KitchenAid KICU508SBL Technical Education page 16

• As mentioned earlier, induction cooking en-
ergy is supplied directly to the cooking utensil
by the magnetic field; thus, almost all of the
source energy gets transferred to that cook-
ing utensil. With gas or conventional electric
elements (including halogen), the energy is
first converted to heat and only then directed
to the pot or pan with a lot of that heat go-
ing to waste heating up your kitchen instead
of heating up your food. (As a comparison,
40%—less than half—of the energy in gas
gets used to cook, whereas with induction
84% percent of the energy in the electricity
used gets used to cook (and the rest is not
waste heat as it is with gas). There are two
important heat-related consequences of that
fact:
Cooler kitchens:
• Of course the cooking vessel and the food
itself will radiate some of their heat into the
cooking area—but compared to gas or other
forms of electrically powered cooking, induc-
tion makes for a much cooler kitchen.
Cool stove top:
• The stove top itself barely gets warm except
directly under the pan (and that only from such
heat as the pan bottom transfers). No more
burned fingers, no more baked-on spills, no
more danger with children around.
Environmentally Sound
• Induction heating is a clean, non-polluting
process. It produces much less smoke or
waste heat to alter the surrounding environ-
ment.
• It is an obvious but still very important fact that
induction cooktops are powered by electricity.
Not every home actually has a gas pipeline
available to it—for many, the only "gas" option
is propane, with the huge propane tank and
regular truck visits. But everyone has clean,
silent, ever-present electricity.
• Burning gas has byproducts that are vapor-
ized, but eventually condense on a surface
somewhere in the vicinity of the cooktop.
Electrical cooking of any kind eliminates such
byproducts.
User-Friendly
• Working conditions are improved with the
absence of smoke and heat produced by
heating equipment. You can touch the outer
casing without getting burned.
• If the electricity supply to your home is inter-
rupted, you will be unable to cook; gas sup-
plies can be interrupted, too, but such inter-
ruptions are normally somewhat less likely
than electricity interruptions. If the electricity
where you are frequently goes out for hours
at a time, the loss of cooking ability may be
an issue for you.
Pinpoint Accuracy
• Power input is precisely controlled to achieve
the exact temperature required for heating.
Heat is developed directly inside the pot or
kettle or cooktop.
• With gas, when you adjust the element set-
ting, the energy flow adjusts instantly.
• But with induction cooking the heat level is
every bit as instantaneous, and as exact, as
with gas, yet with none of the many drawbacks
of gas. Induction elements can be adjusted to
increments as fine as the cooker maker cares
to supply, just like gas, and—again very im-
portant to serious cooks—such elements can
run at as low a cooking-heat level as wanted
for gentle simmering and suchlike (something
even gas is not always good at).
• Moreover, gas—induction's only real com-
petition—has special risks of its own, not all
of which are as well known as they perhaps
should be. While the risk of a gas flame, even
a pilot light, blowing out and allowing gas to
escape into the house is relatively small, it
does exist.
Maximum Repeatability
• With modern induction heating equipment,
the heating pattern is always the same for a
given set-up, cycle after cycle and day after
day.
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