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California is investing a half-billion dollars to decarbonize homes for low-income households
(www.quittingcarbonmedia.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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Climate
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As a german its so crazy to me, that so many people still use gas. Especially with their cheap (although fossil) gas prices. Good for californians to finally get electric appliances and induction stoves :))
For me the main benefit is the ability to still feed yourself if the power goes out for any length of time, and heat your house if it's in winter.
Otherwise you are eating cold canned beans and freezing. Power goes out fairly frequently at my place. We could electrify and install a backup generator but then you are still using gas just a different kind.
Sure, you're still using fossil fuels in that case-- for a few hours or maybe a few days a year, not every single day forever.
Plug in Batteries backup and solar panels are being quite cheap today and more interesting than a gas powered generator since you can use then even when there grid is up to lower you electricity bill.
I don't know the situation in the US but in Europe you can get the Zendure solarflow for example.
For less than 3000€ you get 5KWh batterie + 4 solar panel. The battery AND solar panels whether the grid is up or down.
That's good for 2 or 3 hours in the middle of winter. Tf you doing for the other 12+ until the sun is hopefully back and the linesmen might go to work and fix the issue? If power goes out at 5 PM and sunrise isn't until 9 AM you're still kinda fucked
That seems like a clear and obvious niche scenario. The majority of the US does not have frequent power outages and the majority of the US would be wiser to go to Solar (or wind locally) than get a backup generator (and that only gets more true every year). I only say this because I wish people creating minor social friction to the movement, like your comment, would remove that friction with a small "I know this is a niche scenario but..."
Could always have a small camp/hiking stove for the odd power outage.
Yep. I’m in an apartment with all electric now, but the city had a massive snow storm and power outage that lasted a week 3-4 years ago. 30-40 people died. The roads were so bad it was illegal to try and drive (travel ban) so a lot of people ended up freezing to death. I’m fortunate enough to have both a 23000 btu kerosene heater for emergencies and do a lot of camping so butane stove canisters for days, but all electric still has its downsides.
I like gas for certain types of cooking, especially those that involve actively flipping things in the pan. And even when I switch to induction some day, I'll still have my outdoor pizza oven, charcoal/wood grill, and, if I'm not gonna have gas indoors, probably a gas wok burner.
For anything involving wet heat (boiling, blanching, braising, steaming), anything involving the oven, and even deep frying, I'm looking to switch eventually. But for now, I do enjoy cooking on gas.
Yeah but it's becoming more and more apparent this is like sticking to your asbestos wall panels because they're fireproof
Feels like every other week a house explodes, killing everyone, and makes the news.
Gas is better for most of the cooking I like to do and lots of induction stoves have coil whine I can't tolerate.
I'm sure this is somehow "woke"
Hmm, let's take count
- people made this initiative while awake
Yep, it's woke
THEYRE COMING FOR YOUR GAS
Distant sadness noises of propane and propane accessories salesman from Texas
These were likely natural gas. Not propane. Hank wouldn't give a damn in this case.
Butane is a bastard gas.
I'll tell you ha-what
Will they replace cheap aluminum cookware?
Is that that common in the US? In Europe, you have to dig deeply in some shady discount shops to find aluminium pots.
So, one of several reasons America didn't really adopt induction cooktops en masse until recently has been cookware. There were like 50 years there of trendy cookware, none of which is suitable for induction stoves. Just off the top of my head, you had:
- Pyrex, Borosilicate glass
- Corningware, ceramic
- Revereware, stainless steel
- Calphalon, anodized aluminum
- Various brands of solid copper pans
- Various brands of teflon-coated steel
- Weird gimmicky allegedly nonstick shit
It's only been within the last couple decades that most off the shelf cookware has had an iron plate bonded to the bottom to make them induction compatible regardless of their interior surfaces. This, along with the consistently low price of natural gas in the United States, has kept gas stoves relevant.
My first set was aluminum, and I got it from IKEA
God damn Sweeds giving us Alzheimers
Read the headline.
When I got an induction range, my nice All-Clad brand pots didn't work because they were mostly aluminum. That's not a cheap brand either.
They’ve since changed and All Clad works on induction.
Do you have a link? I'm seeing that only their cast iron collection is compatible.
All-Clad’s D3® Stainless, D5® Stainless Brushed, and Copper Core® are examples of collections that are engineered to deliver precise results on induction cooktops, thanks to their bonded stainless steel construction with a magnetic stainless exterior.
https://www.all-clad.com/blog/post/best-pans-for-induction-cooktop
Oh dang, that was a recent change then. I've had this range since before COVID, and I want to say they were D7 pans, but I don't really remember. It had a brushed exterior, and the magnet didn't stick to it at all.
Some grades of stainless steel is not magentic.
I use Allclad D3 l. It works just fine on induction
That sucks but I just got an induction and it is by far the best stove I've ever had. I can't believe people like gas to it's such garbage
Even a crappy Gas range is infinitely better than the shitty electric coil ranges. And that's what 99.9% of people have to compare. Most people have never used an induction range before.
I grew up cooking on an electric coil and recently now have access to a gas stove, and overall I find the gas stove has more downsides compared to the old electric coil. Technology Connections did a good video on the advantages of resistive coil stoves as well.
Yeah, my partner's mother has a professional grade gas range/ovens in her home kitchen, so he was wanting gas until I introduced him to induction. Now he's turned into an induction evangelist, haha.
I found out about induction because I got a soup pot back in the early 2000s that was marked on the bottom as induction capable, so I looked up wtf that meant, and wanted one ever since. My induction range came with a convection oven, which I've also wanted for forever, and that has an air fryer mode.
I only give it an 8/10 tho because it has touch buttons instead of knobs, so it doesn't always recognize my finger, but a drip of sauce will sometimes trigger it. Next time I'll find one with knobs.
Mine also has the convection oven with air fryer mode but I don't think it works all that great. That or air fryers aren't that great. I dunno, it's my only experience with air fryers
Oh, dang. This is also my only experience with air fryers, but mine works great. Never had crispier potatoes come out of my oven before.
I would still rather have a shitty coil one than use gas. Maybe if we had some regulations that required proper ventilation with gas stoves I'd feel better but that only seems to be the case in smart states like California
I didn't expect so many people on solarpunk forum crying for protection of dirty gas appliances 🤔
astroturf is made of oil
It's almost like you are federated with others
low-income house holds need to lower their carbon output so the rich can keep their private jets
That's also a way better range that leads to a far healthier indoor environment.
This will improve the lives of the people living in that house.
I'm gonna try to just be happy for them.
Assuming it isn't completely prompted anyway, I guess.
We both need low-income households to replace old appliances with electric ones and to end private jets.