house outlet ac power

[IanB]

Interesting. My dad has a gas stove and the bigger burners are rated 4.5kW. I think my (induction) stove burners go from 2.2kW max to 3.3kW max, depending on the size of the thing. Dunno what the US equivalents are.

4.5 kW sounds very high, actually.

What I did was compare the time to boil a liter of water on a stove top kettle compared to an electric kettle. Boiling on the stove top is very, very slow.

Gas burners will not transfer all the heat to the pot, some of it is wasted round the sides. However, induction burners should be more efficient in that regard.

You could try a test and see. At 3.3 kW it would take under 2 minutes to boil a liter of water.

[BeBuLamar]

try widening your shopping net,just like homebase aint the only seller of showers,currys aint the only seller of kettles,theirs plenty of kettles rated at 2-2.5kw as there are showers rated less than 8.5kw.

Why would I want to buy a kettle less than 3000 W? It will boil slower. It would be just as dumb as buying a shower less than 8.5 kW.

But since you are taking issue, please show me a UK retailer of your choice where most kettles listed are not 3000 W? You can pick Argos, Tesco, John Lewis, Amazon, any popular retailer of kitchen goods. Not just some of the kettles, most of the kettles.

My house has 200A service here in the USA but I can't use a kettle of more than 1500W. My outlet is only rated for 15A and has breaker for 20A.

[IanB]

My house has 200A service here in the USA but I can't use a kettle of more than 1500W. My outlet is only rated for 15A and has breaker for 20A.

Yup, but if you are creative you can (have an electrician) wire a 240 V circuit from the panel to a NEMA 6-20 receptacle and plug a 240 V kettle into that 

[mcz]

Interesting. My dad has a gas stove and the bigger burners are rated 4.5kW. I think my (induction) stove burners go from 2.2kW max to 3.3kW max, depending on the size of the thing. Dunno what the US equivalents are.

4.5 kW sounds very high, actually.

What I did was compare the time to boil a liter of water on a stove top kettle compared to an electric kettle. Boiling on the stove top is very, very slow.

Gas burners will not transfer all the heat to the pot, some of it is wasted round the sides. However, induction burners should be more efficient in that regard.

You could try a test and see. At 3.3 kW it would take under 2 minutes to boil a liter of water.

Yeah the thing (my dads stove) seems fast. And stuff can get pretty hot as well while with electric heating you don't really discolour a pan/pot that fast lol.
Apparently professional gas stoves might run up to 11kW.

Seems like a good idea to try out. The problems I see is that the pot itself has a significant thermal mass that might throw off measurements and actually bringing water near the boiling point means it evaporates and steals "a lot" (well, some) energy. But I guess I try it first.

My house has 200A service here in the USA but I can't use a kettle of more than 1500W. My outlet is only rated for 15A and has breaker for 20A.

Yup, but if you are creative you can (have an electrician) wire a 240 V circuit from the panel to a NEMA 6-20 receptacle and plug a 240 V kettle into that 

I think a fun approach would be to overclock the 120V kettle and run it on 240V. 4 times the power MIGHT just work... (disclaimer: this is dangerous!)

[tooki]

European stoves also tend to have lower power burners compared to UK or USA; if you want to actually fry something (instead of slow boiling), better preheat the pan on the stove for 3-4 minutes, and then fry small amounts at a time. It's not always like this, of course, higher power appliances are available, but you can't take the US-style 230V 40A stoves for granted. But we get by, laughing at the strawman of the USA supposedly being limited to 110V and no power beyond ~1kW anywhere.

A typical US burner is no more powerful than a European one. Some US stoves do have a jumbo-size burner, but it’s not universal.

A standard US domestic circuit is 120V/15A. (It hasn’t been 110V for the better part of a century. It’s 120V/240V.) So 1800W, not the 1.1kW you claim. Still less than the 2300-3700W of many European circuits.

[nali]

I think a fun approach would be to overclock the 120V kettle and run it on 240V. 4 times the power MIGHT just work... (disclaimer: this is dangerous!)

Here's some research material for you then

[BradC]

I think a fun approach would be to overclock the 120V kettle and run it on 240V. 4 times the power MIGHT just work... (disclaimer: this is dangerous!)

Here's some research material for you then

Nice!

My wife is a Scot and loves a cup of tea. She wanted to know where she could get a kettle that could boil a pint in under 10 seconds. Given the "research" presented in that video if I wired one delta here I should get close to that. Somehow I suspect their source impedance might be a bit higher and fault current a bit lower than if I hooked it straight up to the grid.

[Capernicus]

Look at the size of that power plug.

I wonder how much torque 10kW can deliver in an electromagnetic motor.

[TimFox]

Depends on the rpm.

[IanB]

Look at the size of that power plug.

I wonder how much torque 10kW can deliver in an electromagnetic motor.

Pfft. 10 kW is not very big. I'm just looking at the data sheet for an 18 000 kW motor. The full load torque is about 70,000 ft-lb, or 95 000 Nm.

[Capernicus]

Look at the size of that power plug.

I wonder how much torque 10kW can deliver in an electromagnetic motor.

Pfft. 10 kW is not very big. I'm just looking at the data sheet for an 18 000 kW motor. The full load torque is about 70,000 ft-lb, or 95 000 Nm.

You can turn the statue of liberty into a giant robot with that?

[Siwastaja]

turn the statue of liberty into a giant robot

Excellent idea! I like your posts.

[BradC]

Look at the size of that power plug.

I wonder how much torque 10kW can deliver in an electromagnetic motor.

Pfft. 10 kW is not very big. I'm just looking at the data sheet for an 18 000 kW motor. The full load torque is about 70,000 ft-lb, or 95 000 Nm.

They don’t tend to be wired on a removable plug though.

[BeBuLamar]

Look at the size of that power plug.

I wonder how much torque 10kW can deliver in an electromagnetic motor.

Pfft. 10 kW is not very big. I'm just looking at the data sheet for an 18 000 kW motor. The full load torque is about 70,000 ft-lb, or 95 000 Nm.

I have a good working 30KW motor for sale cheap.

[Zero999]

European stoves also tend to have lower power burners compared to UK or USA; if you want to actually fry something (instead of slow boiling), better preheat the pan on the stove for 3-4 minutes, and then fry small amounts at a time. It's not always like this, of course, higher power appliances are available, but you can't take the US-style 230V 40A stoves for granted. But we get by, laughing at the strawman of the USA supposedly being limited to 110V and no power beyond ~1kW anywhere.

A typical US burner is no more powerful than a European one. Some US stoves do have a jumbo-size burner, but it’s not universal.

Gas fired burners are often more powerful than electric stoves. The problem with a stove is lots of the heat isn't transferred to the pan. I believe induction hobs are more efficient, but they depend on the pan being made of the correct material.

[tooki]

I can absolutely attest to the efficiency of induction. Both gas and traditional electric lose heat to incomplete transfer to the pan; in induction, the thermal loss is what gets transferred from pan to stovetop. (Fun fact: when I want to sear stuff for long enough that my induction burner would get too hot and shut off, I just introduce a thermal gap by setting the pan on top of a pair of chopsticks. Gets a few more minutes of full heat.)

I used to swear by gas, but I’m an induction convert. Yes, gas retains some advantages, but induction heats faster, doesn’t heat the room nearly as much, and is far, far, far easier to clean.

And induction is so efficient that a simple plug-in induction hot plate (the kind that use around 1800W and plug into an ordinary 120V/15A or 230V/10A outlet) outperforms many a “real” stove.

But you are absolutely correct that the choice of cookware is essential. Even some cookware advertised as induction-compatible isn’t that great on it. (Luckily, that’s rare, and almost all the so-labeled cookware I’ve bought has been excellent. IKEA excels in this.) Cast iron, one of my favorites, works superbly on induction.

[John B]

How many watts is your induction stove? I'm currently working out a full house worth of services. I'm thinking of consolidating all main energy users (hot water, cooking, heating) into electrical. Not sure whether paying the extra connection fee of gas will be worth it, especially with gas prices going up here.

I mean, electricity is going up too, but I can live without gas, can't live without electricity.

[tooki]

Believe it or not, it’s a cheap 2000W induction hot plate. The actual stove in my (rental) apartment is conventional glasstop electric, which is fine (actually it’s a fairly decent one), but 99% of the time the stove is off and the induction hot plate is set on top of the stovetop and used instead. As alluded to above, its limiting factor isn’t actually power, but cooling: if I want to, say, sear tuna steaks for 4 people (2 fit in the pan at once), it will get too hot and turn off before I can get to the last 2. Proper induction stoves don’t seem to have that limitation. I’m sure they have thermal cutouts, but at much higher temperatures.

Full induction stovetops typically have various size burners of various wattages, (going by memory here) perhaps 1400W for a smaller burner up to 2500W for an extra-large burner. Many have total cooktop wattage smaller than the sum of the burners, meaning that you can’t run all the burners at full power simultaneously. (Some, like my friend’s Samsung, also have power limits within pairs of burners.) Not really a problem in ordinary use, since one rarely needs to sear on maximum heat on all 4 burners at once, but worth checking into anyway.

The only thing I would suggest is to avoid Samsung: my aforementioned friend in USA has one of those, and while it has no shortage of power, the pan detection on the burners isn’t impressive — it fails to reliably detect smaller pans the way I am used to on every other induction stove I’ve used (V-Zug, Electrolux, various cheap hot plates).

[mcz]

How many watts is your induction stove? I'm currently working out a full house worth of services. I'm thinking of consolidating all main energy users (hot water, cooking, heating) into electrical. Not sure whether paying the extra connection fee of gas will be worth it, especially with gas prices going up here.

I mean, electricity is going up too, but I can live without gas, can't live without electricity.

I have a Bosch 5-plate thingy and I believe the maximum rating for the entire unit is 9kW.

i also did some measurements while heating water and a 3.3kW rated got me about 2.9kW (probably including all sorts of errors) of actual water heating power. 1L of water from 20C to 50C in about 45 seconds.