gas, electric, wood..?

[rnmom23]

Our 30 yr old electric oven has kicked the bucket (at last! ) Time for something new. I'd love to try a wood stove, but wouldn't be real economical as our property has no timber What's your preference?

[MorrisonCorner]

Gas. hands down gas. Cheaper to operate, more precise, and works when the power is out!

[ibcnya]

Originally Posted by MorrisonCorner

Gas. hands down gas. Cheaper to operate, more precise, and works when the power is out!

Gas without a doubt. Gets hot quick and easy to adjust. After having electric for 30 yrs and you get gas you'll wish you did 29 yrs ago.

[marvella]

another vote for gas.

[nodak3]

Gas. Those woodstoves stay hot in summer far too long. And electric just doesn't cook as well.

[airotciv]

Gas. my 30 year old stove hasn' t died yet. Just waiting for the day to get gas. Well I mean stove wise. :haha:

[OD]

Gas.

[boxwoods]

gas of course

[sisterpine]

gas for sure, either natural gas or LPG!

[MaineFarmMom]

We made the switch to propane two years ago. When the dryer dies I'm switching that over too. We have propane stove/oven, lights and fridge in our camp. It's convenient, you can cook when the power goes out, it's effcient and it's been less expensive. I'm not sure how the cost compares to electric else where. We pay a high rate for electricity.

[edcopp]

95% of ours is done with a microwave oven. Handy as a pocket on a shirt.

[foxtrapper]

Another Gas vote. I've cooked on all three (four if you seperate out the two types of gas, and they do burn differently).

My only real gripe with gas is the burner design on home stoves. A flame ring is a lousy setup. If you can spring the bucks for the commercial type of burners that have the flame in X patterns, you'll be much happier.

Cleanup wise, those seamless electric top types are really nice.

[BCR]

Gas! When its on its on and when you turn it off its off....you can see that clearly. Electric is slow to heat up and cool down. When the electric is out you can still use the gas stove. No carrying/cutting/storing of wood during all kinds of weather (unless you already do that for a heat source).

[Alex]

There, three votes for wood cookstove -- so nice to wake up and strat the fire -- heats up quick as gas -- radiant heat -- such a nice bone warming feeling.

This morning it was 44F outside, 68.7F inside -- no heat at night and door in bedroom partly open most of the night. Nancy started the cookstove, and yes! made blueberry pancakes again -- second time in 11 days! WOW. Then in one-half hour our little log cabin was, and is now 73.8F -- going to let her go out, OH, SHE is, Katie-II-the-Cookstoe.

If don't plan on heating your house with one, then a cookstove is great -- love her, combined with micro wave and gas, oops . . . hmmm -- only use a little gas in the summer, BBQ on the deck. For heating though -- get a big catalytic Blaze King or something like it. It has a great range 7,000 to 90,000 Btu/Hr.

Just posted this on June 6, 2005:

YUM, Nancy Made Blueberry Pancakes This Morning on Katie II the Cookstove.

And from Jan 19, 2005 post of mine:

New Blaze King - Catalytic - 82.5% effiecient - Great Stove -- minus 35F outside, Jan 2005 -- 72F inside.

There, my votes are for wood -- hands down -- go get the wood one weekend and store it in the carpark.

Too bad if you can't get wood. We have hundreds of thousands of acres of wood all around.

Good Luck,

Alex

[almostthere]

We have electric. In winter its great b/c it heats up half the house. We turn down the gas heat and make some bread or a big roast, and even off the heat radiates for a time. But in the warmer months, not so great..we try not to cook too much or cook outside. Where I am the gas bill is more expensive than the electric. They are on the same bill and I can compare. But I must say, I really miss cooking on a real fire. Maybe in the next house.

[Michael W. Smith]

Natural Gas!! It's clean, it's efficient, it works when the power is out (you do have to light a match with electronic ignition) and best of all it's free.

We have had 5 gas wells drilled on our property within the past 4 years and I get to use over 1 million cubic feet of gas / year for free. (And in case you are thinking - hmmmm, wait until the gas company decides to close those wells off - we have our own gas well that we own that was drilled in the early 1900's. Our house will always have natural gas - no matter what happens.

[RenieB]

My main cookstove is electric although we do have an old gas stove that we use for canning and when the power goes out (which is often here). Also have a wood stove. I prefer gas for cooking so I would recomend that the only reason we don't use it all the time is gas is expensive here.

RenieB

[Quint]

Probably gas.

Personally I would rather have an electric conventional or possibly convection oven and a gas range top. I don't care for gas ovens. Gas is the only way to fly for a range top though.

One problem I have seen with a couple of new gas ranges friends have bought is that you can't use them if the power is out due to their electric igniter system. No electricity=no gas flow. Another safety nanny innovation to keep idiots from asploding themselves. Something to keep in mind if you are purchasing a new gas range.

[texican]

If I could only have one stove :no: it'd be gas, without a doubt. Dream kitchen has the big gas range, and in the corner a wood burner, and a wood burning bread oven... I'm prejudiced towards gas, as I've got unlimited free natural gas...

Michael, do they meter you? You said you were allowed up to a million cubic feet a year? My original gas lease papers say I can use as much as I can use...a new company bought out the company that runs my well, and they were none too happy to find that I was using so much. One day alone, 650,000 cu. feet (650mcf) ran thru my line...of course, there was a leak, caused by their truck crushing my line.....the point is they hollared loudly (around $6K lost ), but I pointed out that it didn't matter how much it cost, or how much I used, the contract was the contract...if they wanted to shut the well in, kill the lease, and start over, that was fine (of course, this'd cost em close to a million), or they could buy out my gas rights, for ~100K+. That quieted em down...

[Michael W. Smith]

Originally Posted by texican

Michael, do they meter you? You said you were allowed up to a million cubic feet a year? My original gas lease papers say I can use as much as I can use...a new company bought out the company that runs my well, and they were none too happy to find that I was using so much. One day alone, 650,000 cu. feet (650mcf) ran thru my line...of course, there was a leak, caused by their truck crushing my line.....the point is they hollared loudly (around $6K lost ), but I pointed out that it didn't matter how much it cost, or how much I used, the contract was the contract...if they wanted to shut the well in, kill the lease, and start over, that was fine (of course, this'd cost em close to a million), or they could buy out my gas rights, for ~100K+. That quieted em down...

There is a meter, but I don't even think they look at it. When I was approached 6 years ago, the standard lease was to give you 200,000 cubic feet. They said they would give me 300,000. Of course, they wanted my property as they wanted to run a gas line through it to sell to another gas company. (They were willing to do just about anything.) In my lease, they agreed to have a well drilled within 6 months or the lease was null & void. I was able to get 300,000 cubic feet on the first well, & 200,000 on each additional well. It is only for personal use - house, garage, etc. NOT for business use. However, if I would put a business on the property, I would still get the gas price paid at the well head - not retail. (The reason the gas company wouldn't give me all the gas is because a year before, a guy got 300,000 cubic feet per well, and then put up a greenhouse!) I still have my old well that I own completely, but the reason we now own it is because it had got drawn down to not be "profitable" for the company (in other words, they didn't want to have to plug it), so they "sold" it back to our family the property owners for $1.00.

Having a newer lease, at least I get royalties. Some of those older leases that allow unlimited gas only pays like $50.00 / year - a good sum at the time the lease was written, but inflation was never factored in.