Long story short, my boat came with CNG, which needed to be changed out because I am leaving the US. I could have gone
propane, but I went electric.
I pointed out the Nuwave induction cooktop and Breville Smart
Oven earlier on this thread because it is what I have and use. One day when I have more data, I'll make a more detailed post about my experience, but right now, here are some rough stats. I don't think the requirements are as high as most assume. With a bigger
generator, I could easily see using a 2 or 3 cooktop range and
oven.
Bank has 645 amp hours at 12 volts. Generator is a
Honda 2000.
Inverter is a 2k
Victron (with Power Assist, which is the key to this working with my small generator).
Both the Nuwave induction cooktop and Breville Smart Oven have a max pull of 1800 watts at 120 volts. The cooktop has more or less a linear scale from how high you set the temperature to how much power it uses. The max temp is rated at 650F, so 350F, a good cooking temperature, uses 900 watts. 230F, good for keeping a boil, uses less and holding a low simmer even less.
Running the induction cooktop at 350F, a temperature good for most items, 150 amps are pulled from the bank. If my bank is fairly full, I don't turn on the generator for this, which is nice as this is how I often cook for breakfast and lunch. If I want to sear at a higher temperature, like 500F+ for a steak dinner, the generator comes on.
The Smart Oven isn't as smart as I'd wish because at any temperature it just goes all out at 1600 watts and regulates itself (while baking or roasting) by turning on for one second and off for two. Toasting pulls 1800 watts for the whole time (this isn't an efficient toaster at all). Broiling pulls 1600 watts for the whole cooking time.
The oven is best run with the generator because the pre-heat phase pulls 175 amps for 5+ minutes straight. Afterwards, when the oven flips on and off, the
Victron alternates between Power Assisting (when the oven is on) and
charging the bank (when the oven is off).
Running the generator is obviously required when using both the oven and cooktop. Running both at the same time peaks at 3000 watts, with roughly 1700 watts from the generator and the remainder from the bank. I let the oven pre-heat before using the cooktop to avoid the 3000 watt pull for other than the one second spikes when the oven flips on. Letting the generator run for 30 minutes after all the cooking is done brings be up to about where I started (other than if I started at 95%+ of SOC).
The following are some measurements I have taken using the Victron
battery monitor, so they are all what comes out of the bank (that is, they include the inverter loss):
- Using the cooktop for 15 minutes at 350F, which is generally about what it takes for breakfast (coffee, eggs, toast via a skillet, etc.) uses about 20-25 amp hours.
- This is also about the same for dinners where you're just searing or sautéing meat and veggies (so roughly 20 amp hours each, for 40 total). If you're doing a longer simmer, the amp hours increases some. Searing at a higher temperature seems a less efficient (uses more amp hours to reach the same level of done-ness), but only slightly.
- I have gotten down making three days worth of black beans in about 20 amp hours using a pressure cooker (mostly used to bring the top up to pressure).
- The oven takes 5 minutes to heat up to 350F (it's smaller than your average oven, but I could still bake a whole chicken or a 9x13 pan). The pre-heat phase takes 15 amp hours. Each additional 5 minutes takes 5 amp hours (before taking into account the fact that the Victron actually allows me to charge during this phase).
- Because the oven is small and has a convection fan,
food cooks faster in it than you are use to. I can roast veggies and bake muffins using less than 30 amp hours (again, without taking into account any charging). I haven't roasted a big piece of meat yet). Higher oven temperatures also seem slightly less efficient (again, amp hours used to reach the same level of done-ness).
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