I really like NetIO's products. I also have one of their 4-port rack-mount devices that has similar functionality. They are reliable, and don't need an internet connection or stupid app to control it.
(I have used the Android app though, and it's reliable and responsive)
Sorry for the delay. I've not been on slrpnk for a while as all their CSS was messed up for me and it was difficult to read anything :( It seems to be fixed now. Maybe my browser caches have timed out or something.
I mean that the cables from the DC system to the inverter will have to be thick if you want to power high-wattage devices. For example, we want to use an electric (AC, sadly) water heater in a camper van we are renovating, and to power the inverter, we have been told that on the 12V system, the cables between the battery and inverter should be maximum 1m long, and each one will be about 1cm thick! For 24V, the cables will probably be half the diameter, and you can probably run them longer, but it could still be quite restrictive.
I wish I could find 24V DC things, at least I would only need a DC-DC converter and not an inverter, but as mentioned, i've only found a kettle, fans and fridges that work at 24V :(
Still, if you've already got a lot of 24V stuff, it may be too much hassle to change to 48V (although DC-DC converters could be used, but that's yet more things you would have to buy).
I started at 12V, but only because I was new at it all, there's a lot of 12V stuff around, and knew at some point I would probably have to change to 48V for a "serious" system. I managed to get a lot of smaller DC-DC converters (eg for USB, lights or 12V things) that would work at 48V too when I made the change a few years later.
Its a single hob, so as a whole? They have some catches, you need magnetic pans, so aluminium pots and some grades of steel won't work. Test with a fridge magnet, if it sticks, the pot will work. Also, they heat up crazy fast, and if your not careful you'll burn stuff. Takes some getting used to.
That sounds pretty reasonable. Is thst 2kW for the unit as a whole, or per hob? I have zero experience with these!
Also, we have all our kitchen appliances connected to one of these: https://www.netio-products.com/en/device/powerbox-4kx, which you can program to turn off and on at certain times.
That is extremely cool and I need one.
This is a very similarly-sized system to what we're thinking of getting, so very encouraging! What else are you able to power if you don't mind me asking?
Yes, that helps a lot - thank you!
When you say you don't recommend cooking on 24v, do you mean with appliances which have 24v DC power supplies, or does that include AC appliances powered by an inverter on a 24v system? Our existing system is 24v, so it's tempting to stay on that and not have to change anything with the lighting and other DC stuff we have.
I've tried pretty hard to stick to DC equipment too, but have decided to make more exceptions from now on as it is very restrictive for a lot of things. In fact I just got a small insulated stainless AC electric kettle and I'm absolutely in love with it.
Very interested in using LiFePO4 for the batteries as well...
Some induction hobs have a timer function which could help. Our cheap oven also has a timer on it, and the rice cooker flips to "warm" mode when things are cooked.
Also, we have all our kitchen appliances connected to one of these: https://www.netio-products.com/en/device/powerbox-4kx, which you can program to turn off and on at certain times.
I've got mine set up to the travel kettle, so i can fill the kettle, press the kettle button and then leave it ready for when I want a cup of tea. I then have a small script I run from my laptop to turn the power on. When it's boiled and turned off, I get an alert that it's time to go to the outdoor kitchen and make myself a cuppa 😋
Over-engineered? for sure. Does it feel good? also, for sure :)
We have a small flight case on wheels that we use as an outside kitchen with the following appliances:
They are all plugged into a 2500W low-frequency inverter which is connected to a 48V 5KwH LiFePO4 battery, and is serviced by 3 PV systems, two 800w and 1 360w in various position.
I would recommend not using 12 or 24v for cooking, as your cables will have to be really short and thick.
We can use all the appliances at once on the inverter (athough the inverter is rated for 3kw over 4 minutes max which helps) without problems.
Last year, we cooked on it every day for around 2 weeks when the weather was good (and I was working from the garden), and it was very reliable.
All those ratings are max, and the induction hob worked really well, and pulsed from 900w to 1.7kw during cooking pasta sauce once it got up to temperature, for example. It was only £35 from some dodgy chinese make, which has an advisory on it from our regulator about fusing problems, but we use it outside and there's various fuses between it and the battery, so we should be ok :/
I really wanted to get DC equipment so I wouldn't need to use an inverter, but finding any is difficult. The best DC kettle I have found is only 1L and 24v with a "din" connector, and I haven't had chance to try and set that up with a DC-DC converter yet. A friend of mine modified a little oven like we have to work off ~42v DC, which worked, but I don't know how he did it :( I did buy a 48v immersion heating element, which I wanted to use to heat water for washing up etc, but I've not tried that yet either :(
There are various DC fridges you can get for camping, but we don't use them on the system .
Hope that helps!
It's just started getting warm and sunny here, so we will start using the system again when I am working outside. We have only used it once this year so far.
There's also plasma hobs coming out from China, which look interesting, and might behave more like cooking on gas. I would like to try one sometime, but they aren't very common yet.
I have a 5 kW continuous (10 kW peak) square wave inverter and a 10 kWh battery bank.
I think because it's somewhat novel, and really very simple. Once you start getting into electrical energy, you add layers of complexity. Think like global supply chains are going to get disrupted, and this kind of low tech is absolutely the right direction to be following imo.
Interesting... I wonder why he chose magnetic induction as the heating method. It must have some advantage, but I can't find out because the video keeps interrupting (probably an interaction between my ad blocker and YouTube's ad blocker blocker).
Myself, I use resistive heaters straight off low voltage DC.
????
No it's not, I'm saying kinda the opposite.
...that's like comparing every tool in a toolbox to like a ratchet and saying anything simpler is useless.
Yeah, I just compare every lowtech to it, it's like a baseline anyone can make. Anything simpler is awesome, anything harder is useless usually.
so if you spin a stirling engine it produces heat? ...like from friction losses? couldn't you just rub two sticks together for the same effect then?
yes i'm being facetious, i know you can use a stirling as a heat pump. but that just seemed even more complicated compared to this.
A Stirling engine is symmetric device that could work both ways.
But I admit, after staring at this for a bit longer, it doesn't even really need any kind of special or even similar magnets. It is simpler indeed.
...what? a stirling engine turns heat into rotational energy, this one turns rotational energy into heat. they're entirely different machines.
also this has *one* moving part, how is it more complicated?
nice, but seems more complicated than Stirling, unless you have no pistons and lots of copper wire magnets. (edit: distracted writing, I'm watching it lol)
Once one gets the right cookware (mostly cast iron) the main disadvantage of induction cooktops is the fan noise, for me. I use one on a daily basis. Additionally I have an instapot pressure cooker, which is super handy. I also use an electric water boiler. And it all runs off the solar panels on the roof. It's awesome!
I used a small crock pot pretty frequently on solar power to cook for my partner and I. The one I had drew around 200 w/hr on high. I'm not sure what the peak draw was though.
There isn’t a heat pump oven (yet) so the biggest improvement to electric cooking efficiency has been those portable induction cooktops. They are all rated at around 2000w.
I would still keep a small propane or multi fuel burner just in case.
My wife cooked lunch today. Beef stew and toasted bread. The stew in a pressure cooker, vegetables and bread in a air fryer. Some of that was the kettle boiling too. We don’t use a conventional stove for anything. The regular bumps through the night is the fridge/freezer, it runs on solar permanently.
Green in incoming PV from 6 panels. 5kW inverter. Yellow is power draw. Just don’t start two appliances that both draw more than 2kW at the same time, and you’re good.
They're all the same size, I think 8 inch? So big pans are hotter in the middle, and the outer 2-3 inches are noticeable cooler and never boil ... gimme a full size induction coil
Oof, yeah that'd be a dealbreaker for me, too, with any cooktop.
given that its like 6 grand or something
Yikes. They didn't come with an oven and cooktop attached, but I just spent 5 grand on a pair of 48v 16 KWh batteries (32 KWh total), so I guess I'll just keep planning to use those to power my current range haha.