induction cooking vs. traditional electric and induction vs. gas cooking. 

What is an induction cooktop?

An induction cooktop is a cooking appliance that uses electromagnetism to heat pots and pans as opposed to traditional electric resistance or gas. The result is a more energy efficient and healthier way of cooking. 

Visually, it’s easy to mistake an induction stove for a smooth-topped electric model. Yet induction cooktops use an electromagnetic field, rather than a hot flame or coil, to heat your cookware directly, boiling water 25-50% faster than either electric or gas stoves and responding rapidly to temperature changes. 

Induction stoves are fully electric, so when paired with a renewable power source, they allow you to cook emissions-free. Induction is available at a variety of price points on full ranges, standalone cooktops, or simple single-element hot plates.

How does an induction cooktop work?

Image credit: Nicole Kelner

Gas or traditional electric stoves cook through conduction, using an open flame or a heated resistance coil as an intermediary that transfers warmth to your pan. Induction is faster, more precise and more efficient because it tosses out the fiery middleman, using electromagnetism to heat the cookware itself. 

Beneath each zone of a smooth ceramic-glass induction cooktop lies a coiled copper wire. When you turn on a burner, an alternating electric current darts back and forth through the coil, oscillating dozens of times a second to create a magnetic field. If that field hits a material that resists its flow – say, the base of your favorite cast-iron skillet – it induces swirling electric flows called eddy currents, which generate heat in the resistant metal. 

If you lift the pan, breaking the molecular connection, heat will no longer be created. Each burner on an induction stove has a sensor that recognizes the metal’s temperature and adjusts accordingly.

That’s why induction cooktops only work with pots and pans made of ferromagnetic materials, like iron and steel. Such items can be identified by tossing magnets at your current cookware collection – if it sticks to the bottom, that’ll work on induction. 

Dipping into the physics makes it easy to see why induction cooktops perform so well. Metal molecules heat and cool rapidly, allowing for quick temperature changes since warmth is generated only within the pot or pan itself. 

Because it operates without an intermediary, cooking with induction is more efficient than with a traditional electric cooktop or natural gas and doesn’t emit the type of fugitive radiant heat that steams up the kitchen on a hot day.

To learn more about how induction cooktops and ranges work, check out this video by Adam Ragusea.

Benefits of induction cooking

Environmental benefits

In recent years it’s become clear that cooking with natural gas is harmful to the environment. But it’s not just the carbon dioxide emissions that climate scientists are worried about. 

The “natural gas” that seeps out of your burners is primarily composed of methane – a gas that uncombusted has a global warming potential more than eighty times greater than that of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it is released. 

According to the most recent report from an international group of the world’s leading climate scientists, reducing global methane emissions in the very near term is a critical step to avoiding the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. 

Previously it was thought that gas stoves burned most of the methane in the fuel. But a recent study from Stanford discovered that’s not the case. Researchers learned that the methane that leaks from gas stoves every year is comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars.

That’s not the only place gas is leaking though. Studies of oil and gas extraction and distribution infrastructure show rampant methane leaks from wellhead to pipeline to municipal connection. 

A 2021 study found that in Boston, local methane emissions are three times higher than would be expected based on usage-based inventories due to leaks and belches in pipelines, transmission, and even appliances themselves.

One of the best ways we can all prevent these methane emissions is to get rid of the natural gas in our homes. That means ditching gas stoves for electric cooktops and induction ranges. 

When paired with a renewable energy source, induction cooking is an emissions-free way to cook. That’s important even if you don’t have solar panels on your house, because renewables are rapidly increasing as a share of U.S. energy generation, a strong trend that is expected to continue. The average lifespan of an induction range is 15 to 17 years, so as the grid cleans up, so will the climate impact of your stove, whereas emissions from a gas cooktop are locked in. 

Health benefits

A natural gas range not only harms the environment, it compromises your family’s health. 

When turn on a gas burner you are combusting a fossil fuel in an enclosed space, releasing carbon monoxide, which will kills in short order at high enough concentrations, formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and nitrogen dioxide, which increases the risk of respiratory illness and has been linked to cardiovascular effects, poor birth outcomes, diabetes, and cancer.

Gas stoves create unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide

A screenshot from a recent Carbon Switch gas stove experiment.

Nitrogen dioxide is particularly harmful to children, due to their higher breathing rates and immature lungs. Growing up in a home with a gas stove increases a child’s risk of developing asthma by as much as 42%. And while a range hood can help eliminate particulate pollution associated with any type of cooking, at least one study found that hoods have minimal impacts on nitrogen dioxide levels.

Recently, Carbon Switch founder Michael Thomas deployed air quality monitors in his own home to see how bad it really is. The top-line takeaway? It’s long past time to look at alternatives to your gas range. 

Safety

Swapping to an induction stove not only protects your family from gaseous pollutants, it reduces the risk of burns and kitchen fires. Because induction heats the pan directly, it’s much more difficult for a child, pet, or distracted chef to be burned by a flame or heated coil. While some heat will transfer back into the cooking surface, the glass-ceramic cooktop is a poor conductor of heat, and will not reach high temperatures. 

You can also worry less about what’s near your range – it’s possible to boil water on an induction cooktop with a piece of paper between the pot and the cooking surface and not start a fire, and most induction stoves have safety sensors that turn off a burner altogether when a pan is removed or boils dry.

Better cooking experience, easier to clean

Beyond concerns of energy efficiency, health, or safety, induction stoves offer a superior cooking and cleaning experience. 

Induction stoves will boil water more quickly than gas or electric, and can be precisely controlled with touch-screen panels or traditional knobs. Because the surface of the cooktop doesn’t heat, if your stew boils over, it won’t burn on to your stove, making it easy to clean.

Things to consider before switching to induction

Compatible cookware

Induction only works on ferromagnetic metals, so while your stainless steel and cast iron cookware will make a smooth transition, your copper tea kettle will not. 

For pots and pans of unknown composition use the magnet test – if one sticks strongly to the bottom of a pot or pan, it’s induction approved. Glass, copper and aluminum pots and pans will not work unless they have an additional metal plate in the bottom. 

Electrical requirements

An induction stove requires a dedicated 220-volt outlet protected by 40-50 amp breakers. If you are already using an electric stove, your current wiring is likely sufficient. If you are transitioning from gas, however, you may need to install high-capacity wiring, as most gas stoves require only a 120-volt circuit. You might also need to upgrade your electric panel with a two-pole circuit. 

In all, this is typically a several-hour job for a licensed electrician, but the total time and ultimate cost of the project will depend on the distance from your circuit breaker to your new cooktop. 

In a gas-to-electric conversion, you will also need to work with a plumber to properly cap your gas line and close its valve.

The question of knobs

Many induction ranges and cooktops feature a sleek touchscreen control panel in the place of the traditional knobs. However, many manufacturers are beginning to roll out induction stoves with knobs for customers that want a tactile adjustment experience or a more traditional look in their kitchen. This option is most often seen on the mid- to high-range models. 

If you have a tough time imagining yourself using digital buttons or a smartphone to control your stir fry, it may be worth getting a model with knobs. 

Induction cooktop vs. electric

Both induction and electric cooktops protect your family and the climate by eliminating methane emissions and most indoor air pollution. Induction ranges are more expensive to purchase initially, but their superior energy efficiency makes them cheaper to operate once installed. 

Induction stoves offer faster cooking and more precise control, eliminate the risks of burns or fires, and make for quicker cleanup. A traditional electric cooktop, however, will allow you to continue to use your current pots and pan, whereas an induction stove may require you to retire or replace some pieces. 

Reasons to buy an induction cooktop 

• Rapid and responsive cooking performance
• Reduced risk of burns and cooking fires
• More energy-efficient
• Easier to clean 

Reasons to buy an electric cooktop 

• Less expensive upfront cost
• Works with all pots and pans 

Induction vs. gas cooking

If you care about the environment and your family’s health, induction and traditional electric cooktops and ranges are better than gas. 

The rise in popularity of gas stoves was actually fueled by a PR push from the natural gas industry itself. What gas companies don’t want you to know is that the beloved responsiveness of a gas burner can now be matched or beaten by today’s induction cooktops. 

Induction cooktops are also free of the radiant heat that creates a sweaty kitchen, which means you will stay cooler on hot summer days in the kitchen. 

As mentioned earlier, induction cooking is also safer than gas cooking since there’s no open flame or indoor gas combustion. That means less risk of burns or grease fires. It also means less indoor air pollution and risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Induction cooktops are also easier to clean since the plate doesn’t get very hot and grease doesn’t bake on to your stove as is the case with gas cooking. 

But if you like to char vegetables or warm tortillas over the open flame on your gas range, that won’t be possible on an induction burner. You can achieve similar results with a hot griddle pan or a broiler, or purchase a portable butane burner that you can use for specific tasks.

Reasons to buy a gas cooktop

• Familiar cooking experience
• Ability to char food on a flame
• Usable during a power outage
• Works with all pots and pans.

Reasons to buy an induction cooktop 

• Less risk of fire or carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Reduces harmful pollutants like nitrogen dioxide in your home
• Eliminates greenhouse gas emissions (if paired with renewable electricity)
• Rapid and precise cooking experience
• Easier to clean

How much does induction cost?

Recently we published an entire guide on induction stove costs and prices. Here’s the quick summary.

The majority of top-rated induction ranges slide in between $2,000 and $4,000. That said, well-reviewed budget models can be had for closer to $1,000 if you hit a sale on the right day. A standalone induction cooktop runs between $1,000 and $3,000.

If you’re switching from gas to induction cooking you may also need to pay an electrician to upgrade your electrical circuits, outlet, and panel. And you will probably need to pay a plumber to cap your gas line. The extent and cost of this work varies widely. For some it will cost a few hundred dollars and for others it may cost a few thousand. 

Want to try induction, but want a low-commitment experience first? A good portable induction cooktop can be had for $75-$150. Once you’re hooked and get your cooktop or range ordered, you can pass the portable version—and your recommendation—on to a friend.

Read more stories about electrification and home energy-efficiency

If you want to learn more about the problems with gas cooking, check out these recent Carbon Switch stories: 

• How bad is my gas stove? (Part One)
• How bad is my gas stove? (Part Two)
• Induction vs. Gas Stoves

Or if you want to read about other ways to cut your carbon footprint and save energy check out these recent guides: 

• Heat Pump Water Heater Buyer’s Guide
• LED Lighting Buyer’s Guide
• Everything You Need to Know Before Buying a Heat Pump

And stay tuned for our next story featuring reviews of the best induction cooktops and ranges. If you want us to let you know when that story goes live, sign up for the Carbon Switch newsletter. 

The post Induction Cooktop and Stove Buyer’s Guide appeared first on Carbon Switch.

But then I learned about the latest health research that suggests gas stoves increase the risk of respiratory illnesses like asthma. And so I decided to go into the rabbit hole of research on the link between indoor air pollution and human health. And boy did I go into the rabbit hole. 

Over the last two months I’ve spent dozens of hours reading through academic papers and studies dating back to the 1970s. I read both the EPA and WHO’s reports and recommendations on indoor air quality. Then I read the papers they referenced and in the case of meta-analyses, I read the papers those papers referenced. 

I also installed air quality monitors all over our house and ran tests to see the impact of using our gas stove. And then I got advice on interpreting the results from an environmental epidemiologist. 

In this installment of the series on gas stoves, I want to share what I learned. 

A brief history of indoor pollution research

Research on air pollution and human health began in earnest in the middle of the 20th century. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that researchers began to turn their attention indoors. Many of these researchers hypothesized that just as power plants and gas-combustion cars produce harmful levels of pollution outside, activities like smoking cigarettes and using gas appliances produce harmful levels of pollution inside. 

Early studies on the link between gas cooking and human health came with mixed results though. In 1973 researchers in England and Scotland surveyed the parents of 5,658 children and found a positive correlation between gas cooking and asthma symptoms. Later that decade, the same researchers surveyed 390 infants born between 1975 and 1978. This time they found no correlation between respiratory illness rates and cooking fuel. 

Due in part to the growing awareness of the link between smoking cigarettes and cancer, dozens of researchers ran studies on NO2 exposure and respiratory illness in the 1970s and 80s. In 1992 the EPA analyzed results from dozens of these studies in the first meta-analysis on the topic. They concluded that for every 30 μg/m3 increase in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – comparable to the increase resulting from exposure to a gas stove — the odds of respiratory illness in children go up by 20%. 

Over the next two decades many studies confirmed the same finding. The link between gas stoves (and poorly vented gas furnaces and water heaters) became abundantly clear. In 2005 the World Health Organization recommended limiting both outdoor and indoor sources of NO2 to an annual average of 40 μg/m3. 

Every year more damning evidence piled up. In 2013 another meta-analysis confirmed the results of the 1993 meta-analysis. But this time, researchers were more specific and pointed to gas stoves in particular as the likely cause of respiratory illness. They concluded, “Children living in a home with gas cooking have a 42% increased risk of having current asthma.” 

This past September the WHO updated their guidelines to a maximum annual average of 10 μg/m3. While it’s possible to build a home with a gas stove that meets these guidelines, virtually no home in America, new or old, actually does. 

Yet, despite all this evidence, the EPA hasn’t issued their own guidelines on indoor air pollution. More than 10 million homes have been built since the WHO published their first indoor air pollution guidelines. Roughly a third of those homes have a gas stove in them. Each time the people living in those buildings click on the burner, they’re slowly damaging their lungs. But most of them have no idea. 

A little at-home science experiment

In November I installed air quality monitors throughout our house and began running my own experiments on indoor air pollution. Every night, as we turned on the gas stove or heated up the oven to cook dinner, NO2 levels in both our kitchen and bedroom spiked. 

(One quick note: Sometimes you’ll see NO2 measured in micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter or µg/m3. Other times you’ll see it in parts per billion or ppb like the graph above. The conversion is [ug/m3]/1.88 = 1 ppb. Very annoying, I know). 

There was one day of the week that NO2 levels didn’t spike, however. Every Tuesday we get takeout and, unsurprisingly, on those nights, NO2 levels were much lower. 

The holidays offered another opportunity for testing. On Christmas Eve, we went to the mountains to visit my family for a night. When I looked at the air quality monitor data for that day, I saw that our NO2 levels were lower than any other day in the month. 

At first I figured it was because we weren’t cooking anything. But then I realized that if that were true, NO2 levels would have plummeted like that every Tuesday when we didn’t use our gas stove. 

When I spent more time looking at the data, I noticed something strange. In almost every 24 hour period, our NO2 levels were the highest between about 2am and 7am. Unless my wife was sneaking out of bed for midnight snacks, something was amiss. 

I looked at the energy usage data from our Nest thermostat and discovered that those levels corresponded almost exactly with the times that our gas furnace was on. I reached out to a friend who used to work as an energy auditor and he told me that any number of things could be causing this. Our furnace could be venting improperly. Or maybe it was our water heater. Or a change in air pressure caused by the furnace could be causing the water heater to vent improperly. 

That same week I had an energy auditor come out to our house through our utility’s rebate program. When I asked them about the NO2 levels, they said they didn’t have the equipment to measure it. They only focused on the stuff that kills you quickly like carbon monoxide, not the stuff that wreaks havoc on the human body slowly over the course of years. 

Shortly after the audit I sent some of the data from my tests to Josiah Kephart, an environmental epidemiologist who studies this stuff for a living. In an email he wrote, “I would say you’ve got a pretty big NO2 problem. Your daily averages are mostly hovering around 25ppb, which is double the [WHO] daily guideline.” Then he wrote something that really stuck with me: “What happens ALL the time is someone actually tests indoor NO2 from gas appliances, and industry or other folks say ‘Well your ventilation must be messed up’ or in your case ‘Oh you must have spillage from the furnace.’ There are constantly folks who treat this with a hint of blaming the individual homeowner dismissing this as the exception (without evidence).”

But he pointed out that there’s a problem with this logic: “I don’t care about how the cooking/heating/etc system is supposed to work, I care how it really is working in real life. And what we see when we actually test these things in real life (vs. in the lab/factory) are high levels of indoor NO2 everywhere we look.”

In other words, it may be possible to build a home with perfectly vented gas appliances, and there may be a “safe” level of NO2, but in the real world — in the homes that we all actually live — this is probably the rare exception. The more likely norm is unused range hoods, furnace flues that spill chemicals into the air we breathe, and ultimately higher rates of illness. 

I began this research as a skeptic. Why? For the same reasons you may be skeptical right now. Accepting that a gas stove or any other fossil-fuel appliance makes a home less healthy isn’t simply an abstract intellectual exercise. It has practical consequences like forking up the time and money to replace the thing — an option that, like so many other health improvements, isn’t available to all. 

But as I’ve learned more about this topic, my skepticism has faded. Every rigorous review of the research points to the same conclusion: Most homes have unsafe levels of nitrogen dioxide and that results in higher rates of respiratory illness (especially amongst children). Or to borrow a quote from John Maynard Keynes, “When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do?”

— 

In Part 3, which I hope to publish later this year, I plan to write about what comes next. Are we going to ditch our gas stove and replace it with an induction stove? If so, how do we do it? How much does it cost? Or are we going to leave the gas stove in and find another work around? 

We just recently moved into our home, so these are still very open questions. But I hope sharing our thought process can be helpful to some of you. 

In the meantime, I hope sharing some of the latest research on indoor air quality is helpful. 

Want to get an email when Part 3 comes out? Sign up for the Carbon Switch newsletter here.

The post How bad is my gas stove? (Part Two) appeared first on Carbon Switch.

In the last year there have been dozens of high profile media stories about the negative health effects of natural gas cooking.

The Atlantic published a story titled, “Kill Your Gas Stove.” David Roberts wrote this lovely and totally nerdy summary of a study published by RMI, Mothers Out Front, and Sierra Club. And more recently NPR ran a story that got a lot of attention.

The gist of every story is this: Gas stoves produce pollutants like PM2.5, NO2, and CO. And while the EPA regulates these emissions outdoors, they don’t regulate them indoors. A growing body of research suggests that this indoor air pollution leads to higher rates of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses.

Last summer when I first read some of the stories and research studies on this topic, I have to admit that I was skeptical.

As a climate hawk, the first lens I looked at the research through was carbon emissions (and methane as a CO2 equivalent). And from that angle, gas cooking isn’t a big deal.

35% of households use natural gas to cook. In those homes it only accounts for 3% of natural gas use. That means gas cooking is responsible for ~6 million tons of carbon emissions per year. That’s 0.12% of our country’s total and only 0.6% of total home energy emissions.

In other words I thought there were bigger fish to fry (no pun intended).

I also worried that in going after an appliance that is popular, the climate community would risk backlash. And that backlash might prevent progress on getting rid of appliances that people don’t really have many opinions about, like furnaces and water heaters, which use 33 times more gas than stoves.

This summer that skepticism began to fade.

It’s not about the carbon emissions

In early August, wildfires ripped through the Western United States. As a result the front range of Colorado — where I live — recorded the worst air quality of any city in the world. Worse than Delhi, Beijing, and Katmandu.

As the air quality worsened I began to feel miserable, as if I caught a bad cold. My head hurt, my throat hurt, my entire body hurt. After a few days I went to get a COVID test. It came back negative.

Fortunately my wife and I had a trip planned to Maine. On our first day in the cleaner air I woke up feeling perfectly fine. It was clear the smoke made me sick.

Over the next few weeks, I went down a series of research rabbit holes, reading every paper I could find on the impact of air quality on human health (as one does).

One study shocked me. Using millions of Medicare records, a group of researchers found that people living in places with bad air quality (zip codes with annual average PM2.5 levels of 12  μg/m3) basically lost a year of life expectancy compared to those living in places with better air quality (annual average PM2.5 levels of 7.5 μg/m3).

One night as I read these studies in my dining room, I made the connection. I looked over at our natural gas stove and it dawned on me: this thing is slowly killing me.

How to understand risk

Still I had reasons to be skeptical.

Most studies on the association between life expectancy and air quality focused on outdoor air pollution. They focused on the impact of increased annual average exposures. But if I live in a city with good air quality and expose myself to bad air quality for 30-60 minutes 3-5 times per week when I cook, how does that affect the annual average?

The studies that did measure indoor air quality made claims like this: “Homes with gas stoves have a 42 percent increased risk of experiencing asthma symptoms (current asthma), a 24 percent increased risk of ever being diagnosed with asthma by a doctor (lifetime asthma), and an overall 32 percent increased risk of both current and lifetime asthma.”

At first that sounds terrifying. It’s easy to misread it as “People living in homes with gas stoves have a 24% chance of being diagnosed with asthma.” Statistics are frustratedly easy to misunderstand like that.

But, in fact, homes with gas stoves result in a 24% increase in the relative risk. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a clue what the absolute risk of getting asthma is off the top of my head. That makes assessing the absolute risk (the thing we should really care about) difficult.

Let’s say the odds of being diagnosed with asthma are 1 in 10. If you live in a home with a gas stove, now your odds are 1.24 in 10. That’s 2.4 percentage points of increased absolute risk. To me that feels like a lot.

But now let’s say the odds of being diagnosed with asthma are 1 in a 1,000. Living with a gas stove increases your odds to 1.24 in 1,000. That’s 0.024 percentage points of increased absolute risk. That doesn’t stress me out as much.

Unfortunately none of the stories I read came with that important detail.

But even if I was convinced that my gas stove had to go, there was another problem, a logistical one: How do I replace it?

As with any other decision in the Anthropocene, this one would come with many options. Do I go with induction or electric resistance? A high end model or the cheapest one? Where do I even buy a stove?

Into the rabbit hole I go

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not obsess over these types of questions. To just read the article, call the appliance company, and install an induction range. Or to just shrug my shoulders and fire up the gas stove.

But this is not how my brain works.

And so I write to you, dear email subscriber, from deep within this rabbit hole. My home is full of air quality monitors. Our kitchen has become a lab. And my inbox is full of messages from environmental epidemiologists, a profession I didn’t even know existed before this project began.

In the next installment of this series I plan to share the results from my at-home air quality experiments.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. What would you like to know about gas cooking and air quality? If you’ve read the stories I referenced above, what’s stopping you from ditching your gas stove?

Update: You can read Part Two here.

The post How bad is my gas stove? (Part One) appeared first on Carbon Switch.