--- title: The $125 Climate Hack That Electrified My Gas Stove description: As a renter, I thought I was stuck with the gas stove that came with my apartment. But then I found an easy solution. canonical: https://time.com/6291690/how-i-affordably-electrified-my-gas-stove/ author: Aryn Baker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-30T17:43:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-01T06:57:46.578Z article:section: Climate og:title: The $125 Climate-Friendly Hack That Electrified My Gas Stove og:description: As a renter, I thought I was stuck with the gas stove that came with my apartment. But then I found an easy solution. og:url: https://time.com/6291690/how-i-affordably-electrified-my-gas-stove/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf08a1201531e1166/698a3e51cabb1d3f65e51879/gas-stove-hack-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: gas-stove-hack-01 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The $125 Climate-Friendly Hack That Electrified My Gas Stove twitter:description: As a renter, I thought I was stuck with the gas stove that came with my apartment. But then I found an easy solution. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf08a1201531e1166/698a3e51cabb1d3f65e51879/gas-stove-hack-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # The $125 Climate-Friendly Hack That Electrified My Gas Stove ## Video: Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet [Watch (HLS stream): Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cBbZGKG0.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2023-06-29. It’s hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons—especially when it’s all around us. Thirty-seven billion tons is the amount of fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere every year. We see the damage it does everywhere—from heat waves to floods to droughts to wildfires and more. But the CO2 itself? Entirely invisible. Until now._ Jun 30, 2023 5:43 PM UTC  Javier Zayas—Getty Images by [Aryn Baker](https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker Jun 30, 2023 5:43 PM UTC Being a climate correspondent comes with a certain degree of moral conflict. I write about the deleterious impact of[ fossil fuel emissions](https://time.com/6174966/north-south-pole-melting-climate-change/), then I fly to Georgia to report on how rising temperatures are impacting[ outdoor laborers](https://time.com/6181785/outdoor-workers-heat-climate-change/). I extoll the virtues of[ heat pumps](https://time.com/6236128/best-eco-friendly-sustainable-gifts-2022/), but my rented apartment is heated by a gas-fed boiler. I can recite meat’s share of global greenhouse gas emissions by rote ([14.5%](https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/#:~:text=By%20the%20numbers%3A%20GHG%20emissions,of%20all%20anthropogenic%20GHG%20emissions.)), but every once in a while I’m tempted by[ filet mignon](https://time.com/6259363/best-diet-health-climate-impact/) on a restaurant menu. Giving up cheese is a non-starter. --- ### More from TIME --- I do choose the sustainable option when I can: When I moved to Rome for my new job two years ago, I dumped my dryer, bought an electric car, and decided to forgo installing an air conditioner. But a few weeks ago, temperatures hit 98°F, with 60% humidity. Nights were[ too hot for sleep](https://time.com/6280073/how-heatwaves-impact-your-brain/), and during the day it was too hot to type in my work-from-home office. As someone who reads 10, 20, and 30-year temperature projections like other people listen to the weather report, I knew it was just the beginning. A few days later I caved and called an AC technician to install an energy guzzling split AC unit, making me feel a little bit like a hypocrite. So I started looking around to see what else might be cut out of my carbon consumption to mitigate my new AC. I didn’t have to look hard: my gas stove sits about four yards away from the AC unit. [**_Are you working outside in a heat wave? Tell us about it_**](http://time.com/extreme-heat)**_._** For years now I’ve been reading about the methane emissions from gas stoves. In 2019, Berkeley, Calif., was the first U.S. city to change its building code to ban gas hook-ups in new construction. Nearly 100 other cities in the U.S. have followed suit with various building decarbonization ordinances, according to a [tracker](https://buildingdecarb.org/zeb-ordinances) from the non-profit Building Decarbonization Coalition. But none of those mention existing building retrofits. As a renter in the E.U., which has yet to implement similar bans, I thought I was either stuck with the gas stove that came with my apartment, or a prohibitively expensive construction project. Then I started reading about the[ health impacts](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/climate/gas-stoves-benzene-cigarettes.html) of gas stoves.  Before: a gas-gushing conventional stoveAryn Baker  After: A climate and health friendly alternativeAryn Baker My husband already has compromised lungs, so it was enough of a push to rethink my submission to the realities of rental apartments. One article I read hosted a cleverly placed banner ad for cheap, plug-in, countertop induction burners. For about $100 I could get a two-top. Tempting. Was I willing to give up rare countertop real estate to do better for the climate? My partner came up with a better idea: for $25 he bought a piece of wood cut to fit the top of our gas stove from our local hardware store and installed the burners on top. Voila: an induction stove, on the cheap. There isn’t much we can do about our oven, and you can’t exactly bake cookies in a slow cooker, but it’s a step in the right direction. My next rental apartment I’ll do better. Meanwhile I’m doing what I can. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6291690/how-i-affordably-electrified-my-gas-stove/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6291690/how-i-affordably-electrified-my-gas-stove/"},"headline":"The $125 Climate-Friendly Hack That Electrified My Gas Stove","datePublished":"2023-06-30T17:43:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-01T06:57:46.578Z","description":"As a renter, I thought I was stuck with the gas stove that came with my apartment. 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