I have seen different cooking methods as my grandmother used cooking coal and firewood. My mother used gas for cooking food. And now we have gas back in my country besides an induction cook-top. At my present location we have choice of a gas range as well electric range and can chose either. I am used to gas though so preferred renting a house with gas connection. By the way we have electric for water heating system, AC and dish washing and gas for oven and cooking. Please share what you prefer personally a gas or electric, and which one you find cheaper?
We have only electric for my cooking stove. I prefer only electric stoves because they are safer. We do not have the option of choosing what kind of fuel to have for our cooking. I've preferred electricity, having used gas and propane in my life. You don't know who smokes or uses lighters for their bar b ques so it's safer to have electric stoves I feel. Saving money with electricity payment is simple to do we unplug, turn off lights not in use and keeping the heater on for just about half an hour a day that keeps my water hot for 2-3 days. I pay about $48 a month for my electricity use-got a laptop, tv aside of electrical appliances, so it's very reasonable for a monthly charge, but then I don't have a choice.
We have a friend who lives in the mountain. Whenever we are there for a visit, I would admire their cooking facilities which is powered by firewood. They gather firewood in the forest but they don't cut trees. At the most, they cut big branches only and let the tree grows. I could see the hardship of using firewood for cooking because you have to cut it in the proper size and have it dried. When cooking, the smoke can hurt your eye and it's not easy to control the heat. But for a novelty, cooking with firewood is a great alternative.
@Alexandoy We still use firewood for BBQ in our garden or while camping although some camping sites forbid the use of wood as it could cause forest fire or no good for environment. Most of the camping sites also provide BBQ facility, at least in my present location but back in my country we still enjoy campfire and BBQ using wood. However natural gas is the main source as cooking medium now followed by electric- cooking range.
I prefer using gas for daily cooking but I have an induction cooktop too which I use when we are having guests and food needs to be prepared in very large quantities, in which case I use both the gas stove and the induction hotplate at the same time. Induction hotplate is quite useful as cooking time is relatively less than gas or other methods but some dishes require slow cooking so it is not ideal for such dishes.
We are using gas every day, in fact, we do not have another option. Maybe if I would buy something electric but my wife prefers to cook on our gas stove. It I easier to use, and it is cheaper. Besides we are making economy to gas every weekend because in every weekend I make a barbeque!
I'm in the process of buying a new cooker as the current one has a broken door. I asked the gas man which is best, and he said gas is better because with an electric stove you have to wait until it has cooled down, whereas gas is on and off. Therefore gas is better all round. I used to have an electric oven and gas hob which can work for some people, but it depends on what you cook. I only heat up frozen meals rather than roast joints and things, so it does depend on what you are cooking and how often you use the cooker to decide which is more cost efficient.
Well... Depends a lot on the need of each person (something personal or financial), right? But I think a mix of both sounds more efficient for me. That's the wise choice.
We're using gas on a regular basis and it's considerably cheaper compared to what we would spend if we opt for an electric stove or even induction type stove as these are usually high wattage appliances that consume between 1,000 to 2,000 watts. We have a standby rice cooker that we only use when we run out of gas and delivery is not forthcoming. This rice cooker has a wattage of 700 and it's good enough for cooking our rice requirements for a day and can also be used to steam and cook stew. We also have a turbo broiler which we generally use on weekends to broil chicken or pork belly. Our 11-kg gas tank lasts between two to three months and it only costs us around $10 per refill.
I have both gas and electric stoves in my household. I find this arrangement to be very covienient. The gas is cheaper than the electricity but if I am cooking and the gas should be finished, chances are that I might not have the funds to readily purchase the gas and have it delivered and even if I should purchase the gas, it would take a bit of time to arrive and that could pose problems according to what I may be cooking. In times like these, I could easily revert to the electric stove to continue my cooking without any hassle. Even though the electricity is more expensive than the gas, I alternate between both but there is more reliance on the gas. I have seen where some persons may have an issue with the safety of the gas but in ny country there are regulatory standards which has made the distribution and handling procedures very safe and there has hardly ever been any mishaps in regards to its usage.
In fact where I live we have multiple options depending on our choice. We can ask our builder to provide gas/electric as our energy suppliers have all options open. We have gas as our main cooking medium through pipeline but we use electricity for water heating and air conditioning. For BBQ we can again chose whatever we prefer but we use gas for it suits our kind of cooking. We also have electric rice cooker and microwave.
I prefer a gas since that is what we are currently using and I have had a good experience with it. A gas is really convenient because we can still cook even when there is no electricity. We just refill it after the gas runs out and it is not costly. I think a house with a gas connection is a good choice because you won't have to worry about the source of heat. I have no experience with the electric gas but I would like to use it someday.
There is no denying that electric cooker is good as long as you have constant power supply to enable you successfully complete your cooking without interruption from low current or even abrupt off of the power supply which is a common thing in most African States. Our poor electricity power supply affects a whole lot of things, cooking included. One might not see any power supply for a week or more in some situations, so you can imagine how your cooking would be if you depend on electric cooker. Gas is expensive but it would be best with the nature of power supply we normally experience here. But if one could buy the two, I think it's going to be more perfect. When there is light you make use of electric cooker, without light you make use of gas cooker.
@Heatman I absolutely agree with you on constant power supply so I would never depend on electricity back in my country India where electricity always plays a game of hide and seek especially in my parts where the population is really large. But I am living in one of the countries where power has gone just once in last three years with prior information and for lesser time than the announced outage. I am really so surprised to see that here people do not know about alternative energy sources like generators or invertors but back in my country even the poor people use inverters for emergency power supply.
I have only used gas maybe a couple of times. I prefer to use the electric stove as this the most popular and readily available option in my country. I do have a small gas canister for emergency use but my main cooking is done with the electric stove.
I have a combination and I have to say you can't beat gas central heating. It's just so warm even though it tends to be a bit on the pricey side. I have an electric cooker and obviously other electric appliances and my bills are reasonable so I am happy using the two. I would have considered solar panel heating but I was told my house didn't face the right way to get the full benefit of the sun.
I am currently using an electric mini stove and I actually like it as it doesn't take too much space and it is cheaper to have. Now I don't have to be buying gas tanks every two months or get them filled up and the electricity bil didn't increase too much. The food is actually cooked in the same time as it did when I had a gas stove so I am okay with it.
I use gas to cook. Not that it's the cheaper one than the electricity, but it's the one constantly available now. In my country, we are having a little bit problem with the electricity, so it has not steady for like a year now. So, gas is the next available option for me.
Well if there is one thing that I have learned is to have both is always the best, as we have had the power go out quite a bit lately, almost an alarming amount now that I think about it. Gas can come in handy, but it is a little messy.
I'm used to cooking in our dirty kitchen back in my younger age. The native way. Dry woods. Though, there are times cooking on a gas stove is a lot easier and faster. But when it comes to feasts, my uncle and others like to cook in the dirty kitchen for a number of dishes to cook.
