Very cool: induction-based cooking surfaces. Luxine (sorry no website but great analysis by EPRI) has a high-end product. Fast heat-up (2 min). Cool surfaces (which is great for the cook!). High efficiency (95% vs. 30% for a commercial gas range). Superior performance. I want one. Resources: a discussion of induction ranges and cooktops at Bob Vila, ebay sales, and Induction systems has a products and explanations. [John Robb’s Weblog]
Yes, very cool, but keep in mind that the “High efficiency (95% vs. 30% for a commercial gas range)” cooktop is running on electricity that’s probably generated at 30% efficiency in older thermal powerplants, perhaps 50% in newer gas turbine plants. (Not counting transmission losses.)
Now, if you want to drive the induction cooktop with distributed [local] generation via photovoltaics and/or fuel cells, then maybe you’ve got something.
