Ya know, we allow a lot of leeway in the cafe, but I’m thinking that the OP wasn’t looking for anecdotes about Happy Meals, weed, needle distribution, SF culture, etc. Can we dial it back or make a new thread?
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Not sure if this has been linked yet (I didn’t see it), but the Washington Post had a good article about some restauranteurs going over to induction stoves instead of gas. Said gas was horribly inefficient (like at most 40% efficient) while induction was upwards of 80% efficient. Here’s a gifted link: https://wapo.st/3ll0B2G
We have an induction hot plate we got when we were redoing our kitchen 15 years ago. I never really got into it, but it was handy to have then. The article made me interested in the whole induction stove thing, but I don’t know how well my cast iron would work on it.
We get power outages in the winter and the summer due to weather. We have a wood-burning fireplace we can fire up and I have cooked on/in that. We also have a propane grill we can use in the summer. Electric cars (which we also have) are great in power outages because they are basically one giant battery so you can plug your stuff into them or get an inverter and run your fridge, etc.
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There’s … a lot of inaccurate information in this thread. Just as the easiest one to highlight, here’s a McDonald’s in San Francisco, in March of 2022, selling Happy Meals.
More relevant to the thread, though, is that kitchen exhaust is critical. In the words of Corbett Lunsford, “it is the number one thing you can have in any home to make it healthier.”
You can see a great (and short) video of his that explains what a good kitchen vent solution looks like here.
Regarding stoves, echoing @BunsenBurner, you should run the vent every time it’s on, and it should be properly sized to your stove (an easy rule of thumb is 10 CFM for every inch of stove, and it should extend beyond the edges of your stove by an inch or two on each side). I disagree with @BunsenBurner, though, in that researchers in building science say that you should ventilate with your hood regardless of the kind of heat source. There’s the particulate matter that comes from the food, but for gas stoves, there’s also the CO₂ that it releases when it burns. As a quick test, I just took my CO₂ monitor over to my gas stove and ran it (no cooking / just the gas burning), without turning on the vent hood. The CO₂ levels very quickly spiked. (The decrease was when I turned on the vent and opened a window.)
One last point, from a building science perspective — several people up-thread mentioned opening windows, and that’s absolutely an important part of proper ventilation. If you have a 300 CFM vent hood running and sending air from inside your house to the outside, it has to get made-up somehow. If you don’t open a window (and most folks don’t have dedicated make-up air systems for their range hoods), the air will come from the cracks and small openings in your home. That could introduce moisture to the interior of your walls, creating good conditions for mold, or could pull radon gas up through your basement/crawlspace, or could suck air from an attached garage, pulling in exhaust fumes, gas fumes from lawnmowers, or other chemicals. Nasty stuff all around.
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I have an induction stove in our vacation home and I love it. I’m going to replace the gas stove in our main house as soon as it needs any repair (which is probably soon, since it’s 21 years old). I thought pots/pans for the induction stove would be a bigger issue and that I’d have to replace all of ours. Any pan that has a magnetic bottom will work on an induction stove. You can test your pans by taking a kitchen magnet and seeing if it sticks to the bottom of the pan. Cast iron pans work on induction as do enameled cast iron (LeCeruset). I had some All-Clad stainless steel cookware and there were only two pans that worked. I ended up buying 4 new pots/pans for the induction stove. I donated the stainless steel pots/pans to a local organization that collects furniture/home goods to help people in need make a home.
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I’m not sure why you’re measuring CO2. It is a harmless gas to your health (it’s the gas you exhale). It is everywhere, in the air, in your sparkling water…
Does he know anything about chemistry or biology?
Things that have landed us in the ER/urgent care over the last few years: cedar trees, a black walnut tree, a cat, bacteria from duck poop, a cortisone injection, someone’s perfume at church, outside mold, a bandage, a black fly, a black widow and an almond. Exhaust from the gas in my house is probably closer to the bottom of the list of things I’m worried about killing us here in SC. It’s all about perspective I suppose.
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Here’s a quick explanation on it from Washington State University.
Here’s a more involved document from ASHRAE.
They measure the exhaled CO2 concentration to make sure air is circulating inside a building (i.e. sufficient amount of oxygen can enter the building). It has nothing to do with the issue we’re discussing.
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Forgive me, I’m confused. Let’s assume the venting is adequate from the cooktop’s hood. Does it capture 100% of all the methane, CO2 and all the rest of the emissions released when cooking?
Obviously, when one is not cooking the stoves may be leaking emissions, but I’m referring to cooking.
As @1NJParent mentioned above, I must not be a good cook, because I use olive oil as well as avocado oil when cooking and not burning food 
and I still see something rising above the cooktop, which appears to be being captured by the vent, but maybe not all of it. That’s what I’m worried about. Plus, the emissions that I can’t see.
Here’s how I look at the pollution equation in California:
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Many major firestorms have been caused by the electric companies and their inadequate equipment and maintenance. This includes the Woolsey fire which nearly burned down my home four years ago.
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The pollution put out by those fires and the dangers to health surely caused much more damage than gas stoves. Not to mention the hundreds burned to death due to the negligence of the electric companies.
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So relying solely on electricity is foolish both for reasons of pollution, the dangers of relying on a monopoly for a source of too much of our power.
and on a practical level, when the electricity goes out (or is forced to be taken off line due to fire dangers), those of us with gas stoves can still have warm food. Those with gas furnaces will still have heat. Those with gas hot water heaters will have hot water.
Never put all your eggs in one basket is a good rule. That includes energy needs.
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As long as your cast iron pans have flat bottoms they’ll work very well. I gave mine away because I couldn’t handle their weight any longer. I’ve found other induction friendly cookware that’s lighter.
H and I have been very happy with the Bosch 36" induction cooktop I spec’d for our new house. Water boils faster than on our old Wolf dual fuel range and it’s a breeze to clean when we spill anything. It also does very well at low settings to melt butter or chocolate or gently warm sauces. The safety factor is appreciated also, especially since we often babysit our grandchildren.
I was able to get a 390 CFM exhaust fan, keeping just below the 400 CFM cut off for being required to have a dedicated makeup air vent, which is more than adequate since we don’t do any frying inside. For ventilation, I insisted on a Santa Fe whole house ventilating dehumidifier which is programmed to bring in filtered fresh air and condition it so that we don’t get the humidity problems an ERV caused in a former house.
We’re happy to no longer have any gas cooking appliances inside, or gas fireplaces (especially the ventless ones.) We do have a natural gas grill on the patio and have a connection for a future natural gas fireplace outside.
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95% of people in Hong Kong cook with gas in very often tiny and unventilated quarters. Yet, their life expectancy is the highest in the world at 85.29 years. Inhalation of “dangerous” fumes from my gas stove is the least of my health worries.
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I think CA is a special case. And in the words of Tommy Smothers - that is NOT a compliment.
So sorry you lived thru the fear and anxiety of possibly losing your home. We were evacuated during the CZU fire.
To your point, the pollution created by those fires was huge. And while part of the blame goes to our utility company it is important to remember they are regulated by the CPUC. And, those fires were also fueled by our inability to maintain our forest. Back to the topic at hand…
As I stated, CA is a special case. It wants to nanny to the max. So, if you live somewhere and do not encounter ‘CANCER CANCER CANCER’ warnings on just about every product; if you do not encounter Amazon limits on items that can not be shipped to CA - but are fine everywhere else; if you do not live the crazy that requires Costco to charge you a .25 cup fee as mandated by your very green and oh so environmentally loving county while stepping over garbage and used medical supplies on the way to that cup…you might see the gas stove ‘ban’ differently. It can reasonably be viewed as something to consider and possibly integrate into the future.
If on the other hand, if the above is what you see and live every day the extension to ‘your gas stoves is killing granny and children - oh save the CHILDREN’ might just result in one big yawn followed by righteous anger.
Add to that the constant threat of rolling blackouts, forced blackouts due to an abundance of caution and ongoing lack of infrastructure repair and upgrades and you can add a “WTH - NO!!! you will NOT take the thing that lets me eat, heat and run a generator during those electrical outages” to the reaction/response.
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We have a propane-fueled whole house generator at our 2nd home. The power goes out there a lot more - the power lines run alongside trees. Lots and lots of trees. The original owner installed it and we are so grateful.
Our power goes out at home, but typically for 24 hours or less - often overnight. At the other place, it’s been days.
One thing I am sure of is that I am going to die. I try to live wisely but will not live my life attempting eliminate all risk only to be uncomfortable or impoverished. I much prefer gas to a standard electric stove top (I prefer an electric convection oven) and would have a gas burner even if I had an induction burner. When the electricity goes out I can still cook indoors. It doesn’t happen often where I live but it does happen. I do have an induction burner primarily because I can boil water more quickly with it and it allows me to be able to use my large gas burner for sautéing etc. We have a gas furnace and an AC/ electric heat pump. The heat pump works down to about 39 degrees then the gas furnace takes over.
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Those prop 65 cancer warnings are just warnings. You can take them or leave them. They don’t cause much issue to me in my daily life…
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We always run our hood fan when cooking with our gas stove.
I don’t believe they’re taking away gas stoves. I heard that they won’t be putting them in new build homes.
As far as banning happy meals goes…I don’t think they’re healthy. My kids got them as treats, but it certainly was not an everyday thing.
As far as offering clean needles goes: dirty needles cause illness. I don’t think that’s the worst thing.
We live in Southern California…most of our power outages are not that long. And it never gets cold enough where we have to worry about going without heat.
I can think of many more things to worry about!
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