The perspective of a pro chef, for what it�s worth (long post): Induction vs. Gas SPEED: Advantage to INDUCTION: It heats up faster and doesn�t waste time on conduction to grates. RESPONSIVENESS: Slight advantage to INDUCTION. For mcst cooking, the two are basically a push. Both can be adjusted with near-instant responsiveness. However, induction burners can be set at lower settings, where gas flames would just die out. For example you can melt chocolate on induction without a bain marie. Also, gas cooking transfers heat to the grates, so there is a definite lag in responsiveness especially when lowering the heat (one reason why cooking "off the burner" is sometimes necessary). CONTROL: Basically a push. With gas, you can see the flame. With induction, you see the number. After learning the levels on induction, there�s no difference in this category. VERSATILITY: Advantage to GAS. Gas can be used for wok cooking, roasting peppers, flamb�ing. The induction equivalent requires a flat-bottomed wok, and a butane torch from the hardware store (not the dinky ones at kitchen stores). CLEANUP: Huge advantage to INDUCTION. Cleanup on induction is a breeze. Since the cooktop itself isn�t hot, there�s no cool-down time before wiping, and no caked on/burnt food & liquids. Or just cook on top of newspaper and throw it out afterwards. Cleanup for pots & pans is easier too - No more scorched exteriors to scrub. COOKWARE: Huge advantage to GAS. Gas being low-tech, you can use pots/pans of any material and size. With induction, you need ferrous pots/pans (cast iron or stainless). MAINTENANCE: Advantage to GAS. Gas stoves are generally low-tech, meaning fewer repairs and lower expected cost per repair. I would expect a quality gas range to outlast a quality induction cooktop. Also glass cooktops are at risk of cracking under abuse� There�s not really anything you can "break" with gas. PRICE: Advantage to GAS (assuming an existing gas line). Mid-range induction cooktops run about 50% more than their gas counterparts. ENERGY COST: Slight advantage to Induction. While induction in 90% efficient vs. 50% for gas (plus ambient cooling), natural gas is so cheap in North America right now that you won�t see a noticeable difference in your bills, if at all. Of course that could change down the road� And with the ambient cooling costs incurred with gas, induction still has a slight advantage in this category. SAFETY: Advantage to Induction. No risks associated with open flames, hot grates, or combustion fumes. SELECTION: Advantage to Gas. There�s just a huge selection of gas cooktops out there, in all sizes and ventilation options. There is no downdraft induction cooktop (not that downdraft is really effective anyway). There is currently no 36" induction range/oven combo (Viking makes a 30"). RESALE VALUE: Advantage to Gas. Most people in American are just not informed about induction. They will walk in and assume you have radiant electric, which could be a deal breaker. And even if induction is explained to them, they may still be wary. This forum is a prime example of the mentality out there. Some people are just staunch advocates of gas, and no amount of information can change that view. OVERVIEW: How you weigh these pros and cons will depend on the individual. For me, the clean-up with induction was a major factor, as I'm fed up with scrubbing caked on crud and grease from hot grates every day. Regarding the argument of what pros use... Yes, restaurants use gas. They are cheap, sturdy, easy to repair, and take a lot of abuse (banging & clanging). You can use crap pans, and no staff training is necessary. Most people (including my fellow chefs) have never cooked on induction, and feel no reason to explore it. There is NO TRUE PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE to gas. Decide what features are important to you and don't listen to all the nutjobs out there!

Bought my home 6 years ago...keep smelling dank odors coming up from the basement, discovered the drainage from the toilet to the septic was never vented through the floor/walls to the roof. There is a short 5-6inch stack just below the floor, leaving me with only 2 inches there. How to I vent this properly without having a pipe running through an upstairs room or hallway. Looks like no matter where we vent this to our roof, the pipe from the toilet to the septic isn't under any walls or closets to hide it. I wanted to be able to put a vent free propane heater down there if the furnace isn't working in emergencies, and I realized an open flame down there could be dangerous because of the gases coming from the septic and this pipe. How did this pass inspection?! How can I vent this damn pipe out horizontally, safely?

If your pressure at the meter is 6" WC, a 1/2" line will not feed your 213,000 BTU load. Even if the regulator at the meter is adjusted up to the 10" domestic gas limit, you still would have far too much pressure drop at that consumption rate. You need AT LEAST a 3/4" line. 1" if you cannot raise the pressure from your meter. The copper line inside your house better not have 2psi in it. That would violate many local building codes. The red bands you speak of are the pressure rating of the gas tubing, not what the tube contains. Each appliance that needs a regulator for pressure below 10" WC should have its own regulator. Many gas appliances do not need such a regulator or use a gas control vavle with the regulator built in, like your domestic water heater. Was that sufficient to confuse the issue further?

nancy- It sounds like there is a joist in the floor in just the wrong place. Unless this joist was recently installed without someone paying attention to the fact that this is one of those places where location can be critical, I'd say that no one messed up. If you research offset flanges on the internet, you will find that they are not a problem in most cases as long as you pick one that is oblong so that the waste goes through at an angle. Some offset flanges are rather short vertically, and this produces something of a "shelf" where things can hang up. As for issues with cutting the top of the joist, it's best to minimize this, but it's also done all the time, and the building code allows you to do this up to a certain limit. With an older home, you may have a beefier joist system to start with, so it could be less of an issue. Since it sounds like your contractor is a reasonable person, and not giving you some baloney about how this came to be, you can probably trust him to determine whether there would be an issue with notching the joist and, if so, whether it might be possible to reinforce it, particularly if there is access from below. I agree with klem1 that you do not want to notch out joists (at least no more than the code allows), but I have also owned homes where I later discovered that the plumbers did some pretty zealous notching during installation and nothing bad happened. At least you are aware of the issues and can have an informed, productive talk with your contractor. Please feel free to post back after the talk. Here is a short video showing installation of an offset flange with a design that shouldn't be a problem: Offset flange install If you don't have a plastic drain system, you can find these flanges in other materials. Here is an example of the type of offset flange that I would be concerned about using because it has the shelf I described: Flange with "shelf"