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New York City Housing Authority to Replace Gas Stoves With Battery-Backed Induction Stoves in 100 Apartments Under Energy-Efficiency Pilot Program (citylimits.org)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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[–] 54 points 10 months ago (25 children)

The battery induction stoves are pretty neat. You can plug them into a normal 120v outlet instead of needing to rewire. Plus they can be battery backups in the event of power outages.

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  • [–] 37 points 10 months ago (16 children)

    How long can you run them before they run out of juice, though? I'm not sure I'd want to have "range" (pun intended) anxiety making Thanksgiving dinner.

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    https://copperhome.com/products/charlie

    This one, as an example, has a 5 kWh battery. Having seen it in action it'll run itself for several hours unplugged. Pretty much indefinitely if charging.

    Remember, while induction ranges typically have high power ratings (10+ kW), they aren't actually running the whole time. They use a decent amount of power for the initial heat up, or if youre running all of the burners on high trying to boil several large pots of water, but realistically that's not how you use a range.

    Once the oven is up to temperature, it just kinda oscillates on and off, using comparatively little energy. Induction burners rarely run on full power because if you've ever cooked with induction you know you'll burn...everything... on high - they can really dump heat into a pan.

    Actively cooking a big dinner with multiple burners, you may average about 2 kW. With 1 kW coming in from the wall, that gives you about 5 hours of sustained peak cook time.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    A 5 kW peak stovetop is already more power than anyone can reasonably use with the amount of space available on a standard stove. Literally the only useful thing you can do at full power is bring water to a boil, because no actual cooking can happen at full power unless your diet is carbonized food. I have a 3.5 kW stovetop and it's perfectly adequate.

    After the first 15-20 minutes of cooking (bringing water to a boil while preparing some onions/garlic/sauce/seasonings) it gets very hard to keep using 1 kW. By that point you'll be leaving things on medium heat at most. I can't think of a single home-cooked meal that would require continuously drawing a full 2 kW from the stove for multiple hours, that's a truly crazy amount of energy. Even an oven at full blast won't use anywhere near 2 kW once it has reached 250 °C.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    We have a glass top 240v resistive heating range and it won’t run all 5 burners on high. The rear is a dual with burner (like for a rectangle skillet). I’m not sure you can run that and the full size burner on high at the same time. One of them won’t heat up.

    However the number of times of run into this in 10 years is maybe 3. It’s not really a problem and pretty easy to stagger things and simmer or keep parts of a meal warm in an oven or toaster oven.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I have a 6-burner induction range and the burners are paired (front+back), if you set any front-back pair to high they only do like a 75% (which is still more than enough to burn your food). If you really need 3 things cooking on high you just do them across the 3 zones and you're fine. I've basically never needed to use this knowledge.

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  • [–] -3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (9 children)

    How long can you run them before they run out of juice, though?

    They run by either an electrical outlet or by battery. Another article stated the battery backup for its induction oven was one hour. Hardly worth being a feature.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    One hour of being able to cook in the midst of a 12+ hour blackout can make a world of difference to hungry people.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    One hour of being able to cook in the midst of a 12+ hour blackout can make a world of difference to hungry people.

    There are plenty of meals that don't require electricity:

    • Salads & fruits
    • Tuna sandwiches
    • Deli sandwiches
    • Shrimp dishes
    • Peanut butter & jelly
    • Cakes, pies, pastries, breads
    • Pickled/smoked meats
    • Potato chips, popcorn, nuts

    Meals can also be cooked on a portable grill.

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  • [+] -6 points 10 months ago (7 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    I wouldn't assume the pumps moving that gas would keep working for an extended outage. If an outage lasts that long, it's usually over a big area.

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    In the last 15 years, my electricity has been out for 10+ DAYS three different times. Gas doesn't stop.

    In fact, 2 out of 3 homes in the neighborhood have Kohler style natural gas whole house generators.

    There's plenty of reasons to hate gas, but that ain't one.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Surely someone's got an example of natural gas service failing during an electric outage?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Not really. The problem isn't that gas is somehow unreliable, it's actually that gas doesn't scale at all. It's a massive expensive infrastructure change and it's not flexible - you need gas. Electrical stoves can be powered by solar, wind, propane, etc; gas only works on gas.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Also some newer ones have temp sensors so you can keep a thing at the exact temp you need.

    I saw one with magnetic removable knobs to make cleaning easier.

    Also the outlet bits make installs drop-in for anyone, no electrician needed.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    Also some newer ones have temp sensors so you can keep a thing at the exact temp you need.

    I swear by induction cooking (for both soapmaking and food) for this reason - precise temperature control, even low temperatures that aren't even possible to get on a gas stove.

    • Setting the heater to exactly 40C means you can melt chocolate reliably, without the hassle of a bain marie
    • At 60C you can combine cetostearyl alcohol and vegetable oil for moisturizer without boiling off your glycerine
    • At 80C you can cook soap to trace without overcooking it and making it lumpy
    • At 100C you can evaporate moisture and reduce a sauce with minimal effect on other ingredients
    • At 100-160C you can cook a sugar syrup to a precisely desired level of concentration (as the boiling point goes up as the concentration increases) for making different types of candy
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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

    Just a shame how expensive they are. Copper stoves (the ones that won the contract in the article) start at $5,999. They're a small start-up without economy of scale on their side, but that still just seems wildly overpriced for an induction stove with a lithium battery stuck inside.

    To put that price in perspective, an electric convection toaster oven that can handle most oven needs can be had for $150 to $250, and a high quality countertop induction cooktop can be had for $116 (or less used), both of which run on standard 120v outlets.

    Standard 240v induction ovens stove start at around $850.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Induction oven? How does that work? Is it better than a classic electric oven, does it 'just' heat up faster?

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