Best of Both Worlds: A Chef's Christmas Dream meets Technology Apartment Developers need to be aware of NOW
The "hottest" technology for kitchens promises the efficiency and heating power of electricity and the responsiveness and control of gas...
Imagine boiling water in half the time of a gas or conventional-electric burner, the promise of holding temperatures so low that it is nearly impossible to scorch a sauce or burn melted chocolate. Imagine a stovetop so safe, that you could actually turn it on and put your hand on the burner and not feel the heat, but as soon as the metal of a pan touches the burner, the heat is immediately transferred directly to the pan. A burner that doesn’t waste the 50%+ heat that gas wastes - instead of the kitchen heating up, only your food does.
This is induction cooking, the decades-old technology first made its way into American kitchens in the early 2000s, after an extensive period of the technology being available but unreasonably expensive, it finally began to find its way into stovetops and prices began to fall. However in 2008, the housing recession hit, the markets collapsed, and the economy fell into a recession. The result chilled purchases and splurging on a new stovetop gave way to more important and familiar purchases.
While the markets did eventually come back, the reintroduction of the induction cooktop continued to struggle, often due to poor marketing and product recognition. A large number of designers and remodelers still don’t realize what induction cooktops are and they are rarely displayed in big-box retailer showrooms. Those that do hear about the technology also often hear “ you’ll have to throw out all your cookware,” a common misconception as most stainless steel and all cast iron materials used for cookware happen to also be magnetic and will work.
An induction cooktop looks a lot like a conventional electric glass cooktop. A cooktop that is not particularly popular, with a reputation of being slow to heat, producing uneven cooking temperature, and making a mess when a boil over is experienced. Features that have led many home cooks to desire gas, and only gas cooktops. Personally, I was right there with them. Having experienced the thrill of a glass electric cooktop, when the opportunity came to build a new home, I refused to consider anything but gas.
What I didn’t realize at that time was the efficiency of induction cooktops. While there are not Energy Star Certifications for cooktops, the US Department of Energy states that an induction cooktop is 84% efficient at energy transfer compared to 74% for a glass top electric cooktop. An induction cooktop is very efficient in its energy use as well, providing 90% efficiency with its power use, using 2.8 kW to deliver 2.52 kW. This compares to 55% efficiency for electric (2.0 kW to deliver 1.1 kW) and 50% efficiency for gas (3.5 kW to generate 1.75 kW). Less wasted energy transfer translates to less excess heat transferred to the air around the pan. Less heat transfer to air means a lower heat load in the kitchen and a reduced burden on your air conditioning or heat pump.
Not a Chef? Actually, the induction cooktop might have a few tricks to help you look like one. Smart technology has found its way into induction cooktops, one example is Samsung’s NE595NO which features boil alert. This feature detects the vibration from hot liquids that are starting to boil and automatically reduces heat to a pre-set level to prevent boil overs.
In addition to reducing boil overs, when food is spilled on the cooktop, it doesn’t burn onto the glass surface like an electric cooktop. Remember, induction means the heat is transferred only from burner to pan through the induction that occurs when the metal pan is in contact with the burner. Heat is not transferred to the glass, leaving the surface cool to touch when the pot is lifted from the surface of the range.
While the cost has come down, there are incentive programs available in various utility service territories to help offset the initial equipment costs. Sacramento for example offers a $75- incentive to replace a gas cooktop with an induction cooktop while Marin County (CA) also offers $250 to replace a cooktop and $500 to replace a cooktop and oven.
The Kitchen Electrification Group (KEG) provides additional online resources to share information about kitchen electrification. Their publication, “Going Induction Guide” offers a great place to start and can form the backbone of the education program needed to educate residents in multi-family communities equipped with this technology.
Ever wonder what induction cooking looks like? In the following video, Chef David Wei prepares Kung Pao Chicken on an induction cooktop:
Induction cooktops are one way to move towards electrification in a meaningful way that holds the promise to enhance the lives of our residents. Like many new technologies, this one might need to have a little resident engagement initially to get them past the poor marketing efforts of the industry. Fortunately, we are talking about cooking and if there is one thing that residents love to do, it is typically cooking or talk about cooking, even if it is just enjoying other peoples cooking. Education can take many forms including cooking demos to teach residents to maximize the technology in their kitchen, all the while wasting less and reducing their impact.
You can help reduce the impact of the built environment by sharing this blog with your peers. Together we can impact the 39% of greenhouse gasses attributed to the built environment. It starts with awareness and we succeed with teamwork.
Stay well & Merry Christmas!
Chris Laughman is the author of the ThirtyNine Blog, a blog dedicated to reducing the impact of the built environment. When not blogging, Chris is helping multifamily properties reduce their energy and water impact as a senior account manager at Bright Power. A full-service energy strategy company, Bright Power is a leading provider of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy management solutions for the real estate industry. We use our Find-Fix-Follow approach to Find the best opportunities across a real estate portfolio, deploy the Fixes on specific assets, and Follow to ensure long term value, always optimizing for your financial and sustainability goals. Contact me at claughman@brightpower.com for more information.