How Bay Area Libraries Are Helping Residents Switch From Gas to Induction Cooking

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Mirella Bucci cooked on a gas stove her whole life. She connected it to her family’s Italian cooking traditions and the way she grew up. Bucci thought its heat control was unmatched. Until she tried an induction cooktop for the first time.

“My mom and these influential people in my cooking world have always used gas,” Bucci said. She remembers her mom’s big pot of tomato sauce simmering above a low flame; Bucci and her two siblings would eat it with pasta every week.

Bucci long believed the industry standard, that only gas provided the precision “top chefs” require. But, as an adult, Bucci grew curious about induction as she considered replacing her gas stove as part of a home electrification project.

She had heard professional chefs still relied on gas in restaurants, but that some used induction at home because it was faster and easier to control.

Still, she was skeptical. Bucci, who works at the Stanford School of Medicine helping biomedical research labs apply for federal funding, has lived in San Mateo County for nearly 25 years.

She didn’t know anyone personally who used induction cooking. So she checked one out from San Mateo City Hall.

Within days, her doubts faded. Water boiled faster than she expected. The stove’s surface didn’t remain too hot for too long. And the temperature control felt more precise. “The induction made things easier,” Bucci said.

That mattered to Bucci, whose cooking is deeply tied to her family’s heritage.

She cooks seafood risotto, squid-ink pasta, lobster macaroni, scallops with wedges of grapefruit, and other seafood dishes for the Italian-American “Feast of Seven Fishes” Christmas Eve traditional meal. For years, she believed those meals required cooking over a flame.

“You can cook something really hot and get those grill lines on your meat or your vegetables,” Bucci said. “That’s kind of an advantage too, with the induction, is that it gets really hot.”

Across the Bay Area, libraries and other civic institutions now offer induction cooktop kits like the one Bucci borrowed, giving residents a free, low-risk way to try an alternative to gas cooking. The loaner programs are part of a broader push by Bay Area municipalities and climate advocates to reduce household emissions from gas appliances and improve indoor air quality.

Gas and propane stoves are a major source of pollution in U.S. households. A 2025 study found that for homes using these fuels, cooking accounts for a quarter of their total exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

This is a serious health concern because nitrogen dioxide is a well-known trigger for asthma, meaning that simply preparing meals can contribute to a person’s long-term health risk.

But for many households, switching isn’t simple. Full stove replacements can cost thousands of dollars, and even portable units, typically between $50 and $200, can feel like a financial risk if people aren’t sure they’ll like the technology.

The library as a climate outreach space

The induction cooktop loaner program in San Mateo that Bucci participated in began at City Hall but moved into the public library’s technology lending program in 2024.

Jonathan Jung, a supervising library assistant in San Mateo, said the induction cooktops are a natural extension of the library’s mission. “Libraries are a well-respected pillar of knowledge in the community,” he said.

The lending program includes everything from keyboards and synthesizers for musicians to microcontrollers for hobbyists.  Jung said the program’s two induction cooktops are in high demand. “Patrons have given me positive feedback. They’re really happy that they can test it out,” he said.

Civic groups offer the cooktops as part of their local climate goals, said Andrea Chow, a sustainability analyst with the city. In San Mateo, buildings account for a portion of community-wide greenhouse gas emissions, which come primarily from the use of gas in residential and commercial buildings. Especially in unincorporated areas, where they are the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions at 32%. “Decarbonizing existing buildings is a huge priority for our city,” Chow said.

The Sunnyvale Public Library started a similar program in 2019. The library has 14 cooktops available and averages 100 checkouts per year.

Madeline Khair, environmental programs manager within Sunnyvale’s environmental services department, said the library is expanding its sustainability section to include solar panels, rechargeable batteries and emergency kits.

“Our partners at the library have always been really supportive of the climate action plan and sustainability goals,” she said.

The city of Sunnyvale aims to reduce overall community greenhouse gas emissions by 56% from 1990 levels by 2030, according to its climate action playbook. This target is more aggressive than California’s 40% reduction goal.

While the loaner program offers a pathway for people interested in trying induction cooktops for free, some libraries carry only a handful of kits and have waitlists to check them out. And replacing a stove can still be expensive. Costs can range from $2,000 to $8,000, or even more. Some households may need electrical upgrades to switch completely away from gas.

What the research says about gas stoves and indoor air

About a year and a half after trying a loaner, San Mateo resident Mike Driscoll and his wife made the switch. They discovered one benefit they did not expect: a cleaner home.

“With gas, there was always a little layer of grease on nearby surfaces,” he said. “After switching, that just disappeared.”

Cooking itself produces grease particles and ultrafine aerosols. With gas, the open flame can intensify how those particles spread, carrying them onto nearby counters, cabinets and furniture, something households like Driscoll’s may notice as residue over time.

Gas stoves also emit pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, and fine particulate matter, which can linger in indoor air or settle on surfaces. Exposure has been linked to increased asthma symptoms in children and can worsen other respiratory conditions, according to a 2023 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Those health considerations are becoming a key driver behind programs like these, alongside climate goals.

Gas stoves contribute to climate change by emitting carbon dioxide during combustion and methane, which is present in unburned natural gas that leaks from gas stoves.

These greenhouse gases trap atmospheric heat. According to a 2022 study in Environmental Science and Technology, annual methane leaks from U.S. stoves alone create a climate impact comparable to that of half a million cars, highlighting a significant environmental footprint beyond active cooking.

Buildings account for a significant share of California’s emissions, much of it from gas appliances, making reductions in heating, hot water and cooking a key part of the state’s climate strategy.

Long-term studies indicate that switching from gas stoves to induction cooking significantly improves indoor air quality, reducing nitrogen dioxide exposure by over 50%, according to a 2025 study by Stanford researchers.

Induction cooktops use electromagnetic energy to heat cookware directly, with no combustion and no combustion-related indoor air pollution. That can improve indoor air quality, especially in smaller or poorly ventilated spaces, while also reducing excess heat in the kitchen. “Gas heats the air to thousands of degrees; electric doesn’t,” said Rob Jackson, the study’s senior author and professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

He said these programs also help people who cannot swap all of their gas appliances — furnaces, water heaters — at once. They can start by using their gas stove less.

“We sample many homes in Bakersfield and elsewhere where people rent and can’t change their appliances, or convince their landlord to, and can’t afford to pay for the transition themselves,” he said. “In this case, the best thing you can do to improve indoor air quality is to burn less gas indoors.”

Where to borrow an induction cooktop in the Bay Area

Programs have expanded across the region, including Santa Cruz, Milpitas, Burlingame, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Oakland, Marin County and Hayward. In some cities, kits are available through libraries; in others, through sustainability departments or community programs.

Regional energy providers, including Peninsula Clean Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy, have supported these efforts.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy also offers rebates of up to $750 for upgrading to induction cooktops.

The Bay Area Regional Energy Network assists moderate-income households with home improvements, including electrical upgrades for cooking.

Loaner programs are also available through PG&E, Acterra in the East Bay, and San Jose Clean Energy.

In Milpitas, sustainability coordinator Grace Chan said the goal is to make the gas-to-induction transition as easy as possible. “It’s a very low-commitment way for residents to test out a new type of equipment that they may never have used before,” Chan said.

For some, the appeal isn’t even about replacing a stove.

Jessica Egbert, a renter in San Bruno, borrowed a cooktop for a backyard-style Korean barbecue with friends. “It was my first time using induction,” she said. “It heated up really fast, and I liked that I could use it outside without worrying about an open flame.”

Still, awareness remains a challenge.

“There is a very strong, sometimes cultural or personal connection to gas cooking. There’s a lot of hesitancy,” Chow said.

But once people try induction, perceptions can shift. Borrowers frequently mention that water boils faster, that the controls feel precise, and that the surface is safe, cooling quickly and reducing the risk of burns or fires.

There are still trade-offs. Induction requires compatible cookware like stainless steel and cast iron, and some cooks miss the visual cue of a flame or worry about techniques like stir-frying.

For Bucci, the loaner program made all the difference.

It was a little over two years ago when she borrowed a single-burner induction cooktop from city hall to try out for two weeks at home.

What started out as a more climate-conscious decision, Bucci said, turned out to be better for her cooking overall.

Now, she wonders if there will ever be a situation where she would prefer gas. “I mean, if you were making a flambé and you were trying to light your alcohol on fire in the pan, that would be one.”

Aside from that rare occurrence, Bucci doesn’t miss the flame.

“You realize the point is to heat your food quickly and with control,” she said. “And induction does that.”