[Greenbuilding] Induction cooking

[Paul Eldridge]

Hi Bruno,

My impression is that induction hobs are three to four times more 
efficient than gas at point of use because all of the energy is 
transferred directly to the cooking vessel as opposed to being absorbed 
by the supporting hardware or, more critically, lost around the edges of 
the pot or pan.

Even at full flame, our portable induction hobs easily outperform the 
4.5 kW burners on our gas cooker. As a simple test, I boiled 200 ml of 
room temperature water using both propane and induction. To make the 
comparison as fair as possible, I selected a large frying pan for the 
gas burner to ensure maximum heat transfer and a standard size pot for 
the induction unit. The induction hob brought the water to a rolling 
boil in two minutes and twenty-eight seconds using a maximum of 
1,119-watts at 114-volts and consuming a total of 0.04 kWh. Its gas 
counterpart completed the same job in two minutes and forty-three 
seconds (just fifteen seconds longer) but, in the process, consumed four 
times as much energy.

One hundred per cent of our electricity is wind and low-impact hydro 
purchased through Bullfrog Power and so, environmentally speaking, 
electricity gets the nod.  Another benefit of switching from propane to 
electric is that our kitchen stays cooler during the summer and we don't 
have to run the extractor fan as often, consequently, less conditioned 
air is sucked out of our home; with propane, the combustion by-products 
given off pretty much meant that the fan ran continuously whenever one 
or more burners were in use.

In terms of cost, I obtained our first induction unit by redeeming 
credit card points and the second I bought on Kijiji for $20.00.  
Fortunately for us, all of our cookware was already induction compatible 
and so our total capital outlay was extremely modest.

Our test bed: http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo69/HereinHalifax/IH.jpg

Cheers,
Paul

>Message: 1
>Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:03:28 +0200
>From: "Bruno M."<brunom1 at telenet.be>
>To: Green Building<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Induction cooking
>
>[snip]
>
>There is hardly any energy efficiency benefit versus natural gas cooking.
>
>And for induction cooking you need special pans.
>