Gas vs Electric...Your preference?

[biku324]

Gas was one of the reasons I bought this house.
I think a lot of those that state safety reasons are trying to reconcile an inferior cooking source they are stuck with.
How many houses blow up because of gas, nowadays?

One of my parent's neighbor's halfway between Arlington and Volga, IA; about 100 last year in Merrimack Valley, MA. Merrimack Valley Explosions | WBUR

The disaster killed one person, injured dozens of others and damaged or destroyed more than 100 buildings in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover.

 

[chief38]

I have had gas in my home for 41 years (never had any complaints or problems) however my parents use to have an electric stove top which I never liked. Gas stove tops are pretty much trouble free and nothing ever seems to go wrong. I have never had to repair a gas stove that I can remember and they are also better at lighting cigars - LOL!! Did that once on the way out to the patio and Mrs. Chief38 had a fit!

 

[Ogandydancer]

We have used gas as long as I can remember. If I know one thing about gas it is the fact you can control the heat much better than electric.

 

[bigwheelzip]

I grew up with gas, but prefer electric for cooking, and every other utility use in the home, outdoor grills being the exception.

Secondarily, gas blows up buildings on a regular basis.

Finally, gas cooking gives off carbon monoxide and other toxic indoor pollutants into the home, and my breathing is already severely compromised. A high flow range hood that exhausts to the outdoors would fix that issue if used consistently, but would waste conditioned air that the HVAC system would need to make up for.

 

[Stevens]

Gas definitely!! Stove, Water heaters, and home heat.
Steve W

 

[Onomea]

Put me in the gas camp, too.

So much so that while we have a nice new (2016) Bosch electric stove and range top — glass flat top — in our condo, we cook on an Iwatani butane burner which we set on top of the cooktop! (Condo/HOA is not set up for gas.)

 

[STCM(SW)]

Gas for heating the house and water with a fire place....
My electric stove is top of the line and easier to clean then
a gas stove, spills and such clean up quick.
With a Nuwave 2, it boiled water faster then any gas with a steel
pot......

 

[jimmyj]

consider using your gas grill next time you make sauce.

P.S. use the new stove money to purchase a new S&W.

 

[JH1951]

I am a fan of gas for cooking. I have converted my last two homes from electric stoves & ovens to gas units. My results with gas are far superior than what I have experienced with electric units. Further, I have never had a failure of any type with gas units.

 

[ancient-one]

Everything is this Senior Living Joint is Electric. All power was restored in about 8 hours EXCEPT: The very last row of apartments are are hooked up to different main line. My daughter is one of the unfortunate ones with no power. OG&E does not have an estimate when she will get power. People should have a lot of firewood because so many trees are damaged.
My choice would be a gas cook stove and water heater.

 

[LVSteve]

Newer electric stoves are worse than older ones in one aspect. They don't maintain a constant temperature. Instead, they run at full power but cycle on and off. At low heat the burner is mostly off. At high it is mostly or always on. A really stupid design.

If they are doing what you describe, what I call gross pulse width modulation (PWM), then it is a rubbish design. PWM done right should work very well, although it has to be done right or there would be all kinds of nasties fed back into the house power.

PWM is the only way to go because ramping the voltage up and down is difficult without some form of adjustable transformer, which are bulky and expensive. If you tried to regulate the current by rheostat the heat you don't want has to be dumped somewhere, and you still use the same amount of energy.

TL;DR, gas regulators are easier and cheaper to make than devices for 220 V AC.

 

[smoothshooter]

We have natural gas. I specified to the builder that was what I wanted, because it is cheaper, and still works when the power goes off.
I do not trust gas water heaters, though. Our's is electric.
Have heard of way too many fires started by a faulty heater.
Electric hot water heaters are cheaper to replace when the hard water deposits here start clogging them up.

 

[pawngal]

For cooking, gas for sure. I have had electric a couple of times in rental apartments, hated it, ruined more food and plastic containers than I care to think about.
I wish I could have kept my Mother's gas stove, at least 50 years old and still in perfect condition. It had a large center burner/griddle. But I would have had to turn my kitchen apart, it was 36 or 40 inches instead of the standard 30.

 

[Benchrest1]

I've had both and like gas a lot better.

 

[raisedin99]

fry bread.

Wayne,

Care to elaborate on fry bread? Never had it.

terry

 

[snubbyfan]

Wayne,

Care to elaborate on fry bread? Never had it.

terry

Fry bread is a Native American bread that stretches back generations. It's a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard. Made with simple ingredients, frybread can be eaten alone or with various toppings such as honey, jam, powdered sugar, venison, or beef.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

Here in the Sierra foothills our power company, PG&E better known as Pacific Graft & Extortion shuts off our power when the wind blows over 10 MPH. So we have propane for our cooking & on demand water heaters. We have a well so installed a 16 KW propane fired generator last spring. Also we heat with wood.

 

[Snapping Twig]

Ours is dual fuel, gas for the range, electric for the oven.

We have an all gas home, except for out clothes dryer which is electric.

This works well when there are power outages. Warm showers, cook food and for central heat a generator to power the gas furnace.

 

[hostler]

I prefer cooking on a gas stove top, but I prefer the house to be all electric. Since I can't have both, I cook with electric.

 

[TennTony]

I prefer cooking over a flame but our house is all electric. If I get desperate I take the old green Coleman camp stove out on the deck.