More gas vs electric range safety
There was a recent discussion here about a WaPo article raising the issue of whether electric ranges are safer than gas stoves. The WaPo authors tippy-toed around the clear conclusion: operating gas ranges cause indoor air pollution. They even published test results showing high concentrations of toxic gases while the stove was running, but backed away from a clear conclusion with the excuse that background levels were also detectable when the stove was off. They did note, however, that the background levels were likely due to always-on pilot lights and possible gas leaks.
There are two major ways that gas ranges are dangerous: the health risks from air pollution, and the risk of explosion. There have been several recent cases of home explosions due to gas leaks. The domestic gas pipe infrastructure is aging and leaking. I think another cause is modern Gordon Gekko capitalism - low maintenance means more profits for investors. Gas utilities are also trying to offload the liability for gas leaks, accidents, and explosions onto homeowners by placing meters on house structures rather than in public rights-of-way.
In a couple of posts in this thread I described why I love my electric cooking facilities, including a cheap induction hot-plate.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127171908
But this morning The Guardian ran an apropos article on the topic. A woman's dog detected an underground gas leak and dug a hole pinpointing it, saving the neighborhood from a catastrophic explosion just before xms:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/18/dog-kobe-saves-owner-gas-leak-philadelphia
"In her video, Kobe’s owner, Chanell Bell, recounts how she noticed her four-year-old dog kept digging in a hole that was in the concrete of her front yard. Bell said she thought to herself, “This is not like him.” But she decided to investigate further because there had been a gas leak in her home in the previous weeks, and she was having problems with her heater.
Bell said she got a gas level reader, checked inside her home and found nothing unusual. However, when she spotted him digging in the hole in front of the house again on 21 December, Bell used the reader to check there, and it detected the presence of gas, she said.
Crews spent three days repairing the leak which Kobe had spotted, as Bell told it. Workers remarked that something as simple as turning on a light switch could have caused the flammable gas’s fumes to ignite and blow up Bell’s whole house, making the importance of Kobe’s alertness crystal clear."
Domestic gas usage is increasingly dangerous.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...the use of dangerous natural gas.
(It is the use of dangerous natural gas that has led to the decline of coal in the US, where the general population is oblivious to the fact that, worldwide, the use of coal is increasing, not decreasing.)
Of course, people in the US like to lie to themselves and each other by making the very disingenuous claim that electricity is "green," which it isn't pretty much anywhere in this whole damned country other than a few rural or semirural areas.
The carbon intensity of the US:
The key to the colors is obviated by passing the cursor over them at the Electricity Map link.
The fact is that the United States while it may have substituted much coal with dangerous natural gas, still burns huge amounts of coal while we all wait, like Godot, for so called "renewable energy" to lead to the elimination of coal, which it can't or won't, because coal is, while extremely dirty, reliable and the materially unsustainable so called "renewable energy" isn't. Like that coal dependent hellhole Germany, if the access to gas declines or disappears, the US will burn coal, and in effect, every electric stove will become a coal stove.
