According to a recent study, the gas emitted by residential stoves and ovens is not only hazardous to public health, but also has a significantly greater influence on the climate problem than previously imagined.
As the Stanford University research shows, emissions from gas stoves in US households had the same climate-warming effect as half a million gasoline-powered automobiles – much more than scientists predicted.
The research also found that in houses without range hoods or with insufficient ventilation, the quantity of dangerous nitrogen oxides produced by natural gas burning may approach or exceed a safe level in minutes, particularly in tiny kitchens.
Gas stoves and ovens emit considerable volumes of methane, which contributes to global warming whether turned on or off. According to the research, stoves emit 0.8 to 1.3 percent of their natural gas as unburned methane into the environment.
That may not seem to be much, but lead research author Eric Lebel told CNN that when combined with the amount of methane produced during the manufacturing and shipping of the gas, it’s a “very substantial figure.”
According to Lebel, nitrogen oxides, or NOx, which are particularly dangerous to youngsters and the elderly, are proportionate to the amount of gas utilized.
The study comes at a time when an increasing number of communities in the United States, including parts of California, New York, and Massachusetts, are opting out of installing natural gas connections in new houses. Green energy proponents say that moving from gas to electric appliances would facilitate the transition to renewable energy. According to this research, electric appliances avoid the toxic consequences of natural gas combustion.
According to the most recent US Energy Information Administration estimates, there were more than 40 million gas stoves in US homes in 2015, albeit this figure varies by area.
The study also shows that the federal government is underestimating the quantity of methane emissions escaping from residences, which the researchers found to be 15% greater than the EPA’s estimate for total residential emissions in 2019.