Health risks of cooking with gas

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by roland stockham

Building codes specify that a gas range must have a a hood which ventilates to outsside the house. I am not aware that small boat regulation are similar because boats are normally so much better ventlated because of issues like condensation. Generally you should have ventilation open anytime the is a flame burning or cooking. If you don' have usable ventilation cose to the stove that can be opened in rain at sea I would suggest fitting a dorade abouve the galley to take care of all the safety issues and remove cooking smells

My boat has a powerful exhaust hood over the stove, which exhaust through a duct through the transom together with the engine room exhaust ducting.



So much better situation than my last boat. But cooking with gas is still nasty. Combustion products and incredible amount of condensation. Gas on board is unhealthy and dangerous. My next boat will be electric only.

[rslifkin]

If the weather is good, the salon side windows are typically open on my boat when cooking. Depending on wind, this may or may not provide a lot of ventilation. There's also an exhaust fan over the stove to use, although it doesn't have a real hood, just the flat bottom of the cabinet it's mounted in. Fan exhausts through a vent at the top of the cabin sidewall over the side deck. My stove is electric though.

[Dave22q]

PLEASE spare us from the latest California hysteria. While I use propane not nat gas the idea of dangerous fumes is laughable. If I burn the bacon or boil cabbage I simply crack the hatch. My Morgan, like many well designed boats has a hatch directly over the cooking area.

[Stu Jackson]

My wife says: "Cooking on an electric stove is an oxymoron!"

[philiosophy]

I am seeing a number of yachts here in Tasmania drinking the Coolaid of all electric boat. Safety health, blah blah blah. Both thought they were super efficient and with modern Solar, AGM batteries and the latest in inverters. They both end up running their generators a bunch. BOTH BOATS WOULD BE FAR BETTER OFF WITH GAS COOKERS, DIESEL HEATERS, AND 12 VOLT REFRIDGERATION.That is unless they never leave the shore power.

[Mike OReilly]

Life... It'll kill you.

[Lepke]

Too much air freshener or body spray and then lighting up a joint will get you, too.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

But cooking with gas is still nasty. Combustion products and incredible amount of condensation. Gas on board is unhealthy and dangerous. My next boat will be electric only.

Agreed there is a danger, 230v mains electric has some risks too, but I am not sure cooking on gas is unhealthy compared to other heating options.

What generates the electricity? a gas power station on shore, plus a diesel engine on the yacht? may as well have the gas on board.

Pete

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Agreed there is a danger, 230v mains electric has some risks too, but I am not sure cooking on gas is unhealthy compared to other heating options.

What generates the electricity? a gas power station on shore, plus a diesel engine on the yacht? may as well have the gas on board.

It's not so much that electric cooking is cleaner in a big picture sense, but a boat is a pretty small space typically. So it doesn't take much to make the air quality in there pretty bad, even if only for a short period of time. Electric cooking will still dirty up the air in the boat, just not as badly as gas (only have cooking emissions, not cooking emissions plus combustion byproducts).

[psk125]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

It's not so much that electric cooking is cleaner in a big picture sense, but a boat is a pretty small space typically. So it doesn't take much to make the air quality in there pretty bad, even if only for a short period of time. Electric cooking will still dirty up the air in the boat, just not as badly as gas (only have cooking emissions, not cooking emissions plus combustion byproducts).

Unless you run a generator to get your electric stove to work... Cooking with gas seems like a problem we can live with- especially on boats with open hatches. The article does not go into detail or explain what levels of particulates might be noxious. It does mention nitrous oxides, which are a byproduct of gas combustion, as contributing to high levels of asthma. It also suggests that unvented gas space heaters are major suspects in the production of these oxides and their concentration in indoor air. Baking something for hours in a gas oven on board might be similar to running a space heater, but most of our on-board baking and cooking does not take long. And we keep the hatches open.

[Jim Cate]

On Insatiable II the major air pollution issue associated with cooking is when the hot bean paste hits the wok and the chilli starts vaporizing! Drives Ann right out of the cabin sometimes. An electric hob wouldn't help us very much.

Otherwise, the health issues from cooking on board haven't seemed to catch up with us yet after 34+ years full time living and cooking on board. I'm inclined to dismiss them as trivial in the great scheme of things.

Jim

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Agreed there is a danger, 230v mains electric has some risks too, but I am not sure cooking on gas is unhealthy compared to other heating options.

What generates the electricity? a gas power station on shore, plus a diesel engine on the yacht? may as well have the gas on board.

Pete

Up here, shore power comes from clean nuclear or wind or hydro. Power on board comes from a diesel engine which exhausts near the waterline; no exhaust on board.


Breathing combustion products from your gas stove won't kill you immediately, but it's sure not good for you. Keep hatches open and exhaust hood working. Because:

Originally Posted by rslifkin

. . . .a boat is a pretty small space typically. So it doesn't take much to make the air quality in there pretty bad, even if only for a short period of time. ..

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Breathing combustion products from your gas stove won't kill you immediately, but it's sure not good for you. Keep hatches open and exhaust hood working. Because:

Yes we are pretty good at that and whilst we don't have a cooker hood the companionway is 3ft from the stove and normally open. During winter sailing we will have the vents plus heating on which being blown hot air also ventilates they yacht, primarily to stop condensation.

Full time electric cooking would be nice, just not really practical on a smaller yacht at present. There is no getting away from the huge amount of energy in a kg of gas, or even diesel for that matter, both easy to buy and store long term.

I said "at present" and I do keep going back to this article which might be an interesting half way step. This would enable an electric kettle since we drink a lot of tea and an induction hob, previously discussed on here. A simple LFP bank could be on the cards at a reasonable cost.

https://www.zwerfcat.nl/en/lithium-hybrid.html

[Phyrcooler]

Originally Posted by Gene Neill

(rubs temples, clicks on to next thread)

+1

[gonesail]

I can't imagine not wanting a gas cooktop. Electric burners are good for scorching and ruining pans.