NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
I've wondered how well an induction stove works with a wok - I've seen adverts for induction woks but I don't know anyone who has used one - I have used a wok on an electric coil and it's awful, you can't change the temp of the whole pan fast enough, nor can you focus the heat source to a smaller center area like you can with gas.  I'm wondering if induction provides that kind of control.

I looked at a couple of countertop induction units but - the PRICE!  Wow!

 BlueHeronDruid wrote:  
Electricity costs vary widely across the US.  Where I live it's seasonal and highly progressive.  The rates quickly jump 4 fold per KWH the more you use.  And the "baseline" amount is a joke, hard to imagine anyone being able to stay below it unless you burn wood for heat, eat raw food, and wash your clothes by beating them on rocks in a stream (where's the emoticon for that?)

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Try heating and cooling a 4600 sf 1890 Queen Anne. Since it is just me living here and the house has 3 zoned HVAC I can keep areas I don't use at closer to ambient. So far my worst winter month has been $440 for gas/electric/water/trash. This last month which was pretty mild was $161 for gas/elec/water/trash. All those utils are on the same bill from the city that runs them all.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Ouch! Yeah, well, the New Joy Sea house was a wonder of power consumption. In summer, the pool pump and two-zone A/C. Since the hot tub was on a separate meter, we know that cost us a dollar a day.

Winter? Fuel oil. Yah. Also dual furnaces, but sheesh. Thank heaven we had solar water heating. Glad I'm not running that house anymore. Kinda.

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
that's very low indeed.  ours for this 900 sf apartment can be $120 in January and over $150 in August.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
You'd think, but this is a much smaller house than we've had in the past, and our electric bill is smaller than ever. I have no idea how that works, particularly with our ceilings, but it's true. Around $70 in the non-heating season and about double in winter (Dec., Jan., and Feb.). This was a particularly mild winter, too.

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
ew. 'spensive.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Though we can with the fireplace. Our heat is electric forced air.

I'm gonna sweet talk hobbitt into  this over the course of the next year or so.

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
You guys heat with propane too, right?

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Every kitchen I've ever owned until now had a separate cooktop (hob) and wall ovens. Now we have a free-standing range and although I finally have gas cooking (propane), I'm handicapped by having just one oven. It's always something.

 oldslabsides wrote: 

Yup, turn a ring on and you see a dull red glow. It seems to know when there is a demand for heat - a house we swapped in Spain a couple of years ago had one - put a pan on the "ring" (it's all a smooth glassy surface) and it immediately gets brighter, move a pan off and it dulls down.
 
As Jrzy said, you need a pan with a good flat bottom, but, I reckon, no more than you would with a traditional electric hotplate.
 
The stuff Enzo was talking about, the induction dodaa, sounds seriously high end, but that's just the way he rolls.
 
It's odd, though, that the idea of a seperate hob and oven is seen as strange over your way. It's pretty much standard here - you buy an oven to go under your work top, and a hob to go on top - the two are entirely seperate, hence the prevailing choice of electric oven and gas hob (in modest houses, the more upscale types use huge designer "commercial" ranges so that they can pretend to be Gordon Ramsey. They also tend to drive enormo-SUV's. Pillocks.)
 
Stuff about kitchen kit here

 hobiejoe wrote: 
I thought you were keeding.  I never heard of such a thing.

We have glass top electric.  Everything about the control of the temperature is true... it's slow, uneven, and difficult to control.

BUT, the cleanup on this glasstop is FANTASTIC.  No worries.  I can be cooking 4 things at once and guests are over talking to me, and if something boils over, it's not a huge mess.   It looks great all the time.  I love it. 

 Xeric wrote: 
I hated that GE Gas Stove (it came with the house) so I usually used my antique Crystal Star a few posts back. They made that GE so it was impossible to clean with the "sealed" gas burner units. Spills would run down the inside of the plastic insulator tubes with the wire from the igniter circuitry and all it took was one and it shorted all 4 out. Taking the top off the oven to get the tubes out to clean them out (and dry them) meant pulling the stove out from the cabinets to get to it. Also the self cleaning oven used tons of energy and stunk the house up badly. It sucked big time. My Crystal Star everything simply lifts off and you take it to the utility sink and rinse it off and dry it and your good to go.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Sounds like just the ticket for backpain.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
A halogen burner will light up the entire kitchen before you put a pan on it. And it's very, very hot.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
Don't think so, the halogen is radiated infra-red.

 Xeric wrote: 
I'd go gas all the way. 

 hobiejoe wrote: 
maybe we are talking about the same thing?

 DaveInVA wrote: 


This is still the standard situation. The ovens use an electric ignitor that requires power, and the gas is safety-interlocked with that ignitor. No power/no gas flow/no manual ignition. The burners are valved manually, so a match fires 'em right up, power or not.

Gas. No question.

Safety is not an issue, unless you're incredibly paranoid. Gas works better, period. (For the "hob." Many of the high-end houses we do use a gas cooktop and a separate electric oven, so maybe there's some reason for that. My "baking" starts and ends with frozen pizzas, so I wouldn't know.)