Induction stoves are an important technology that allow consumers to happily leave behind fossil fuels in the kitchen.
- They cook food faster than other types of stoves,
- turn heat up and down instantaneously,
- offer precise temperature control,
- only work when a magnetic pan is placed on top of them
- and perhaps best of all, are powered by clean electricity.
Induction stove work by creating a magnetic field that directly heats iron in pans, so rather than heating the space under a pan like a traditional stove, the heat comes from within the pan itself.
Induction stoves are also more efficient than gas or electric coils. Energy transfer is around 84% compared to 74% with the older technologies.
Cooking doesn’t account for a lot of energy use in the home, so the typical person probably won’t save a huge amount of energy and money, but it’s nice to know that when you do cook, you’ll be doing it more efficiently.
Induction offers excellent low heat settings that gas burners typically struggle with — no more burned rice on the bottom of the pan!
Induction also cooks far more quickly than other technologies and can boil six cups of water in two minutes.
Induction stoves are also the safest cooking technology available. The cooktop only heats magnetic pans and pots and turns off automatically after 10 seconds when it doesn’t detect a pan.
No more accidentally bumping the stove and turning on burners.
The cost of induction stoves seem to be the greatest challenge to their full-scale adoption. This is still more than low-cost electric or gas stoves, but as with any technology with adoption it is coming down slowly.
Electrify everything is our best strategy to solving our climate crisis quickly, and “cooking with gas” is one of the primary methods that the gas industry uses to convince consumers that we can’t live without it.
The more people who prove that argument wrong and use induction cooking, the faster we can transition off fossil fuels.
Reference- Clean Technica, Which Magazine, CDA website