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45 Degrees North: The Flip Side of Gas Stoves [1]

['Donna Kallner', 'The Daily Yonder']

Date: 2023-12-01

Like many rural people, last winter I heard that the federal government might consider a ban on gas stoves. And I completely missed the statement that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission was not, in fact, looking to ban gas stoves but is studying ways to reduce potential indoor air quality hazards from gas appliances. As a result of that oversight, I did something completely out of character for me:

I decided to replace my gas stove before it fails completely.

To be more accurate, first I stewed and fretted for a few months. My gas stove is 30 years old. I don’t think its remaining useful life will exceed mine. What if, on the dark day that it dies, new gas stoves are no longer available? Don’t they know why gas stoves make sense in rural areas like mine?

For those who’ve never lived out yonder, it can be hard to understand how often we deal with power outages. Unless we have a whole-house generator or some other power source, a lot of us must be prepared for extended electrical outages, which can happen any time of year. When you’re outside the area of a municipal water system, you rely on a private well for water. It takes electricity to pump water from a well to faucets. So we keep big jugs of water on hand for unexpected outages and fill buckets with water when the weather forecast hints at the potential for disruption in our electrical supply. That’s water we need for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, and washing our bodies, which can get pretty rank after working to clean up storm damage.

I heat that water on a gas stove purchased after electric igniters replaced continuous pilot lights. That change, as I recall, was to increase energy efficiency and decrease harmful emissions.

During an electrical outage, I cannot use my oven because there’s no way to light it manually. But I can light the stovetop burners the old school way: A box of kitchen matches sits by the stove 24/7/365.

Our fuel comes from a 500-gallon pressurized Liquid Propane (LP) gas tank – a common feature on rural properties. LP gas flows from the tank through supply lines to the on-demand water heater that is the heart of our radiant heating system, and to our kitchen stove.

It took me a while to notice that most of what I read about gas stove emission concerns did not distinguish between two very different types of fuel – natural gas and LP. Consumer Reports used natural gas ranges and cooktops for testing and said their experts “expect the results would be similar when using propane, given the similar combustion of the two gasses.” Harvard Health Publishing didn’t address LP at all. The Stanford study it cited specifically addressed methane and nitrogen oxide emissions from natural gas residential stoves, cooktops and ovens.

But there are big differences between natural gas and LP.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas is the most widely used residential heating fuel in the U.S. (46% of homes). The percentage of homes using electricity as a primary heating fuel has grown to 42% (up from 38% 10 years ago). Propane is the primary heating fuel in a smaller share of homes nationally, but is used widely in the upper Midwest and Northeast. Like here at 45 degrees North, where the winter heating season can last six months.

When natural gas lines were run through our area, we hoped those lines would reach us. We had heard that natural gas is cheaper than propane. No surprise: They stopped short of our address. I guess there are too few potential customers out here to make it profitable.

Since natural gas wasn’t an option for us, I didn’t really pay more attention to it until I started researching new stove options.

According to National Energy Education Development, raw natural gas contains about 90% methane. It’s a non-renewable fossil fuel that releases carbon dioxide when it burns and methane if it leaks – environmental impacts that can’t be ignored forever. Natural gas stove emissions of nitrogen dioxide, benzene and other gasses affect indoor air quality and pose potential health risks.

All the years that we heated the old farmhouse with wood took a toll on my lungs. And radon didn’t help. Potential health risks associated with natural gas might be enough to make me think twice about choosing it, particularly if we had small children. But for us and many like us, natural gas isn’t an option.

Liquid propane, on the other hand, is considered a very clean burning fossil fuel and suitable for use in indoor settings. It was approved as an alternative fuel under the Clean Air Act, as well as the National Energy Policy Act of 1992. About 90% of the LP gas used in this country is produced in the United States. LP may be more expensive than natural gas, but it’s about twice as energy efficient per cubic foot. It’s delivered to the tank on my property by a friendly guy who checks our supply on a regular schedule and fills the tank before it’s empty.

The Propane Education & Research Council says using propane produces 52% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using an equivalent amount of electricity generated from the grid (although the exact reduction depends on how your electricity is generated). As for the impact on propane-fueled cooking appliances on indoor air quality, the organization says gas stove headlines bent the facts in favor of electric appliances. “We certainly must work to eliminate the presence of harmful emissions in and near homes,” they say. “No matter what fuel source you’re using — gas, electricity, or wood — cooking can contribute indoor air pollution. That’s why it’s vital to pair your cooktop with a quality range hood.”

So when we shopped early Black Friday sales for a new stove, we bought a new hood. This one has a greater intake area than our old hood to increase the air exchange. And I’ll be using it more – much more – than I used the hood it’s replacing. To be honest, I hardly ever turned that one on unless something in a fry pan was filling the kitchen with smoke.

Now that I’m not so concerned that the government is coming to take my gas stove, I probably could talk myself into making do with the one I have for a while longer. It still works. Over the years, we replaced the oven igniter twice. When the oven temperature setting marks wore off the oven dial, I used fingernail polish to mark the knob. That was in the late 1990s. I can, more or less, set the dial where it needs to be.

But the oven temperature regulation has gotten finicky. That makes it hard to multitask without risking burned bottoms on cookies and muffins. The enamel on the oven floor is pitted. I manage to sweet-talk the oven door into closing more or less completely most of the time. But one of these days that door connection will snap. Probably during a holiday baking marathon.

Or it could fail when the snow is deep. When our washing machine croaked we had to shovel and trim a rose bush buried by the snowplow before we could back the pickup close enough to the porch steps to get a replacement into the house. I don’t blame businesses for not wanting to deliver appliances so far out in the country, especially in winter. But since delivery isn’t an option for us, we decided to buy a new stove before winter snow begins to accumulate.

Our new stove doesn’t even have a dial for the oven temperature. The control panel for the oven has settings I’ve never used. That new hood will probably work overtime while I learn the difference between conventional, convection and air fryer oven modes. The “edge-to-edge” cooktop is supposed to be more stable under large pans – things like my pressure canner and Bill’s giant kettle for homebrewing beer. The increased BTUs available from one large “power burner” should decrease the time it takes to bring those large pots to a boil. There’s even an oval burner and griddle centered between the four round burners – perfect for fried eggs, grilled cheese, patties made from home-canned fish. We should be able to cook a batch of pancakes in half the time.

And I can light those burners with a match when the power is out. Out here, that’s really important.

This article has 15 helpful gas stove safety tips.

Donna Kallner writes from Langlade County in rural northern Wisconsin.

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