Oven Pilot Gives NYCHA Residents Induction Stoves for Air-Quality Project (New York: apartments, home)

[Aeran]

This is cool. I wish I could be a part of this project. I've seen these induction stoves but never used one myself. It's supposed to be better for the environment...

https://www.thecity.nyc/environment/...uality-project

The food was familiar at a Mott Haven cooking class on Friday: baked chicken, rice with pigeon peas and spaghetti with vegetable sauce.

But the methods were not.

Chef Sia Pickett taught over the clanging of pans, and a bit of sizzle and hum as she demonstrated how to use an induction range for a Bronx public housing tenant.

There’s a learning curve when it comes to cooking on an induction range, she explained. It offers the control of a gas range but results in a “different type of heat.”

“You gotta play around with it,” said Pickett, who owns a personal chef service called Malata Cuisine. “Everything cooks faster than you think.”

Recording Pickett’s work with her phone was Shavon Marino, a home health aide and one of the 20 residents of 1471 Watson Ave. who will be part of an induction stove experiment for the next six months. Ten will get electric-powered induction stoves, another 10 will use their old gas ranges, as the “control group.”

It’s a program run by the nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice, along with the Association for Energy Efficiency, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Berkeley Air Monitoring.

The project kicks off a transition from gas to efficient electric-powered cooking, in what will soon become the first New York City Housing Authority building to fully convert from gas to electric.

Pointing to the oven — which has settings for air frying, broiling, convection baking and roasting — Marino said, “I’m in love already. That’s dope.”

This week, Marino, 33, and eight of her neighbors are scheduled to get their own new induction stoves and sets of special pots and pans to use with them. (So far, one stove has already been installed.)

Marino said she’s looking forward to cooking fish sticks for her 6-year-old daughter using the air fryer, plus personal favorites like lamb chops and sautéed salmon.

“I’m not a chef, but I can definitely throw down some food,” she said.

Even the residents in the control group will have the option of getting new induction stoves installed when the program is over. Every participant will receive $500 in cash at the conclusion of the study.

The goal of the study is to test air quality in the public housing apartments with and without gas-burning kitchens.

Even the residents in the control group will have the option of getting new induction stoves installed when the program is over. Every participant will receive $500 in cash at the conclusion of the study.

The goal of the study is to test air quality in the public housing apartments with and without gas-burning kitchens.

[Interlude]

Considering that NY is generating that electricity using fossil fuels (even moreso now with Indian Point closed), are we really helping air quality? Do people think electricity just comes out of the wall socket? We are led by morons.

[Berniess]

it must be nice not having to pay electric bills

[Kefir King]

Are all the Induction stove cohorts getting their apartments rewired for the increased power draw?

[HellUpInHarlem]

Use that $500 to get out of the projects

[Dehumidifier]

So opening the window while cooking doesn't work anymore?

[Mr.Retired]

Dear Heaven,
with so much methane being released into the atmosphere ( literally seeping from grounds )
due to warming and still folks are being fooled into electrical energy that requires to be manually produced.

[Kefir King]

Originally Posted by HellUpInHarlem

Use that $500 to get out of the projects

It'll get you out for what, a week?

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Interlude

Considering that NY is generating that electricity using fossil fuels (even moreso now with Indian Point closed), are we really helping air quality? Do people think electricity just comes out of the wall socket? We are led by morons.

Yes, for a few reasons. Fossil fuels make up the majority of electricity generation for NYC, but not all of it. Moreover, there are multiple pathways to having other sources of electricity generation including ones that are competitive or better on pricing, so this is also is beneficial in that it allows for a much larger basket of potential sources compared to natural gas (which itself can be turned into electricity). This is probably the most important bit and goes well beyond any kind of emissions bonuses as that flexibility by itself is incredibly valuable over the mid and long term.

The other part of this is that natural gas stoves generally direct much of their combustion heat output to things other than what you're cooking with much of it radiating into parts that are not what you're cooking. Electric coil (resistance) cooktops can also be somewhat similarly inefficient in that sense and are even worse because if natural gas were the source used to generate electricity, then you also have the loss from that conversion to electricity to deal with. However, that's not what induction cooktops are. How induction cooktops operate are essentially a constantly oscillating magnetic field which induces an eddy current within the cookware and directly heats that up which is ultimately a very efficient conversion of electricity to heat. Now during winter times that extra heat that doesn't get directed to your cookware from a natural gas range or an electric resistance stove is generally fine. In summer however, that waste heat that doesn't go directly towards heating is probably fairly unwelcome.

Originally Posted by Kefir King

Are all the Induction stove cohorts getting their apartments rewired for the increased power draw?

The power draw is pretty minimal with induction stoves for the most part as they're really efficient. If you are one of the unlucky few who have had to live with an electric resistance cooktop, then your power draw for equivalent "cooking" is going to be much lower.

[minnomaboidenapolis]

It's all cool and nifty until your jaw drops when you see the electric bill.