That’s great news for anyone thinking about making the switch from gas to electric cooking.
“There’s this big misconception that electric ranges don’t cook as well as gas,” says Shanika Whitehurst, CR’s associate director of product sustainability on the research and testing team. “But the technology has improved to the point where electric and especially induction ranges and cooktops cook every bit as well, if not better, than gas.” For more on electric ranges, check out the surprising things a CR reporter learned when he switched from a gas stove to an induction range.
Whitehurst also says that if you qualify for the full rebate, you could effectively get one of the top-rated electric ranges from CR’s tests for just a couple of hundred dollars—or even less.
Irene Nielson, director of climate funding impact at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), says people in her organization were “really happy to see electrification called out specifically for rebates.” Gas-burning appliances, including ranges and cooktops, release methane gas into the environment, and according to the NRDC’s estimates, the emissions they produce annually in the U.S. are roughly equal to the climate impact of tailpipe emissions from 500,000 cars.
While buying new electric appliances may not seem impressive compared with the environmental benefits of buying an electric vehicle, every bit counts. Replacing gas ranges with electrics provides an opportunity to cut those emissions, especially because the legislation also includes programs to ensure that an ever-larger share of electricity in the U.S. comes from renewable energy, like solar and wind.
