Thank you! Yes, it does help!

Any other opinions or suggestions out there?

You might find the attached a good read, both on and slightly off topic, about vintage vs new stoves. One poster on pg 3 commented that when their gas was turned off, there wasn't much difference in their gas bill. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: vintage vs new

With the limited time of use in a typical house a stove is not a large energy user, gas or electric.

Unless you do a lot of baking, even the insulation improvements of a newer stove are not significant.

If it is an electric appliance in good condition the burners should be 100% efficient but the amount and condition of oven insulation might be poor.

The more important issue would be the relative cost of gas vs electricity which is a information you must get from the local suppliers.

A old appliances may not save you anything on what they use energy wise BUT as far as quality of workmanship and materials they far surpass what is being made and sold in this country today.

It's really a shame that "vintage" appliances have gotten so trendy in the last few years. The prices mentioned in the link above just about took my breath away. Twenty years ago or so, stoves from the 1930s and 1940s could be had for $25 - or even for free.

Oh, you can still get them for free for sure. Our local Craigslist and Freecycle have free working vintage ranges all the time. They're just not the fancy refurbished ones---but that costs a lot to do, in fairness! We're in the middle of a mini-refurb of ours just to get some little things like lighting working again, and that's $500 in labor and parts right there (most of it parts, too). If we were re-chroming or re-enameling anything, it would be up past $1K easily.

A friend's Mom used a wood stove, side by side with a '50s electric, till nearly the day she passed on. Now, that's vintage!

I would suggest that vintage stoves might be more efficient than new ones. I notice, for example, that my 1960's 40 inch stove, with double ovens, heats it's ovens up much faster than my fathers 2006 30 inch stove. Smaller ovens are probably more efficient. Open burners seem to put more of the heat right under the pan, as opposed to sealed burners which spread the flames out wide. etc.

Pilot lights use gas 24/7. You can shut off the surface burner pilots and light with a grill lighter or match. Oven pilots, if present, use gas, but it is not much gas. I had a pilot ignition stove in my old apartment, with just the oven pilot on, and the stove was the only item on the meter, and my bill every month was for one or two ccf (about the same as a therm). This is really tiny gas use.

I did tons of research over the past couple of years on stoves, and finally decided that a restored vintage stove fit my needs most precisely. I wanted two ovens, six burners, pilot ignition (maintains perfect conditions in the oven for bread proofing and almost never breaks down) and not bigger than 40 inches. I got exactly what I wanted. It was not cheap, costing about what a Wolf or Viking with similar features would cost, but I feel more confident that it will serve my needs well for the long haul.

Not to muddy the waters here.....but here are some ideas to consider.

Generally I agree with Artemis about the carbon footprint of a vintage stove vs new....electric or gas.

But note that the gas stove does run by combustion...it is burning the gas.

There would be some case to make for electric being more "green" , but only under certain narrow situations-- if you would be generating or using electricity that was created with 0 emissions. Like if you had enough rooftop solar or wind power on site to meet your usage needs.

If your available electric supply is produced at a power plant, then the decision probably comes down to personal preference.

Anyone else?

I agree wholeheartedly, especially if the electric is being produced by a fossil fuel power plant. I sort of took the similar tack when I decided to purchase a new washing machine after old-faithful top loader broke down. I hung out at the laundry forum and googled all brands and looked at their energy efficiency and reviews.

I ended up buying a brand new wringer washer like my Mama used when I was a kid. For one thing, the mechanism is so simple, I can fix it myself with the proper parts and for the second thing, I can actually do five loads of wash with one load of water, far outpacing the front loaders who play on their small carbon footprint. I have all five loads done in one hour and fifteen minutes and they're so clean, they squeak.

I got scared off the modern computer front loaders when I found out all the didos the folks had to do to circumvent the systems to get their clothes clean. Extra rinses, running the loads through twice, reprogramming the machine to do all the loads on extra heat and water. It's not energy efficient if you essentially do your laundry twice just to get it clean or get the soap out. Go over to the laundry forum and read about new washing machines. I'm not opposed to front loaders, I used them in Europe, but I'm not seeing the same results in American made.

I also moved heaven and earth to get pilot lights on my gas cook top when we renovated our kitchen. I used to work in quality control engineering at a stove manufacturer. Simple is good. Trust me on that one. LOL.

I can't imagine they're the only ones, but I do know that Brown (that's the brand) gas ranges are available with either electric ignition or a standing pilot. And they're made in Cleveland, Tennessee, USA.

The link is for reference, not an endoresement. I have no personal experience with these products.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brown gas ranges

Thanks all!

I am needing help figuring out the kWh/ yearly for a GE electric stove (pictured). Model # 1J406-2L1. Anyone have a wild guess as to the energy use? Or where I could find out? Thanks, Vic

victoria007

Your local utility may have information of standard usage of an electric range, but not by your specific model or in accordance with your life style, you would have to do that.

It's a great question and probably one not easy to answer if every factor is to be considered from how the energy source is acquired and delivered to how an individual cooks and bakes.

I like to think a well built and maintained vintage stove can easily be more efficient.

According to postings, Chambers oven(s) are so well insulated, the heat can be turned off during the baking period and the oven will retain enough heat to finish the job. Kinda cool!

I always like to think having a functional vintage stove is incredibly green. If well maintained or restored, a vintage store can last 40 - 60 years. I don't believe anything made today can come anywhere close. Manufacturers make sure of that via overt planned obsolescence.

victoria007 get a device to measure the stove when it is on, like a Kil-o-watt, then find a friend with a new stove for which the yearly electrical use is listed, and measure that. Then calculate the difference.

I love the kill-o-watt device. Its lots of fun to plug it into things and check their usage.

I can say it is true what they say about Chambers oven. Each year, I roast my turkey in my Chambers and the gas is on for about 45 minutes, then off as it finishes cooking. Lovely.

Here is an interesting website.

I think the quality and accuracy of the range is more important than energy use.

In my experience the controls of old ranges are not very accurate and can be difficult to repair or replace.

Whether you choose a gas or electric range the oven, if you like to bake, the oven should be an electric convection type. That's hard to find in older ranges.

Here is a link that might be useful: Energy used by cooking

Yes, technology has allowed stoves to be more accurate, which makes the task easier. However, that does not necessarily make one a better cook or baker. Precision controls have only been around for 60-70 years, but cooks and bakers have managed to produce amazing dishes for centuries.

It's the heart, skill and experience of the one baking and cooking that really does the job. Armed with those, one can do well with anything from a camp stove to a high end electric convection.

We have a 30s gas Wedgewood that we paid for a guy out in Stockton to refurbish for $700 or so. He added extra insulation when he had it opened up. We do not use the pilot light and just keep a lighter in the storage drawer on the stove. We use the oven and range 2 or 3 (or more) times a day and I bake a good bit. Our PG&E gas bill in the summer is $15-$20/mo., and that includes a gas dryer (which I admittedly don't use a ton in the summer) and gas tankless water heater. Not sure how that stacks up to other NorCal residents, but it seems low enough to me.

A BTU is a BTU, and a Watt is a Watt. Other than a standing pilot light, there is no difference between old and new. Reuse the old and you are saving something that might otherwise be going to landfill.
Casey

"Simple is good"

We don't have a vintage range, though I do admire them. However, when we bought our range, we wanted it to NOT be electronic. It was the electronic control that went bad on the one it replaced, and for some quirky reasons it could neither be repaired or replaced. Never wanted to go through that again. We actually paid extra to get a gas/electric combo range that was not electronically controlled, and we are very glad we did.

Rosefolly