When we met a scientist/college-professor/environmentalist friend on the ski trail a few days ago, we somehow got on the subject of induction cooking stoves, only to find that he’d never heard of them. We said: Wait, what?? Should we maybe revisit the subject? (previous column November 2020)
It probably came up because recently there’s been quite a hubbub about gas stoves, thanks to a commissioner from the Consumer Products Safety Commission stating that he thinks there’s a need for regulation to reduce the hazards connected with burning gas unvented in homes. In an interview, he said, “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” Though the Chair of the CPSC stated that no such ban is planned, many immediately assumed the federal government was about to snatch away their gas stoves.
This all came up partly because recent studies have shown that there is a significantly higher rate of childhood asthma and other respiratory ailments in homes that use natural gas for cooking. The natural gas industry has actually known this for decades and has done what it could to hide the inconvenient information.
Meanwhile, in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions, a few dozen cities around the country have banned fossil gas connections in new construction. None of them ban existing gas use. But putting gas into new construction means more investment in gas infrastructure, not good for the future of the atmosphere.
In response, the gas lobby has convinced some 20 state legislatures to make it illegal for cities to ban gas infrastructure in new construction.
But why is the gas stove such an issue? Cooking with gas uses a tiny fraction of the natural gas that is burned in any building. Typically, when natural gas is connected to an apartment building, its main use will be for heating the building and for hot water. If cooking were the only use it would not make financial sense for a gas company to put in the necessary pipelines through a city.
But what happens in the kitchen matters more to consumers than what happens in the basement. Most people don’t care what energy source heats their water or radiators. But they can have very strong opinions about how they like to cook. Or, if they didn’t before, they do as of the past few weeks of catastrophizing.
One reason gas cooking enjoys so much popular support is that many decades ago the gas industry undertook a concerted gas cooking promotion campaign, conveying notions of savvy effectiveness with the slogan, “Now you’re cooking with gas!” (Yes, they invented that!). The other reason is that for most people who have cooked on both standard electric ranges and gas ranges, gas actually is superior in many ways. Gas responds more quickly to changes in heating level, and typically heats hotter and faster than most electric ranges.
But given the news about the serious health impacts of gas cooking, and the desire to proceed with household electrification, and yet understanding the serious drawbacks of electric resistance stoves, a clear contender emerges: The Induction Cooktop!
So here’s a second chance, Doug, to get the scoop on the miracle of induction cooking!
Okay, so it’s not a miracle, says the physicist. But when the English major first encountered an induction stove on a trip to Germany, it seemed like magic. An electric stove that heated water instantly, and then the burner was cool enough to touch 10 seconds later??
The induction cooktop does this by producing an oscillating electromagnetic field, which in turn induces electric currents in the pan, causing the pan to heat directly without the cooktop itself getting hot. Because the energy goes directly into the pan the response time is much, much faster than a coil or radiant electric burner. In fact, it will boil water faster than most gas stoves.
The burner itself never gets very hot because it’s actually getting its heat from contact with the pan–not the other way around. The pan also responds much more quickly to changes in settings and is easier to fine-tune. If you have water boiling in a pot with the burner on “high,” when the burner is turned off the boiling stops virtually instantly, much like a gas cooktop. Because less heat is wasted in the surroundings, these burners are typically about 10% more efficient than a standard electric burner, and twice as efficient as a gas burner.
There are a small number of downsides of induction, one being the need for induction-ready ferromagnetic cookware (that is, a magnet needs to stick to it). But these days this cookware is readily available at reasonable prices. And cast iron works.
There is also a mild hum that bothers some people and sometimes a fan will come on to cool the internal electronics.
If you are considering looking into induction, you might check with appliance stores that have working models in their showrooms. You can also purchase a single burner that plugs into a regular 120-volt outlet for under $100. Also if you earn less than 150% of your Area Median Income, federal tax credits are now available for induction stoves.
Do your homework now, so when those jack-booted feds come to yank your gas stove out of your home, you can say, “What took you so long?”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
