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Comment by bovermyer | Hacker News Reader

So here's a good example of conflicting requirements.

I'd like to not die of air pollution, so gas stoves are problematic.

I'd also like to be able to get consistent and even heat out of my cooking heat source, so electric stoves are problematic.

It'd be nice if someone could just make something I can cook on that is reliable, even, and not going to kill me or give me cancer.

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The solution already exists: induction. It heats the cooking appliance directly, and can provide varying power/heat settings without having to duty cycle (like an electric cooktop does).

Use induction cook top? I find it to be much better than gas or regular electric heating stove.

It is a good example of 2 requirements (not die of air pollution vs stable temperature of your oven) that you present as equal but one should have a 100 times more weight which would make the issue none problematic.

That's assuming you're actually going to die of air pollution if you use a gas stove. I don't consider the issue especially problematic; I like cooking with gas and will continue to do so.

I would disagree. I won't downplay the very real risk of air pollution, but unstable oven temperature can make it difficult to cook meat to a safe temperature, greatly increasing risk of foodborne illness.

The requirements are not necessarily equal, but you can't disregard safe temperature guidelines unless you never make food with raw meat or eggs.

You might want to look at the more upmarket electric offerings. I've got an electric Samsung range that heats fully evenly, to the point it's mildly annoying (no cold spots in the pan for the thinner parts of food). The dials correspond to element temperatures under positive control. There's also an induction zone that boils water in three minutes.

It's definitely more expensive than an equal-performing gas range would be, both in initial cost and continuing operation, but it's also easier to clean and allows me to not have natural gas at all.

Induction would seem to be the perfect answer (since you haven't put "cost" or "practicality" as one of the functional requirements :).

Induction cooking? Electric with even heat. Might be problematic for cast irons if they heat up too quickly.

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