[Bleep]

How efficient is this? It heats up instantly so there's no time wasted sucking electric power while not putting out any heat so you win there.

Cooking faster is cooking with less power period.

The 1440 Watt setting is not the only setting so if I get one I'll run it through the Kill-a-Watt meter and see what the other settings use.

BTW I'm moving to NYC and I'll be stuck with a broken gas stove until repairs can be done and you simply cannot make decent tea with a microwave oven.

[Bleep]

Sunpentown SR-1851 Induction Cooktop is the competion.

Energy efficiency: 83%
Adjustable power 260 ~ 1200W

Sunpentown SR-1851 Electric Induction Cooktop (link)
Get the energy savings, convenience, and cooking versatility of induction at a low price from this Sunpentown SR-1851 Induction Digital Control Cooktop. The number one choice of gourmet cooks and cooking academies, technological improvements now allow you to have an induction cooktop at home, in the RV, at the catering job site, or anywhere else there is a standard 115 Volt plug.

Induction cooktops offer many advantages over standard cooktops. Induction cooktops offer the heating power and precise temperature control of gas cooktops, and they cost even less to operate. For one hour of usage, this induction cooktop uses 6-8 cents worth of energy. And, because induction cooktops use magnetic waves to heat the pan, the cooktop itself stays cool, not matter how high you turn the temperature to.

This unit is perfect for caterers, RV owners, or just anyone that wants the power and versatility of induction cooking!

[Taskforce_Unity]

Is this more efficient then direct gas heating????

[Madpaddy]

It is much more inefficient than direct gas heating because for every kw produced as electricity in a power station, 2 kw are lost in transmission and losses in the station itself. These losses are not factored into the price per kw you pay on your utility bill so running cost may be roughly equivalent. If you care about the environment though - gas cooking is the way to go

[Bleep]

Is this more efficient then direct gas heating????

Good question. I do sometimes use the a gas stove at a friend's house and it seems to take forever to boil water compared to my old-fashioned electric burner stove.

I think some of the issue is the way that you use a machine. To support my statements:

[url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/MTG1VKUB231.DTL]
Departing Honda Insight still mileage champ
Fuel efficiency didn't translate to sales success (link)[/url]

...skip...

A lively debate continues over the actual mileage that an Insight can attain in real-world driving. Most owners seem to get the advertised mileage, if not more, but a few complain that their fuel economy is disappointing.

The best generalization I can make is this: If you drive the car badly, you will get bad mileage. Jackrabbit starts, choppy acceleration and over-revving the engine before shifting will result in poor economy -- as low as 18 mpg, in my experience. But judicious use of throttle, brakes and transmission can yield impressively higher results.

A stove is the same way. I make what I call "three minute rice". I soak long grain Indian white rice (Kasmati) in cold water for 20 minutes and then turn on the heat (covered) for three minutes on high and then turn it off and let it sit on the hot metal coil for another fifteen minutes and it comes out perfect. Can't be done on a gas stove, you'd have to leave the stove running for a long time.

[Bleep]

It is much more inefficient than direct gas heating because for every kw produced as electricity in a power station, 2 kw are lost in transmission and losses in the station itself.

This is confusing. Are you talking about the effective heat lost? Seems if you lost twice what you produced you'd not be making anything.

[Aimrehtopyh]

He's talking about transmission losses in the power grid. Whenever you pass current through a conductor it generates heat. Think of all the miles of transmission lines and transformers between you and your friendly neighborhood coal plant. Every inch of it gives off heat which constitutes energy leaking out of the system. Transmission losses alone are not that bad, but total system efficiency for electricity is dismal.

Here's some rough math to illustrate.

A ton of decent coal can release 27million Btus of heat when it's burned.
The boiler, turbine and generator at your average coal plant will "capture" perhaps 33% of this energy and turn it into electricity.
The DoE says that the transmission grid is around 90% efficient.
Based on the estimate below; my electric stove is roughly 25% efficient. Your inductive cooktop is 83% efficient.

So how much coal to boil a gallon of cool (fifty degrees) tapwater ? (I love spaghetti)
My electric cooktop would require 1.5Lbs of coal to be burned (7% overall efficiency).
Your inductive cooktop would require .45 of a pound (24% overall efficiency).
A perfect system that burned coal and used its heat at 100% efficency (impossible) would require .11 of a pound of coal.

Estimating my cooktops efficiency:
How long does it take to boil a quart (2lbs) of water? I think my 1500watt electric burner used to take about fifteen minutes, thereby consuming 1280Btus of electricity. The actual amount of useful work done in raising the temperature of two pounds of water by about 160 degrees farenheit is about 325 Btus. So my stovetop burner is like 25% efficient.

[Madpaddy]

Thanks Aimrehtopyh,

Much better than I tried to explain it.

[WisJim]

A stove is the same way. I make what I call "three minute rice". I soak long grain Indian white rice (Kasmati) in cold water for 20 minutes and then turn on the heat (covered) for three minutes on high and then turn it off and let it sit on the hot metal coil for another fifteen minutes and it comes out perfect. Can't be done on a gas stove, you'd have to leave the stove running for a long time.

The energy efficient way to cook the rice is to bring it to a good boil, then take it off the gas stove and put it in an insulated "hot box" where it will finish cooking using the heat already in the water and pot. Saves lots of energy whenever something needs to simmer for a period of time, and especially for rice.