Ahead of Our Time - Trading Up and Our Electric Stove
The weather continues, unsurprisingly for January, to be loathsome. This time, there's a soaking rain falling from a dark grey sky that's made it feel like dusk since the sun came up. But there are bright spots. In the last little while, we've made some nice upgrades indoors, and one of our previous improvements - trading our old gas stove for an electric one - turned out to be prescient. I'm earning that inscription on my tombstone, "I told them so."
On the indoor front, we got a lovely new couch. It really ties the room together.
In the news this week:
"A US federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves | CNN Business"
At last, the Consumer Product Safety Commission caught up with facts that have been known for a while, and with us, and suggested taking a look at gas stoves. I recommend reading the article above for the details.
It was a bit of a struggle, which I think I recounted on the pages of this blog at one point, to get people to understand that we wanted to get rid of our gas stove, and upgrade to an electric one.
Victims of propaganda from the natural gas industry (e.g. "now you're cooking with gas") for decades, people have come to the wrong conclusion that gas stoves are superior.
When we moved into Surbiton Manor, the Hated Previous Owners (HPOs) left us with a broken refrigerator and a gas stove that smelled faintly of gas.
When we began hunting around to replace it, the first thing we wanted to do was get one that didn't rely on fossil fuels, that could be run on clean energy from our solar panels, and wouldn't fill our house with poisons like benzene.
But we faced pushback from electricians (needed to install the new outlet) and plumbers (needed to shut off the gas extension) alike. "Why are you going backwards?" one even asked.
Because, #1, we're actually going forward, and #2, it's our house and we can do as we please (as the electrician who got the job pointed out.)
So, the truth has finally pressed past decades of lies and bribery by the fossil fuel industries, and it is, as of this last week, common knowledge that gas stoves cause childhood asthma, release poisons into your house, and, of course, pour fossil fuel carbon into the atmosphere.
Since installing the electric stove, we can confirm that Kiki's adult onset asthma has improved. Certain we are that the house doesn't stink like gas anymore. Our only regret: not getting a tax credit for making the upgrade.
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