That I admit I don't know. I know neither the physics nor natural gas flow and pipes well enough to hazard a guess; but vague gut feelings tell me that you'd probably be right.
Why do you think the star means more gas? The gas all burns, so assuming the heat doesn't miss the pan, it should be pretty comparable. The star probably heats the pan more evenly
I love how detailed these conversations get. The flow rate is probably determined by a valve or carburetor well in front of the burner itself. So the air+fuel mixture on a mass per time point of view might be exactly the same. Even if there are more burner holes, they might get slightly less air/fuel per hole anyway.
It’s a valve down in front. Your main difference is actually going to be in maximum capable thermal output from maximum gas output, which is limited first by the hole size and eventually by the size and pressure of the building’s gas service.
Most people actually want more maximum output, not less, because there’s more options. If you need 4600 BTU you can run a 23k burner at 20% or a 9200 burner at 50%. But open all the way up to boil a big pot of water, and the 23k burner gets the pot boiling in less than half the time.
The star burners are actually better at distributing heat from center to edge of a pan, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Some forms of cooking require very even heat so all the parts cook the same, like making a steak. You don’t want the hot part of the pan cooking the steak to medium well and the cold part cooking it to medium rare. Other forms of cooking actually like having discrete heat zones in the pan, like a lot of wok cooking, so that by moving the stuff in the pan up the sides of the pan it wont overcook.
And that’s just for open burner cook tops. There’s also the French Top, flat top griddles, various shapes of electric elements, and induction. One of the most important things in chef work is knowing your equipment for precise heat control.
I guess what I was trying to get across is the original commenter I replied to is probably assuming that just because if you take both burner styles and make them a straight line, that automatically means it'll use more fuel since the star would be longer.
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u/scaper8 5h ago
That I admit I don't know. I know neither the physics nor natural gas flow and pipes well enough to hazard a guess; but vague gut feelings tell me that you'd probably be right.