Omelet said:
I grew up with a gas stove and I do agree that they have their
advantages when it comes to heat control, but I have this paranoia about
a flammable liquid being pumped into my home. I specified all electric
when I was looking for a house. ;-)
Ridiculous...far, FAR more houses are destoyed from fires due to
faulty electric wiring than gas explosions. Far more people are
electricuted by electric stoves than blown up by gas stoves. Actually
electricution by electric cook stoves at home is still pretty
common... gas stove explosions are very rare these days. With propane
a special valve is installed outside the structure that instantly
senses any extraordinary gas flow and immediately closes... very much
like a GFI. besides cooking I heat with propane, the propane company
automatically installs the special valve and they know how to set it
according to particular appliance useages.
Your electric stove has to rely on the ordinary breaker in your
distribution box, it won't open the circuit even if you roast to a
crisp.
At one time gas stoves weren't very safe but modern gas stoves have
many more safety features than electric stoves. Your fear of gas
cooking is a hold over from the olden days of stoves you needed to
light with a match and then with pilot lights, those no longer exist.
Now I don't believe that gas clothes dryers are very safe, if they
would come up with a better way to deal with clothes dryer lint I
would seriously consider switching to gas... but even though a gas
dryer costs about four times less to operate than electirc I'd have to
think about that because I only dry like two small loads a week, and
often less as I hang a lot of clothes outdoors to dry, and even in
winter I hang clothes in the basement... I typically only dry stuff
half way especially towels to fluff them up and finish by line
drying. I cook a lot more than I dry clothes.
Now oil home heating is more dangerous than gas and electric, but in a
different way, oil is very dirty and causes respiratory disease...
anyone who heats their home with oil pretty much may as well smoke
tobacco.... heating with kerosene, coal, and wood is just as bad...
anyone who claims otherwise wouldn't be recommending carbon monoxide
detectors, and in many municipalities it's the law... if there's
carbon monixide leakage into living spaces so is there all the other
products of combustion. Gas is not perfect but it's much cleaner
burning than oil, in fact there's another savings, gas furnaces need
no regular cleanings and tuneups
Sheldon
