Gas stoves fill the air in your home with particulate matter (pm), which has been found to increase cancer risk in the long term.
So next time you buy a stove, consider choosing an induction stove.
Btw, gas stoves being better or faster than induction is a myth. They have certain specific advantages, but they are actually slower.
Obligatory Technology Connections video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUywI8YGy0Y
This entirely depends on the stove. Consumer-lever stoves? Sure, definitely. Commercial stoves? Probably not. Commercial stoves put out 3-4x the BTUs of a high-end consumer stove, and usually can’t be installed in a home because they require significant shielding around them (so you don’t burn a building down) and a very high flow hood. The highest-end Wolf range has a single burner that has a maximum output of 10,000BTU, and costs a whopping $17,000; a fairly basic range top for a commercial kitchen has six burners that can all output 32,000BTU, and costs about $3700. For stir-frying specifically, you can get a single ring wok burners outputting 92,000-125,000BTU starting at about $700 for natural gas (and a helluva lot more if you use LP).
Unfortunately, I can’t find a solid conversion between gas and induction stove capabilities.
Oh, and FWIW - if you live somewhere with an unstable power grid, a natural gas or LP stove will continue to function when the power is out, albeit you’ll need to light it manually. We lose power fairly regularly due to storms–usually only a day at a time, but sometimes as long as 3-4 days–and it would be a real hassle to have all electric appliances when there’s no power.
1 kW is 3412 BTU/h (=BTUs)
Most induction stovetops have a boost function with around 3-4 kW (that’s about 13000 BTUs).
BUT contrary to a gas stove top, almost all of the energy is actually put into the pot instead of the surroundings (only 30-40% of the energy from a gas stove is used to heat the pot). Meaning that a 4 kW induction cooktop should be comparable to a 40’000 BTUs gas stove (single burner).
Okay, good deal. So, in theory, an induction stove that’s 3500W should be approaching the heating ability of a typical commercial range.
Yes, and you can test it pretty easily by just seeing how much faster a pot of water boils on induction, on-par with the boiling times of commercial burners.
Also, in a commercial setting, induction stoves cook just as effectively with less energy which means they don’t put out nearly as much heat to the environment. For a chef, its the difference between working all day in 90-degree spaces to 70-degree AC. I’m an engineer who works on a lot of commercial kitchens (among other things), and our chefs love the electric kitchens we’ve delivered.
When you’re cooking for work, 8+ hours a day, being comfortable while you do it is a major game changer.
The other thing they enjoy is the level of control and consistency - many professional induction ranges will let you control on temperature, which means you can quickly adjust to specific values in order to, say, sear a steak at 500, then finish it at 300 until it hits the desired internal temperature.
So this is 4000 watts? What household circuit can support that?
A random Better Homes and Gardens article clocks a 2000 square ft (185 square meters) home with central air conditioning at nearly 19,000 watts.
https://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/electrical/how-to-check-your-homes-electrical-capacity/
So I think most homes could handle that in general, but I don’t know about specific wiring requirements to handle that kind of power draw from just the kitchen. So do these things require that level of retrofit?
I’ve never had an induction stove, but I grew up with an electric stove - IIRC, it was on a separate fuse from the rest of the kitchen, and it had a weird plug because it needed a different voltage than most other appliances.
I would assume the requirements for an induction stove are more or less the same… Switching from regular electric to induction would probably be easy, but gas to induction would take a lot more work.
Uhhh, tons of people in Europe are on 240V 3 phase power.
My oven is 3100W and that is just fine. 3 phase consumer induction cooktops can easily go that high or higher.
Once my 3 phase charging pole is put in, my car will charge at >10000W on a household circuit.
Plenty can. Just need a 240v 30a outlet or higher
Which isn’t a thing in the states anyway.
Yes it is? The US very much has 220v for power hungry stuff. Things like ev chargers, central ac units, water heaters, electric clothes dryers, etc. It uses quite the variety of different plugs for the various amperages
Edit: technically its 220v*
I’m confused as to why you’re so confident. The US has 3-phase power and homes get 120V from line 1 to the neutral (split-phase). If you use line 1 and 2, you get 240V. More than enough to power an oven. This is the case in every modern residential home in the US because they have a national building code.
Yes, I’m aware that you can do this but there are not readily available outlets throughout a home for this, lol. Yes, let me move my stove or dryer so I can plug my wok induction stove in.
…You do know that an oven needs a dedicated outlet, yes? As in, if you don’t have a 30-50A receptacle in your home, one must be installed in order for you to have an oven. All new builds and most existing buildings have this dedicated outlet.
Edit: I see that you’re using stove and oven separately. I am talking about a range (oven and stovetop combined), since where I live these are most common and “oven” and “stovetop” are roughly interchangeable. Apologies for any confusion.
Idk about my math but most American household circuits require stoves to be on a (220V) dual phase 18 amp circuit. Which should output around 8kW (18A * 220V)
Should be a lot more than 18A. Should be closer to 30A-50A to account for usage. 18A is what a kitchen receptacle would require and is so low that an oven on a 18A breaker would trip constantly. I’m Canadian so I mostly know the CEC but the NEC requirements in the USA are very similar.
More info if you’re interested.
I was thinking of a single dual phase outlet. Is it also higher amperage as well as voltage?
I have to correct you (sorry) when you say “dual-phase” because homes in Canada (my country) and the US don’t have dual-phase electricity and haven’t for many, many decades. What you are talking about is called “split-phase” and is actually just a single phase that’s been split using a neutral/return conductor.
To actually answer your question, yes, it’s higher amperage and higher voltage. Every circuit breaker is really just a “tap” into the panel in order to create a parallel circuit at the applied voltage (usually 120V) and whatever amperage the breaker is rated for (after ensuring that you’re using the correct size of breaker, of course).
The main reason why amperage is really important for larger appliances is because the cable used to plug them in (whether that’s by literally plugging it in or by hardwiring it into the panel) needs to be thick enough not to overheat from regular use. When precautions aren’t taken, it’s pretty easy for the cable jacket to melt (happens around 90 degrees C) and for the bare wires to eventually short and/or start a fire.
Obviously, a 18A breaker would prevent this, but it would also prevent you from using the oven.
Thanks for the answer!
Here in Italy most houses used to have contacts allowing max 3kW, but nowadays it’s more common to have 4.5kW (with smart utility meters which allow 30% over current for 3 hours).
Still have to be careful if you’re running a washing machine or something like that, but it’s doable.
Of course old houses may have insufficiently-sized wires, and that’s another can of worms.
LP camp stoves work without power and are a good backup for an electric stove
Yeah, a coleman (or equivalent) 2 burner camp stove combined with the adapter to use a full size propane tank is super handy. Combine it with a cast iron griddle, and you can functionally replicate a Blackstone for much much cheaper. It’s also way better for high heat cooking if you don’t have a good stove fan that actually vents outside.
Also, sometimes when power goes out, gas does too (it’s still a grid that can fail).
we got a griddle attachment for my weber babyQ so we can take it camping and fry bacon on it. I’ll take that over a coleman any day.
Yeah, I want one of those, too. I think it fits different needs, though. Stove vs grill.
yeah, it basically takes the place of a frying pan. if we want soup or coffee, we’ve still got a one burner camp stove for that. we end up using the grill more tho.
I have a Viking with 15k burners. No shielding needed, but huge upgrades to air exchange and a really powerful hood fan were.
Because it’s a consumer (really a prosumer) stove, that shielding is already built in. You wouldn’t want to install a commercial range in right next to wooden cabinets; it’s assumed that surfaces in commercial kitchens are all going to be non-porous, hard surfaces, usually stainless steel or ceramic.