Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

A huge power plant that burns 5 times the amount of gas also generates more than 5 times the energy compared to you burning it at home at your stove. Especially for cooking it really surprised me that cooking with gas is still so common in the US. Here, basically every new house has uses induction which has become really accessible.

When it comes to gas for heating I'm somewhat indifferent. Even if the electricity is primarily from fossil source (which I don't know, but it is likely) I'd imagine it is a whole lot easier to continue improving the energy production to reach net-zero than it would be to wait and replace the gas heating in thousands of buildings.




The power plant burns the gas to heat water, which creates steam, which turns a turbine, which generates electricity which then gets turned back into heat at my stove.

The gas burned at my stove doesn't need 5 times as much because the heat from burning it goes directly into whatever I'm cooking on my stove.


I am very aware how natural gas energy plants work. However, your oversimplification of the process misses a crucial point. Many power plants improve their efficiency for example by providing district heating, etc.

Your stove is not only heating your pan, it also distributes a lot of heat into your room. And during summer you probably use quite a bit of energy to cool down your again. An induction cooktop is the most efficient type with somewhere around 80% iirc. Also, your electric cooktop can easily be supplied with carbon free electricity, while your gas stove will never be carbon neutral. Not to mention the possible health implications of an open flame burning natural gas while cooking.


Have you ever tried to hold your hand next to the edge of the pot..? A lot of the heat is not going into the pan.


Yeah, the same thing is happening at the power plant.


It’s absolutely not.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: