Digital Cooking - Better Than Gas Stoves

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this video is sponsored by Foreo   it's a period of energy unrest Rebel lawmakers  striking from a hidden swamp in Washington DC   have dealt their first blow against the evil  natural gas Empire Rebel scientists performed   studies stating gas stoves contribute to  13 of asthma cases in children and other   air-related illnesses but spies have managed  to steal secret plans to the Empire's Ultimate   Weapon the induction electric cooktop the  proclaimed savior of the stove Wars hold   on who's the rebel scum in this analogy are we  we have a little bit of fun but there is a bit   of a stove Wars brewing and it might decide  how you cook the food of the future whether   it's Banning natural gas cooktops public anger  or personal preference this story has a bit of   everything but what exactly does it mean and how  might it affect you and should you be worried or   excited let's find out this is the stove  Wars I'm Ricky and this is Two Bit da Vinci let's start with how we got here on January  9th 2023 Richard trumpkin Jr head of the U.S   consumer product safety commission said natural  gas stoves are a hidden Hazard and suggested   that any unsafe product should be considered  for a ban he would later walk that statement   back but not before social media and news outlets  exaggerated politicized and turned cooking into a   tribal situation where you are supposed to  draw lines in the sand and pick sides most   reasons for Banning natural gas stem from studies  that state its impact on our health a study from   Harvard in June 2022 stated natural gas contains  Trace Amounts of other harmful gases outside the   known harmful products of the methane combustion  process natural gases largely methane around 60   to 90 percent but it also contains other volatile  organic compounds vocs like alkane cycloalkanes   and aromatic and non-organic compounds like  hydrogen sulfide carbon dioxide water vapor   nitrogen helium another study from 2022 stated  the natural gas stoves contribute to 13 percent   of asthma cases in children and that's the one I  believe that really started the stove Wars roughly   40 of U.S homes use natural gas for cooking today  and personally for me growing up every home I've   ever lived in has had natural gas cooktops here in  California I still remember when my parents shop   for their very first house my mom specifically  wanted the house that had a natural gas cooktop   in a lot of ways natural gas is that ingrained in  our imaginations when it comes to food with flame   and Romanticism between the two in the early days  we cooked directly on an open fire to wood stoves   to gas stoves but the basic idea always remained  the same then came a crazy sci-fi future with   microwaves and electric cooktops and this isn't a  change everyone is going to be happy to make but   back then the electric alternative the electric  coil cooktop kinda sucked they were worked by   sending electricity to a very high resistance  coil that glows hot as it converts electricity   into heat but has the same problem as natural  gas where a lot of the heat is just sent into the   outside air and into the room as opposed to the  pot or pan you're trying to heat radiant electric   is a newer Tech where a heating element gets hot  under a plate of glass if you've ever seen a glass   cooktop with a really hot red glowing ring in the  middle that's a radiant cooktop so if natural gas   is the Empire at 40 to 55 percent efficiency then  the electric coil cooktop is the Sith at 60 to 75   percent that no one likes then we have radiant  electric cooktops the rebels at 80 percent but   there is a new game in town the induction cooktop  and it's the Jedi in this analogy at 90 percent   efficiency oh I almost forgot I got a gift for  my wife and what better time than now to tell   you about our sponsor this week for real Freo is  the premium Swedish beauty brand that makes some   awesome products that might be the perfect gift  for that 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loved one or yourself links in the description   huge thanks to Pharrell and you for supporting the  show so at this point let's get our hands dirty   get into the real world and see how these stove  moves actually work we have a little test stand   where we made to measure how much of the heat is  actually just going into heating this little box   that we built and how much is actually heating  your food what's interesting is we have a thermal   imaging camera that is set to the same values  for all three cooktops and here's a comparison   with natural gas on the left and induction on the  right what's interesting here is we are going to   measure with a stopwatch how long it takes each  to boil this one liter about 32 ounces of water   any guesses before we speed this up yeah if you're  thinking the gas is going to be the fastest you're   actually going to be pretty surprised this is  where that inefficiency comes in a lot of the   fires you can kind of see is billowing around the  pot and not actually heating the water and instead   just heating up the room and in fact if you look  at temperature data point number two you'll see   just how hot the top of that box is getting much  warmer than the induction side so now on the right   you can see that the induction coil is a lot more  precise and troll that's because the induction   coil inside the magnetic field that heats the  bottom of the pan but you can see that the top   of the stove is way cooler now on the induction  experiment and that's because well ninety percent   of the heat you're actually producing goes into  the pot instead of into the outside air all right   so first believe it or not the induction cooktop  wins and if you look at the bottom you'll see that   the gas fire is at 300 degrees Fahrenheit while  the induction is only around half that maybe 160   or so but even then all that heat goes to the pot  and it actually wins its competition by finishing   off in 5 minutes and 33 seconds and the natural  gas takes almost two minutes longer at 731 so even   though it has way more heat at the bottom most of  it just kind of goes around the Potter pan this   happens all the time you might be surprised and  it actually warms up the room as well so in the   summertime you're gonna have to cool that room  as well and just for fun let's do the same thing   with that old-fashioned coil electric and you'll  see it actually does work pretty well because it   pulls a lot of electricity and we'll get back to  that here in a second but you can see it has the   same problem or a lot of that heat is going into  the room now a lot less than natural gas but still   some unfortunately we couldn't put a box for the  coil electric because the space considerations in   that part of our house but you can kind of imagine  with that efficiency that's kind of where we're at   so here is a data of what we found the induction  cooktop which was just a 50 Amazon unit that we   found only pull 1500 watts but it still performed  pretty admirably at 5.5 minutes and it consumed   140 Watt hours or 0.14 kilowatt hours if you go  down the list natural gas converting from BTUs and   therms for natural gas to kilowatt hours used more  than double that at 360. and the coil Falls in   between at 180. but for us to make sense of this  we'd have to normalize for the amount of energy  

consumed right because the coil had a much larger  240 volt plug and was pulling 2358 Watts while the   reduction was only pulling fifteen hundred if we  normalize the data and use a 2400 watt induction   cooktop it would have boiled the water in 3.5  minutes which is pretty impressive and remember   that induction cooktops go all the way to 3 500  watts and maybe even more and at 3 500 watts out   of both the water in 2.4 minutes vastly quicker  than even gas but the problem and the reason why   there's a stove Wars and it's not just an obvious  choice is the price so if you consider that the   price average in America for natural gas is 84  cents per therm and that the average price of   electricity is 16 cents per kilowatt hour here's  how the costs break down so you can see that if   you used gas in your home and you boiled water  six times a day for a year that'd be 17 but on   the induction cooktop it'd be 48 electricity  radiant 54 and a old-fashioned coil electric 62   dollars so even though natural gas is wildly less  efficient just like in gasoline cars natural gas   is so much cheaper that it's still way cheaper to  operate now this really matters for example in a   restaurant because while the difference might  only be a hundred dollars to URI a restaurant   can consume 1500 cubic feet of natural gas per  day and spend around forty seven hundred dollars   per year in natural gas prices if they switch to  induction their bill would nearly double to eighty   five hundred dollars per year now that sounds  really bad but it's not so simple because the   induction cooktop only Heats what you're cooking  and not the entire room there's a chance you would   need less air conditioning for example in the  summertime which is a huge amount of electricity   and the difference in price might not be as bad as  you think but when it comes to efficiency there's   a clear winner it's the induction cooktop at 90  percent number two would be the radiate cooktop   three coil and finally number four would be gas  how about air quality well this is a three-way   tie for all the electric options coil radiant  and induction are all super clean there's no   emissions in the air from the heat Source itself  where as the loser here is clearly natural gas   natural gas is one of those things that we've  all taken for granted as a thing in our house   but it is a huge source of air pollution that we  don't consider and if you're thinking oh if you   go electric I don't need a hood or a range vent  when I cook you still do because while you cook   food you're charring it and there's a potential  for other Airborne pollutants while you cook so   you always want to run a vent when cooking how  about cooking performance well as we mentioned   the induction cooktop probably actually is the  best performer of the bunch and that's because   you can dial in temperature and when you do the  cooktop doesn't stay hot for a long period of   time so if you wanted to bring something to a  boil and then quickly dial it down to a lower   temperature you can do that with the induction  whereas with the other two Electric types the   coil and radiant heat those will stay hot longer  so they're not going to just be able to be quickly   turned off Natural Gas you could turn it off or  turn it lower and change the incoming heat very   quickly but the induction gives you so much power  and so much Focus Us in Precision that probably   is the best how about ease of use and cleanup well  here again induction is King because the induction   cooktop is on a flat piece of glass it's really  easy to wipe away plus because the glass and the   induction cooktop itself doesn't actually get very  hot if you had anything spill over it's not going   to cake on and be really hard to clean you can  just wipe it right off and it's quite safe for   that reason as well and then finally at the very  end of the list here for cleanup and ease of use   you got the coil and the gas both of which you can  have to move and clean out little things that fall   into the nooks and cracks and they're by far the  worst to clean out how about smart features well   again here induction is King because induction  is a digital form of cooking you can really   precisely control the temperature and in fact  if you picked up your pan off of the induction   cooktop it would know and it could just shut off  right away there's really a higher level of safety   and control with the induction cooktop next up  would be radiant but they are still a little   bit unsafe because they remain hot for a very  long time and of course coils are glowing and   hot and then finally the longest to cool and the  most dangerous form of cooking is natural gas my   mom used to always check the house two to three  times even after we left the house before a long   trip to make sure the natural gas was all turned  off because obviously there's a risk and a hazard   for explosions with pipelines leaks bursts and  everything else for example there was a pipeline   that I was really close to in 2010 in September in  San Bruno California where an explosion resulted   in a fire that destroyed over 35 homes and  killed eight people and it even registered   a 1.1 earthquake on the Richter Scale really  dangerous stuff and with aging infrastructure   and natural gas lines that problem is just going  to get worse and worse going forward so I think   based on our criteria then Best Choice obviously  is induction right so why the controversy well   induction isn't perfect for one we've been using  this induction cooktop that we showed you here for   the past week my wife and I had the same feedback  the food cooked so quickly that we had to retrain   our cooking Habits Like if you think you have two  or three minutes while you're cutting up an onion   before the water gets hot you might not anymore  obviously you can set the temperature down but   it might require a little bit of retraining and  rethinking about how you approach cooking you   might also need brand new pots and pans and this  is interesting because you have to have a magnetic   bottom some sort of a copper bottom but you can't  use aluminum for example or other cheaper cookware   because it's non-magnetic and the induction coils  aren't going to be able to heat it up so yes any   of you that love Cast Iron cooking old is new  again and you're right in shape because they   work fantastic on a induction cooktop another con  of the induction cooktop is it does make a little   bit of a high-pitched noise now it wasn't really  too much of a bother for me but it did bother   one of my editors so this is maybe sensitivity to  the spectrum of sound and it might affect people   differently so check it out for yourself see if  you can try one out at a warehouse if you have a   friend who has one to make sure it doesn't bother  you I'm not sure if it was just my system it was   a 50 very cheap system on Amazon and if bigger  more industrial cooktops that you would buy for   your whole kitchen wouldn't be better I'm just  not sure but double check that before you buy   one what about curved bottom pots and pans and  Woks and things like that well they are a bit   of a challenge because you have a smaller surface  area making contact they do still work and they   actually do make curved induction cooktops like  this YouTube video that we will link below so   let's wrap this up first of all no one is coming  for your natural gas cooktops all the laws that   we're talking about affect the future sales and  future building projects that will be rolling out   tomorrow all natural gas cooktops in the wild  aren't going anywhere anytime soon induction is   a vastly more high-tech and better solution in  almost every single way but cheap natural gas   prices will make natural gas cooking the low-cost  King for the foreseeable future now obviously   conflicts in the Ukraine and all the other stuff  happening in the news is going to impact natural   gas and electricity prices so this data could  change but hopefully we'll put a link to this   spreadsheet you can figure out the numbers and  see how much it would cost you based on which   technology you'd be using natural gas don't forget  is the only open flame we have in our homes and   we've gotten so used to them for so long that  we've forgotten how dangerous they truly are if   someone told you yeah I burned my house down your  first thought would be your stove right that's how   dangerous they are but we've been using it for  so long we don't think of it that way so do I   just recommend you should get out there throw your  old stove away and get an induction cooktop well   well not exactly it really depends on your kitchen  and what you're wired for so for example if you   have a natural gas cooktop today odds are you  don't have a 240 volt electrical line behind   your stove which means that you'd have to hire an  electrician and run new 240 wiring which can cost   one to two thousand dollars before you even buy a  new cooktop but if you have an old-fashioned coil   electric cooktop you're going to be wired for 240  and this upgrade might just make sense for you and   I think you'll probably appreciate the upgrade so  we mentioned a lot of this is going to impact the   future so in this way California typically leads  the way when it comes to energy related matters   whether you think that's good or bad is up to you  and your political views but for once California   is actually being pro-consumer choice because new  building codes will require pre-wiring homes with   240 volt high power electric lines for appliances  such as stoves and hot water heaters even if the   Builder decides they want to use natural gas this  means that even if your house when you buy it in   the future with new building codes had a natural  gas stove or a natural gas water heater you would   have the wiring in place to be able to swap  it out and go electric like a heat pump water   heater and an induction cooktop the two premier  forms of electric heating for those applications   so on my old house I have neither and so for me I  would have to pay a lot of money to an electrician   to run the new wire to be able to make those  changes I can't get an electric water heater   because I don't have 240 behind my water heater  and I can't get a electric induction cooktop   because I don't have 240 volt back there either so  yes the stove Wars are cooking but you don't have   to worry because for once there might actually be  more choice not less no they're not coming to take   away your natural gas stove and if you prefer it  odds are you can probably just keep on using it   interesting when it comes to bands Republicans  have been the loudest critics and 20 Republican   control State legislatures have actually  passed laws prohibiting the ban of natural   gas a natural gas ban ban but most households in  those red States cook with electric stoves not   gas according to a 2020 analysis from the Energy  Information Administration in the U.S the highest   percentage of households that use gas for cooking  are controlled by Democrat States including   California Nevada Illinois New York and New Jersey  a little bit ironic but I understand these things   get heated me personally I'm a Believer in Freedom  and consumer choice so I don't really support any   kind of ban on either side I think the engineers  and scientists should be the ones out in front   coming up with new ideas new technologies to  make our lives better and I think lawmakers are   out passing bands and anti-bands and really  neither accomplish as much of anything so I think   when the technology gets better to a level where  you'll want to make the change you will that's how   technology always works when electric cars are  widely available and way cheaper and everyone   knows it you won't need to ban gasoline cars you  just won't have much of a market for them but   until then yeah this is going to be a little bit  of a contested issue and it really matters mostly   for the buildings of the future you gotta remember  running natural gas along with electricity to   homes might require running 10 20 30 miles of  natural gas to a new residential development   and that cost is one that Builders may not want  to pay because as we increasingly become more   electric natural gas is going to probably fall by  the wayside naturally just not going to compete   in terms of cost and when more companies make  induction cooktops those prices will come down too   anyways that's my take on it but what do you  think are you excited what side of the wars   are you on or which do you prefer do you have  a Nostalgia for natural gas like I did I mean   to me it was just something that I grew up with  sound off in the comments below all right that   is a look at the stove Wars thank you so  much for watching if you like this video   check out this one next I think you'll like  so until next time May the force be with you   star Star Wars fans I'm sure I'll  I'll hear from you in the comments   below looking forward to it all right  I'm rigatou DaVinci catch you next week

2023-02-26

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