What are some of the benefits of electric stoves versus gas stoves

A regular electric oven uses a large coiled resistor as a heating element. A large electric current is passed through this element which generates heat, similar to the tungsten filament of an incandescent light bulb.

An induction stove doesn't actually generate heat itself, but rather induces it the pot or pan. It does this using a rapidly oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric current in a ferromagnetic pan which generates heat, thus heating the food.

Induction stoves are faster, safer, and more energy efficient than traditional electric stoves. It requires significantly less electricity to create the magnetic field than it does to drive enough current through a resistor to make it heat up. They are safer because they don't actually generate heat themselves. After taking a pot off the "burner" (glass surface) it quickly begins to cool.

With regards to differences in the cooking process, there's not much. You just need to be aware that it heats up much more quickly and cools down much more quickly than a traditional electric stove. It does affect your choice of pans however. All aluminum pans will not work, nor will some lower quality stainless steel ones. If a magnet sticks to the pan then it will work just fine. The pan must also have a flat bottom to make full contact with the surface.

We have recently remodelled our kitchen and moved from a gas hob to an induction hob. In general it cooks much the same as gas and you get similar levels of control over the temperature. One style of cooking that is not recommended is 'slide' cooking as this will likely scratch your hob surface - this can be mitigated by putting a piece of parchment paper under the pan or lifting the pan off the hob. we don't use a wok and can't see how we could with our hob.

The surface of the hob gets hot but not as hot as it would it it were gas or electric this means that spilt / spattered food doesn't generally burn on to the hob surface and it is much easier to clean.

The hob is touch control and so far we've not had any problems with this. If you lift a pan off the heating zone it will switch itself off automagically after a certain amount of time. Before this happens if you put a pan back on the zone it carries on cooking. If there are no pans on any active zones then the whole thing switches off after 2 minutes.

We chose a NEFF Flushline hob that sits in a natural black granite work surface and the whole thing is positively beautiful and a pleasure to work with.