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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Check who pays for those surveys.  Induction is the most efficient at 90%. 
> Electric at 60%.  Gas, in the ideal world, at 50% and that would be your 
> old 
> stove or the millionaires only Wolfs, etc. 

I was wondering about the efficiency aspect of it.  Our neighbor the truck 
driver protested that although fuel prices might triple, still, says he, 
trucks 
are more efficient than trains.  I dug a bit.  In order to pull (level grade) 
100 loaded boxcars, it takes four engines the size of his truck engine.  
Doesn't sound like trucks are more efficient to me!  When I quizzed him, he 
said he 
meant they were more efficient in that you got your load to its destination 
more quickly, two days instead of three.

So the figures above are based on potential BTU's?  It surpises me a bit but 
it's true a lot more of the heat from the flame heats the air than does the 
heat from the electric coil when the pot is matched to the eye.

But a couple of things:  Electricity is more efficient once it is delivered 
to you, but is it as efficient overall?  I don't know, I'm asking.  Using 
coal 
or natural gas or fuel oil to generate electricity is very inefficient, much 
less efficient than making propane or mining natural gas.  Taking that into 
consideration, is it still more efficient?

Cleaner fits in here too.  It's certainly cleaner (or as clean) in your own 
kitchen, but not when we account for the untidiness of making the electricity.





 What they don't note is that 

> most of the heat from gas, 2/3 in most cases, goes up in the air, 
> particularly in ovens where it leaves via venting since you have to vent 
> gas 
> and don't have to vent electric. 


That's got me a bit puzzled.  My propane oven isn't vented.  It premixes the 
gas and air before it gets to the oven and combusts it electronically (the 
oven, alas, doesn't work when the electricity is off).  By products other 
than 
water and C02 are negligible.  I'm not sure how it works that gas and air 
keep 
going into the oven but hot air is not vented, but that's the case.