ventilation options/help needed.

Hi,

I live in a high-rise building, and my only personal outdoor space is a balcony about 12x12x12. this balcony is open to the air on one side, has a concrete wall on another, and the 3rd and 4th sides are plexi with sliding glass doors.

Depending on the wind, with the doors open, often a strong current will run to/from the balcony and my kitchen (maybe 30 ft distant. with them closed, often the breeze is weak. I would personally prefer to keep all extra gases from burning out of the house, but don't see how to keep from potentially turning the balcony into a gas trap.

Given the closed nature of the space, any generic suggestions on ventilation? I can take and upload pics if this would be of help, any suggestions on which hosting site to use? I am reading other threads about people using electric with insulation on kettles, etc. what min. rated energy output of electric would I look for?

thanks

edit - alternately are there electric stoves for kitchen use that will boil 6-7 gallons of water effectively? If so, what information on a given stove should I be looking for? I have read about members using electric with insulation on their kettles with good results in some cases, but not sure if there is a floor on the rated output of the stove that is needed to do this. Looking at it more closely, I am finding this preferable to fighting ventilation issues if it is indeed feasible.

What kind of stove can you use? Between a good quality range and a heat-stick, you should have no problem boiling indoors. I have a gas stove, but can get a good boil on 10 gallons if I straddle two burners.

Since you shouldn't have any gas simply venting, you're probably fine without any ventilation. However, if you want to, buy one of these blowers and stop worrying about it.

MalFet said:

What kind of stove can you use? Between a good quality range and a heat-stick, you should have no problem boiling indoors. I have a gas stove, but can get a good boil on 10 gallons if I straddle two burners.

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Thanks. Can you link a heat stick as you describe? My gas stove, on 2 burners, struggles to burn 2.5-3 gallons, taking over an hour to boil and only getting a weak boil, never roiling.

that said, if range replacement is on the books either way, (a viable option), it becomes an issue of gas vs. electric.

WoofdogABC said:

Thanks. Can you link a heat stick as you describe? My gas stove, on 2 burners, struggles to burn 2.5-3 gallons, taking over an hour to boil and only getting a weak boil, never roiling.

that said, if range replacement is on the books either way, (a viable option), it becomes an issue of gas vs. electric.

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Do a search here for heatsticks. There are several good threads.

Your gas range struggles to get 3 gallons boiling on two burners? That's pretty extreme. I have a high-end but not professional gas range and I get a soft rolling boil on 10 gallons in about that time (without a heatstick). Gas is definitely the way to go if you have the choice.

MalFet said:

Do a search here for heatsticks. There are several good threads.

Your gas range struggles to get 3 gallons boiling on two burners? That's pretty extreme. I have a high-end but not professional gas range and I get a soft rolling boil on 10 gallons in about that time (without a heatstick). Gas is definitely the way to go if you have the choice.

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can you give me specs/model/a link to yours? I have had this range 11 years, it came with the place, and never really had an issue before with mundane food stuff, but not sure what numbers I am looking for on a replacement.

WoofdogABC said:

can you give me specs/model/a link to yours? I have had this range 11 years, it came with the place, and never really had an issue before with mundane food stuff, but not sure what numbers I am looking for on a replacement.

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They're two 10k BTU burners. More would be even better, of course.

get a N/G wok burner installed.

MalFet said:

Do a search here for heatsticks. There are several good threads.

Your gas range struggles to get 3 gallons boiling on two burners? That's pretty extreme. I have a high-end but not professional gas range and I get a soft rolling boil on 10 gallons in about that time (without a heatstick). Gas is definitely the way to go if you have the choice.

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have been shopping around here. How many btu is the burner(s) you use to boil? I can get a gas range that has 14000btu/1 burner and can combine burners up to 19000btu with 2 straight out of the box.

There is another stove that is a good bit more expensive which runs 30000btu on a center triple-ring burner, but I see no need to go that route if the above willl boil 7 gallons effectively on its own.

I'm on two 10k burners, with a fairly wide bottomed pot.

MalFet said:

I'm on two 10k burners, with a fairly wide bottomed pot.

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thanks - going to see what I am using now because it must be 5k/burner to be as weak as it is on 2 burners.