Induction versus gas/propane second thoughts?
doc5md
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Brad Smith
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Natural Gas or Propane?
Comments (10)So you are just using hotwater and cooking? Then propane is the way to go (although honestly solar hot water is really the way to go). Hot water depends how much you use it, do you take baths, do you have multiple shower heads and take long showers, do you have modern laundry or do you often wash with just cold water? You could use $5 of NG a month for on demand water or $20; That would be either $15 propane or $60. We cook a decent amount and have NG bills of $1-$2 a month. Do you have no need for heat? What part of the country do you live in because heating ground water in Florida is different that NY and takes significantly more energy. Also - propane is roughly equivalent to $.10 a kwh for using just electric (although cooking is not as much fun and instant hot water has issues). Propane is derived from either oil or NG processing so it does vary some with oil prices. NG is a domestic product and I would bet the farm than NG will continue to become even cheaper than oil on a btu basis over the next 20 years. If you use a decent amount of hot water and live in an area with state credits, solar can pay off very fast. It usually is less than 10 years but can range from 3 to 20; So it may make sense in your situation or it may not. For me it was $6k with $4.5k in incentives (utility;state;fed) so it basically cost what an instant hot water system would cost (maybe a few hundred more) so payback was almost instantaneous. If you made that decision, then you really wouldn't have a NG/propane decision - your only decision would be is cooking on gas really worth that tank? (but it probably is)....See Morenatural gas vs. propane gas cooktop
Comments (14)dcarch, depending on what you mean by 'old', I am going to disagree. I suppose I may not have found a competent plumber, but I spent hours with appliance guys and Kitchenaid and Google etc. If by 'old', you meant a 1950s stove, then you probably wouldn't even need a plumber. I suspect the same applies if we are talking some nice expensive open burner modern stove. However, if you are talking sealed burner stoves and needing conversion to propane, it is a different story. Unfortunately, other than a modified pressure regulator, the only gas control one has is the orifice for each burner. You will get a propane replacement kit with supposedly appropriate orifices for your burners. If they are not exactly right to give appropriate flame, you need to find other orifices and most specific sizes are not available. There are special micro drill bits that can be used on undersized orifices and it might be possible to find a plumber with such a kit, but perhaps not. In any case, an appropriate flame will not likely be one that would respond to the movement of your burner knob and you may find that max flame could be reached at a half on position. If you can find a stove built for propae it would be a good idea to get it....See MoreMoving, no natural gas: WWYD-propane or induction stove?
Comments (31)Texas Gem, there's nothing wrong with choosing the flames. :) Amck, if you want the look of an impressive range anchoring your kitchen, but with a sleek, new induction cooktop, you can install it over drawers, or any kind of cabinet that will give you the correct air channel for cooling, and bump them out a couple of inches to give them prominence. Then, paint, stain, leaf or clad the stove base to make its statement and find cool hardware to complement the look. Add feet in the toekick to finish out the picture. It won't look like a range, per se (or at least not without being hopelessly kitsch), but it'll highlight the importance to the kitchen of the cooking area, and add some pizzazz. If you have an oven below your cooktop, add some tall side storage, and a shallow drawer under, for trays and racks, and dress as above. RE NOISE: There are high pitched tones that some induction cooktops make that only kids can hear (and the occasional outlier adult who is highly atypical in not losing that range of hearing with maturity). Additionally, there can be perfectly audible buzzes, thrums and clicks. These noises vary with the pan, the contents and the power level, so it's possible to have a unit that does it and never know for the first five years. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but in general, the massier the pan and the denser the food, the less you'll hear. Boiling water in a thin pan will often reveal them. Sometimes clicks come from inductors turning on and off at lower settings and are unavoidable. The audible to kids only sounds are usually persistent. If old fashioned fluorescent tube lighting always drives you buggy, then the sounds of induction might not be for you, especially if you have a quiet kitchen in a quiet house in a quiet neighborhood. If you're thinking "Huh? What noise from the lights?" you probably won't hear it. If the noise from the fluorescents is something you hear but doesn't bug you, the same will probably be true with induction. When in doubt, turn on the hood and some music. :)...See MoreNatural Gas versus LP versus Oil - crazy steep NG install cost
Comments (10)Don't pick just any old heat pump. An inverter heat pump is what you want. They can heat down to 5F degrees. Some models / brands maybe a bit lower. The compressor runs at varying speeds in an inverter. So keep that in mind. A run of the mill heat pump ( either on or off single speed or two speed) runs off a cliff once temps drop to around 35F degrees and run time amounts to anything significant. The larger problem for heat pumps in colder climates is snow accumulation / drifting. So you either have to put up snow fence or move the unit if your guess is off as to where to locate the outdoor unit. Either that hire a snow removal expert for around the clock mitigation. The back up heat can be anything even electric strip heat in the air handler. Obviously your electric rates will be a deciding factor as well. The advantage to all electric is repair costs are lower / no carbon monoxide to worry about. No tank that could leak at some point etc. That said, if home is well insulated you may not need emergency heat except in the event the heat pump goes down due to some problem....See Morelucky998877
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