Enjoyed the experience

I have been cooking for my entire life and have considered myself a gas snob. I have been the primary cook in my home for over 40 years, have worked a cookline in a white tablecloth Italian restaurant and was blessed by my wife with a summer of cooking lessons in the South of France for my 40th birthday. During those years I had never heard of induction cooking and would have called you crazy for suggesting that I switch to a form of electric cooking. That was all before I was introduced to induction cooking!

I was introduced to the concept of induction cooking while researching climate change mitigation strategies. I loved the concept, but was very skeptical of moving away from my old friend - gas! My social consciousness nagged me enough to investigate further. I decided to put a toe in the water by purchasing a single pot portable countertop induction appliance. It cost me just over a hundred dollars and didn't break my bank. The results? I haven't gone back to my gas stove since! I love how it holds the pot temperature to a precise temperature. I can honestly say that I haven't burned a sauce or pot of chili since the switch! It's hard to be objective about judging the quality of my cooking since going induction, but I think it has improved and the work of cooking has gotten easier. Since there is no flame, handles of utensils don't get hot when left in the pot from flames licking up around the sides. Since I am not scorching things, cleanup is much easier and the stovetop is a snap to clean with just a spritz of a cleaner and a wipe.

It did take me a week or so to get used to the unit. Quite frankly, I used the single pot unit for quite awhile before replacing my gas stove with induction. The switchover does take some professional electrician support if you need to run a 220v line to the new stove. Well worth it in my book. I was lucky in that most of my pots and pans were induction ready, but I did purchase a couple of enamel non-stick pans that are my go-to for most everything!

Bottom line, gas snob no more! I'm all in on induction!

About a decade ago, when our oil-burning furnace was approaching an end of life decision to replace it, we decided to remove all the oil-based heating from our home (we had forced hot air and central A/C units) and go with a ground-based (aka, "geothermal) heat pump system for both heating and cooling our home. We could not be happier with the choice more than a decade on.

Importantly, we did this after further weatherproofing our house with added insulation so that the envelope that we are trying to heat/cool was as efficient as we could make what's now a 35 year old home. We use programmable thermostats to control the temperature and to avoid running the heat pumps during peak energy cost periods (4p-8p). In winter, we supplement the heat pump with a Tulukivi soapstone masonry heater -- just one brief, very hot-burning wood fire in the evening and the soapstone keeps heating our living area for about 18 hours.

On a farm there is no need to rake leaves. The last mowing of pastures occurs in September and then the leaves cover the ground and the snow covers the leaves making nice habatat for insects and small mammals.

My husband and I met with Charlotte Weigel in the spring of 2024.  She taught us about installing heat pumps.  We have 3 fairly new air conditioners and were reluctant to get rid of them.  But 2 of the airconditioners were original to to house along with a oil furnace that is getting to the end of it's life.  Charlotte had the idea that we could switch the wiring so that the newer airconditioners would be hooked up to the areas of the house that we don't use as much. There are only 2 of us in the house.  And we could install the new heat pumps up to the zones that we live in the most.

She gave us a list of contractors that are known to install heat pumps in the area.  She told us to call 3 for quotes.  We ended up calling 4 because it was hard to get timely quotes from the companies.  We also did the energy assessment. 

We just had the heat pumps installed the end of August 2024.  We still have the oil furnace for the zones that we don't use much. And the heat pumps have a back up if it gets super cold. The company did a great job. And I'm so thankful to Charlotte for holding our hands through this process.

We leased a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 in March of 2024.  We decided to lease because the terms were so much better for leasing than buying.  It was a $10k difference.

I love driving this car.  It has so many safety features that my old car did not have.  My old car was a Toyota Avalon Hybrid.  It was sad to give up my Toyota, but driving an electric vehicle is wonderful.  I would not go back to a combustion engine. Around town we get about 290 miles on a charge. If we are on the highway or using the airconditioner it is less.

We also leased a Toyota Rav 4 Plug In.  Again the terms for leasing were so much better for leasing than buying.  My husband drives this car and he loves it.  Around town we get about 50 miles on a charge. We have the best of both worlds.  We take it to Florida in the winter because the drive down is less stressful.  South of NJ it is harder to find charging stations on the highway.

We also installed a special charging plug for our home.  We don't charge between 4 and 8PM.