Cooking With Magnets! A Look Inside an Induction Stovetop -- The Electronics Inside 75

Good response, however a slightly flawed comparison. The blending of hydrogen with natrual gas is pretty similar to the blending of petrol with synthetic fuels, where not all legacy equipment can support it. Most cars will say how much of a blend they can support in the same way modern boilers are certified to work with maximum hydrogen blend (say up to 10%). This is not the same as the change over from town gas where they went road by road upgrading burners and boilers to make the change!



But at a certain point, the fuel mix will get to a point where the legacy equipment won't work, and will need an upgrade or replacement.

The point with electricity, is that the change in fuel mix is transparent and independant of the user? If I run on 100% electricity, and the mix changes from 100% fossil fuel to 100% renewable in a week, I don't even have to know, let alone take any action?

Absolutely, being able to blend grid energy with locally generated has great advantages too since it avoids distribution losses, but not always practical for my not so sunny small plot in the UK!

Ah yes, I have had many a CPU fan in a computer start whining at me over the years, so yes, I can see that wanting to be replaced!

Marco based control is a great idea, that would be very cool!

The colours have faded a bit over the years. The reds are more of a pink/white now.

The fan bearings are perhaps a bit shot as you can get a bit of fan oscillation noise from time to time.

I expected it would only last a couple of years tops, so when I saw one on sale, I bought it as a stand by replacement, however it is still boxed.

Control-wise it could be improved slightly. It would be nice if you could create some simple macros e.g. switch to bring pan to boil mode then when at boiling, switch to low heat setting, and finally enable countdown timer for 20mins and power off.

"...If I cook on gas, I can only cook on gas. It will always have the same efficiency and carbon emmissions regardless of any external factors..."

Not sure that is strictly true. Before 'natural gas' became the norm, mains gas tended to be 'coal gas'' ('town gas') and produced by heating coal to release the gas. So external factors can still come into play. You also have the choice of off-grid cooking using bottled LPG gas.

"...However, if I move to electrical cooking, then I can then look to decarbonsie and increase the efficiency of the electricity..."

Not sure that is strictly true either. If you are relying on mains supply then you generally have to take what your energy supply company provides in your region along with any distribution inefficiencies. 

At a national level then there is a choice of what sources supply the grid. At an individual level then you probably need to go off-grid to get some of that level of control (limited options for generating electricity with a lot of homes though). But you could apply the same to bottled gas whether you use choose to use propane, butane, methane, mixture etc.

"...But pertrol is petrol always..."

Unless it is synthetic 'e-fuel'...

With hydrogen you may find that gas ends up being produced using electricity, so perhaps one day the inverse of what we are seeing with the current gas-fired electricity generation.

Perhaps one thing to consider about distribution efficiency is that there could be a 'rude awakening' for the existing distribution network if there is a rapid shift from mains gas to mains electricity simultaneously with a rapid shift from petrol/diesel to electric, which appears to be the plan in the UK due to its recent policies on the sale of internal combustion engines and gas boilers in coming years. I suspect that there is a rather large infrastructure upgrade cost about to be passed onto the consumer as part of this transition.

Good to know! I think the fact that they are tactile helps, rather than bad membranes underneath?

FYI I've been using one of these daily for just over 7 years now and the 'blister buttons' haven't failed yet, the 'dirt and grease' is still being kept at bay on the outside.

FYI:

Elec Cost  0.2808 £/KWh

Gas Cost  0.09804 £/KWh

Electricity isn't cheaper than gas, it is nearly 3 times as expensive, but still more cost effective at heating water in a kettle and electric hob than gas and a saucepan!

There are circumstances and personal preferences to consider, if you live out "in the sticks" with limited power, maybe bottled propane is a better option etc.

Great teardown.

I won't get into the issues about efficiencies and which is better.