Ketan JoshiCheers to everyone who delayed fossil fuel phaseout by saying "you can't switch off fossil fuels overnight"
Because thanks to them everyone now has to face a situation where fossil fuels are switched off overnight 🙃🙃🙃
Mason Loring Bliss@ketan I can't afford an electric furnace yet. Same with a solar installation. *We* can't afford people not to be on electric furnaces and solar.
It's all a horrible balancing act. We opted for carbon-free electricity thanks to it being available through a town initiative, but it's pretty expensive. We kept the furnace capped at 64° for a month and used electric room heaters over the winter, and we got a crushing $700 power bill that month. And at that, the house was still at "wear a sweater" levels.
I've been keenly wanting a solar installation for years, but *how*?
We need to get an electrician in to run 220v lines before we can replace our oven. We'll need to replace all our pans to use an induction top, and look for coil tops sometime - they're getting harder to find.
Maybe I should have not given as much to UNRWA and Doctors Without Borders and Middle-East Children's Alliance. What we gave didn't total enough for sonar panels or an electric water heater or furnace, though.
And we're doing better than many folks. There are people who can't afford food. That's not us at the moment.
What do we do as individuals to get past this? We know what we need to do as a society. That's easy. But what do we do as individuals without societal support for these necessary transitions?
I'll welcome actual, tactical advice, as long as it's not "join VHEMT" or similar.
Mike Anderson@mason I can't speak to all of that, but I will say that you likely do not need to replace all your pans to use an induction hob.
@mspcommentary When I was looking into it, I was told that you're going to get uneven heat if your pans aren't absolutely flat on the bottom, and mine aren't. Anything with a ridge is potentially going to be a problem. So, that's just more money to make it happen. The over is probably the lowest-hanging fruit out of what we need to replace, though, so we'll try to do it as soon as we can.
@mason a traditional wok will not work, but here is a picture of my moka pot; this model is specifically designed for use on induction hobs:
@mspcommentary Is that just for brewing? The Wikipedia article makes the device appear to be just for that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot
How do you use yours?
@mason for brewing coffee, yes. You use it by placing it on a stove. This one is designed for an induction hob and, as you can see, it has an indentation in the base. It isn't perfectly flat.
Which is not to say that all non-flat things will work. Traditionally shaped woks will not.
@mspcommentary Ah, before I gave up coffee I was using an electric water kettle and a Chemex, so my coffee-drinking was already maximally efficient. But I like your moka-pot a lot!
I still miss coffee keenly.