How Electrification Can Keep You Healthy
It’s Thanksgiving week here in the US again. That means a lot of people will be spending a lot of time indoors with ovens and cooktops firing. I’m one of those people. We’re having a big get-together at my house, and I’ll be continuing my 20+ year tradition of baking a pumpkin cheesecake. But the good news is that we’re doing it with a new electric induction range! And that’s one way that electrification can keep you healthy.
Cooking with gas
Cooking with gas produces a lot of different pollutants in three ways. First, there’s the stuff released by the food as it’s being cooked. The worst of that comes from frying things. Yes, electrification can keep you healthy by limiting your exposure to some indoor air pollutants, but it won’t help with this type. The source of the heat is irrelevant here.
Second, there are the products of combustion that come from the cooktop burners. Complete combustion of gas produces only water vapor and carbon dioxide. Neither of those is considered a pollutant by itself. But it’s rare to have complete combustion on a gas cooktop. One of the main pollutants emitted there is nitrogen dioxide, which is one of the 6 worst indoor air pollutants.
Third, combustion in the oven is different from an open cooktop. The specifics of that process sometimes can lead to big spikes in carbon monoxide. Occasionally that spike can be huge. One time I measured the carbon monoxide as a gas oven was warming up, and it peaked at over 1,000 parts per million! I’m not kidding. I wrote a while back about David Richardson of the National Comfort Institute warning that the sleepiness you feel after that big meal may be from carbon monoxide, not a food coma.
Backdrafting water heaters
Another way that gas can be bad for indoor air quality is the spillage and backdrafting of natural draft gas water heaters. The exhaust gases are supposed to go up the flue (the metal pipe above the tank as seen in the photo below).
But those gases feel no obligation to obey the arrows we silly humans draw for them. They follow the laws of physics, specifically pressure differences. When it’s easier for the exhaust gases to go out across the top of the water heater and into the indoor air, that’s what they do. Then you end up breathing whatever is in those exhaust gases if the water heater is indoors.
Switching to an electric resistance water heater or a heat pump water heater eliminates all exhaust gases because there’s no combustion.
A good start
Even if you’re interested in making these changes to electrify your home, I know it’s probably not going to happen this week. But there is one thing you can do to breathe cleaner air this year (if you’re not already doing it, that is). It’s the thing that causes a lot of pollutants to get into indoor air (and then lungs).
And that thing is…drumroll please: Turn on the range hood! Yep, that’s the number one reason that a lot of pollutants from cooking get into people’s homes. They just don’t turn on the exhaust fan. So that’s another way electrification can keep you healthy. Run that electric fan to exhaust the pollutants!
Electrification is not of the 7 steps to good indoor air quality that I’ve written and spoken about. But it’s certainly can be part of source control, which is the most important step in my opinion. (If you want to go deeper, I now have an online course covering the 7 steps in detail over at HeatSpring.)
Happy Thanksgiving!
We’re doing another big Thanksgiving this year. I’ve got sisters, an aunt, and a cousin coming from Texas and Florida again. And our new basement guest suite is ready! And yes, I’ll be baking another pumpkin cheesecake. That’s the unhealthy activity I prefer during the holidays.
I hope you have a happy, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving with your family, too!
Allison A. Bailes III, PhD is a speaker, writer, building science consultant, and the founder of Energy Vanguard in Decatur, Georgia. He has a doctorate in physics and is the author of a bestselling book on building science. He also writes the Energy Vanguard Blog. For more updates, you can follow Allison on LinkedIn and subscribe to Energy Vanguard’s weekly newsletter and YouTube channel.
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Happy Thanksgiving back atcha! I couldn’t help but notice a few things about that water heater. First, the plumber should not have soldered copper fittings directly on the heater. There are no unions and no dielectric junctions. This creates more work should you ever want access. There’s no insulation on the pipes. The big one however is that the flue isn’t hooked up. Don’t hire that guy again!
Yours, Larry
Larry: The no-insulation is obvious, but could you explain why you say “the flue isn’t hooked up”? In the bottom of it I see a bolt that appears to be tightened. Are you saying there should be no gap between the bottom of the flue and the top of the draft diverter? Also, please explain your first comment. I understand the need for dielectric unions to prevent galvanic corrosion of dissimilar metals. But does it “create more work” because you have to unsweat the joint instead of just unscrewing it?
Hi, To start, I think I saw the draft hood wrong. I’m not used to a stepped pattern. It looked like the vent pipe was hovering above the draft hood. Looking more closely, I see the hood reduces down, so I flubbed… About the soldering, most people are not comfortable with soldering, even some plumbers now who only use press. For things to be done in a “workmanlike manner” I like to see disconnects on any appliances or parts that may need service or replacement. In the West, we mostly just use flex connectors as there are earthquakes too. And, even though the nipples in the tank are plastic lined, I’ve found that copper screwed directly to them eats away the top of the steel nipple. Hope that clarifies. 😉
Best wishes to you and your family, Allison. I’m Canadian and have already celebrated but know what an important holiday it is for you folks.
Franklin: Is Canadian Thanksgiving not as big a deal as ours? I think you have it as a national holiday, don’t you?
It is not nearly as big a deal. They didn’t even figure out when to celebrate it here until 1957. I explained why in a Treehugger post in the website link. “ Canadian Thanksgiving is not as exciting as American Thanksgiving—there are no massive parades, no big bargains to chase, it’s not the busiest day of the year in the airports. Just food, friends, and family.”
An article about combustion byproducts of natural gas stoves that hasn’t been deleted by the NIH: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10901287/
Imagine trying to ban gas stoves!
And when the range hood is on, open a not-too-distant window, regardless of the fuel type.
Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
Paul: Thanks for the link. I don’t think I’d seen that article before.
There are gas water heaters of the condensing design that force the exhaust outside overcoming the pressure difference issue. Yes, they are still burning natural gas but not polluting the indoors.
I have three heat pumps, but not one on the hot water heater. No access to outside air so cooling the house
to heat water does not make sense.
John: Yes, sealed combustion is definitely safer. Direct vent water heaters are another option that’s safer. It’s the natural draft water heater that’s most likely to put exhaust gases inside the home. But there’s another problem with all gas appliances that I didn’t mention: gas leaks. When I talk to people who do a lot of gas leak testing, they tell me that a really high percentage of homes have gas leaks. Like 80 to 90 percent high.
Switching to induction is our next home project! Though admittedly we’re driven more by it being much safer for our daughter given her disabilities (and the extent to which she’d always drawn to the most dangerous thing in the room).
An induction range with actual knobs rather than buttons!? nice find.
Alyce: You’ll love it! At least, we love ours, as do most people I talk to who’ve made the switch.