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Comment by ivalm | Hacker News Reader

Gas stoves are so nice relative to electric stoves. I guess as the electric production mix moves to renewables gas is becoming increasingly worse in carbon footprint.

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What about induction cooktops?

Still not enough power for cooking food really hot. Electric ovens are already the industry standard for top of the line gear, though. Induction will displace gas broadly if we designe houses to feed them enough amps.

Really? With induction and power boost on I can preheat a cast iron pan in seconds. It usually smokes so I generally don’t. It’s got insane power delivery.

Preheating on induction burners is really fast, but that doesn't mean the stove has a high maximum heat. If you want to to wok cooking or anything similar, you basically need gas.

Your average gas stove isn’t going to get any hotter. I’ve played with them at my in-laws including the very high btu ones and my induction beats it on heat and efficiency any day.

IIRC induction stoves are generally a good bit hotter than natural gas. Something like 200F hotter. Maybe you're thinking of radiant electric?

My induction stove uses the same 50a circuit as my old electric stove and gets food plenty hot… and quickly, much quicker than the old electric stove with more immediate control. It can char meat black in a frying pan, not sure how much hotter I’d ever need.

is this a weird US electrical system issue?

Cause I have never heard or seen this problem in Australia.

we're 240v and you guys are 120v right?

Single family homes in America are 240v rails for large appliances, like stoves/ovens, furnaces, and dryers (two-phase).

Technology Connections (YouTube) explains this fairly well:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmUoZh3Hq4

> we're 240v and you guys are 120v right?

No. The US is 240V single phase, with an option for split phase 120V on smaller circuits. Cooktops, ranges, and ovens are 240V (technically they're usually both 120V and 240V, but the high draw parts are 240V).

> Still not enough power for cooking food really hot.

The highest-power burner I could find on a residential gas stove is 25,000 BTU:

* https://capital-cooking.com/products/culinarian-series/

* https://www.bluestarcooking.com/news/all/much-cooking-power-...

This corresponds to 7.33 kW:

* https://www.pickhvac.com/calculator/btu-to-kw/

There are several induction cooktops available with elements in that range:

* https://blog.yaleappliance.com/best-36-inch-induction-cookto...

Further, the heat of the gas spills out around the cooking vessel and fills the entire kitchen (which you really have to vent properly to be safe), whereas with induction only the metal of the cooking vessel (and its contents) are heating, not the entire room.

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