Tell me about your all Induction Cooking

[zboss]

All-

We own a portable induction cooktop and we love it... but we don't use it a whole lot when not at the dock. We also have an electric brava oven which is simply awesome but -again- don't use it off the dock.

For those of you that cook full time on your boat and have an all electric galley... how many watts are you consuming over a day or week?

We have been discussing going all electric in the galley and getting a Kenyon two burner. We would use the space opened up from taking out the propane oven to put in as much lithium as we can fit in that space, so either create one big lithium bank with our house lithium batteries or maybe have two banks. We expect that we would need to run our diesel generator on a regular basis but this isn't as issue because we already use it to charge our batts anyway.

- z

[rslifkin]

If you're going to run the generator at some point, then powering the galley is easy. I generally run the gen to make dinner, heat water for showers (my hot water is electric only) and just try to do everything that needs it at the same time. Then I can run on battery/solar the rest of the time.

My stove isn't induction though, so I can't give good power consumption numbers (and I don't have it wired to the inverter anyway).

[Jammer]

I have been doing a good deal of experimenting with induction cooking in my house ashore. Based on my own measurements corroborated by various other sources, I believe there is a relationship of 1 gallon propane (burned in a gas cooktop) being equivalent to 11 kwh of electricity used in an induction burner.


Nearly all boaters who cook aboard daily with propane report using 2 gallons of propane a month. Based on this, you could expect to use 22 kwh of electricity for an induction cooktop, per month, if you have one in place of a gas cooktop -- or about 0.73 kwh a day.


People living ashore, based on industry averages, use somewhat more, 2.2-4.4 gallons of propane or equivalent.


A fact to consider is that, aside from industry propaganda, studies show a roughly similar overall efficiency when comparing induction to ordinary electric cooktops. This has been my experience as well. With induction cooktops, the loss is in the electronics (which is why there's a fan), while with plain electric resistance burners it's in heat radiated and convected away.

[TRob]

Also interested in hearing what equipment people are using. The only proper piece of kit I have found is something like $6,000 US - insane

https://gn-espace.com/product/oceanc...uction-cooker/

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I have been doing a good deal of experimenting with induction cooking in my house ashore. Based on my own measurements corroborated by various other sources, I believe there is a relationship of 1 gallon propane (burned in a gas cooktop) being equivalent to 11 kwh of electricity used in an induction burner.

This is a good idea.

>So I looked up that each pound of propane contains 21,600 BTU.

>We use about 12 pounds of propane a month, or 259,200 BTU.

>BTU to Watts conversion makes that 75,964 watts a month equivalent.

>Assuming 30 days a month... that's 2532 watts a day.

>We have a 1125 watts of solar and lets assume we actually get 750 watts of solar per hour on a good day.

This basically means that each day all our solar would be occupied with refilling the energy from the electric galley, leaving none for the house bank.

We have a 5000 watt generator, so we could run that ~30 minutes each day to refill the galley lithiums.

We use ~0.5 gallons of diesel per hour to run the generator, which would mean 15 gallons a month of diesel, which at the going rate of about $3 per gallon... $45 a month plus expendables and wear and tear.

In other words - much much more expensive than a 20 gallon bottle of propane.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

If you're going to run the generator at some point, then powering the galley is easy. I generally run the gen to make dinner, heat water for showers (my hot water is electric only) and just try to do everything that needs it at the same time. Then I can run on battery/solar the rest of the time. ).

As a full time liveaboad who has never been in a marina in the past 5 years I reckon you are better off using Genset in the morning to do batts and hot water putting it under full load then letting solar finish off.

Solar does nought when i am cooking meals at night so I use something that does.
Gae

An 8.5kg/18.7 lb bottle lasts us 3 months using it 3x a day plus additional baking and bbq usage.
We carry 4 of them so never run out.

[Pelagic]

With 1680w solar in the tropics and generally light cooking habits for the heat,, this is my observations for 2 people

Breakfast, generally fruit and museli with kettle for coffee.

Lunch, one or two induction hobs for half hour at 40% setting
Heavier on salads

Tea and toast at night.

We are at 100% SOC by 3pm
82% by 6am following morning with 3 fridges and house loads in use.

780ah @ 24vdc.

We do bbq a lot outside so propane is still important, but getting the heat out of a tropical galley is priceless to us !

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

As a full time liveaboad who has never been in a marina in the past 5 years I reckon you are better off using Genset in the morning to do batts and hot water putting it under full load then letting solar finish off.

Solar does nought when i am cooking meals at night so I use something that does.
Gae

An 8.5kg/18.7 lb bottle lasts us 3 months using it 3x a day plus additional baking and bbq usage.
We carry 4 of them so never run out.

If I had more battery capacity, I would likely find that beneficial. But my house bank is only 415ah / 12V, so I didn't size and wire the inverter with the intent of running the microwave, stove or water heater. Given a cloudy day to catch up from, I'd probably run the gen for a bit in the morning to throw some juice into the batteries, then let the solar finish the job.

But with good weather, my new solar setup should be enough on its own to get the batteries topped off every day, meaning that I only need the genset to support big loads when we're away from shore power. At that point, it makes sense to just run the gen when it's the best time to run the big loads (no propane or good spot for a propane locker on this boat, so everything is electric). My gen isn't oversized, so it's not hard to get enough load on it to keep things happy (it's a 6.5kw unit).

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Jammer

A fact to consider is that, aside from industry propaganda, studies show a roughly similar overall efficiency when comparing induction to ordinary electric cooktops. This has been my experience as well. With induction cooktops, the loss is in the electronics (which is why there's a fan), while with plain electric resistance burners it's in heat radiated and convected away.

I'm aware of an energy-consumption testing protocol that's been used to test efficiency in appliances, and was modified to test induction hobs - this shows a similar efficiency between conventional electric and induction, but IMO is not truly indicative of reality. I'm curious about your experience also, as I've had in the past couple years both induction and conventional (glass-top) ranges and found induction to be far more efficient in the terms of time. Boiling water in the exact same pot - a bit more than a minute on the induction, a shade more than four minutes on conventional to get to boil. That's not an insignificant difference.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by zboss

This is a good idea.

>So I looked up that each pound of propane contains 21,600 BTU.

>We use about 12 pounds of propane a month, or 259,200 BTU.

>BTU to Watts conversion makes that 75,964 watts a month equivalent.

You have to keep in mind that propane is less efficient. The 21,600 BTU figure is the total heat of combustion assuming that every molecule is fully combusted and you cool the exhaust vapor to ambient temperature and condense the water out of it. And then of course you aren't going to transfer all the heat to the pan you're cooking with, because most of it is just given off as waste heat.


I've measured by actually weighing propane canisters and measuring temperature rise with a real stove. I've also measured temperature rise with an induction hotplate.


Gas burners are, in my tests, 15-22% efficient at actually heating water in a pot on the stove, and induction hot plates are 73% efficient using the same test. Both are more efficient at simmer.


It is based on this that I believe the equivalence is 11 kwh = 1 gallon (4.25 pounds) rather than the 91250/3413 or roughly 27 kwh = 1 gallon figures that you are using (your units are just different).

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

I'm aware of an energy-consumption testing protocol that's been used to test efficiency in appliances, and was modified to test induction hobs - this shows a similar efficiency between conventional electric and induction, but IMO is not truly indicative of reality. I'm curious about your experience also, as I've had in the past couple years both induction and conventional (glass-top) ranges and found induction to be far more efficient in the terms of time. Boiling water in the exact same pot - a bit more than a minute on the induction, a shade more than four minutes on conventional to get to boil. That's not an insignificant difference.

You'll never know for sure unless you measure the electricity being used. Actual induction ranges (as opposed to hotplates) sometimes have just enormous wattage output -- over 3000 watts per burner in some cases -- and they can fit this into a remarkably small burner circle. Glass top ranges are less than that, and because they have temperature sensors they will reduce power somewhat as they get hotter to avoid overheating internally. Again you'll never know for sure what's going on unless you measure.


Old-school electric coil burner ranges heat somewhat faster and are somewhat more efficient, compared to glass top, but are responsible for more fires and are more difficult to clean.


In my tests, the most efficient (and fastest) way to boil water is in one of those cheap electric tea kettles. My 120v one checks out at 86% efficiency and can boil two quarts of water in four minutes. The 220v ones in Europe and the UK are higher wattage and can boil water faster, and are probably equally efficient.


The great thing about induction is that you get the speed and convenience of electric with the instantaneous control of gas, but the heat is less even and there is more noise.


Finally it makes a difference whether your pots match the fuel. I have a special teakettle designed for a gas burner, from England, that has a coil of wire and vents to form a sort of heat exchanger. I haven't measured performance (it's on the boat now and I ran the experiments in my house), but there's no doubt it works better than a flat-bottomed kettle. Gas stoves benefit efficiency wise from pots with wide bottoms, perhaps more so than most people realize, while electric and induction ones do not. Induction burners need not only an induction-compatible material but have to be conductive enough to spread the heat around. I tried using my cast iron pans on induction and while they work, everything burns in a ring shape right over the induction coils. Not a problem on gas or trad electric.

[CatNewBee]

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...d.php?t=201795

We are all electric and living offgrid at anchor.
4 burner induction hob, electric residential oven.

We use all energy we can collect for making water, cooking, baking, laundry, fridges, freezer, espresso machine, other appliances etc.

We have a generator and may run it for an hour per month in average, but usually our power source is solar (1650Wp). Our battery has a usable capacity of 15kWh (1000Ah @12V from 1000Ah Winston cells).

Picture is the energy we collected and used in average the last 30 days at anchor in the Caribbean (Saint Martin)

We use daily up to 3 of the 4 burners for a regular meal, we use the oven for making fresh bread from frozen one for breakfast, we bake 5 loafs of bread fresh and store 4 for the subsequent days in the freezer, we make our own Yoghurt weekly etc. All on solar only.

So if there is no excess demand for some odd reason or bad weather for a longer time, we live 100% on solar only - including the coverage of our fresh water needs (160..220l/day). We turn off the inverter when not needed.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by zboss

We have a 5000 watt generator, so we could run that ~30 minutes each day to refill the galley lithiums.

We use ~0.5 gallons of diesel per hour to run the generator, which would mean 15 gallons a month of diesel, which at the going rate of about $3 per gallon... $45 a month plus expendables and wear and tear.

In other words - much much more expensive than a 20 gallon bottle of propane.

Check your math. 30 minutes a day is 15 hours a month. At 0.5 gph diesel that should be 7.5 gallons diesel per month.


The rule of thumb I use is that most marine diesel gensets will produce around 9-11 kwh of electricity out of a gallon of diesel if they are run at 50-100% rated load. Larger gensets (say 25kw) will do a little better than that. With capital and maintenance costs you're paying $0.75 to $1 per kwh, I believe, though some people's experiences have shown much higher costs. It's an expensive way to produce power and especially to cook.


I believe the main case to be made for an all-electric galley is that it eliminates the hassle of propane procurement while cruising. The logistics can be frustrating and time consuming in some ports.

[Rorzech]

Two years ago I got a one element induction for $79.00 CND and now they're cheaper now. since then I got another one at a yard sale for $10.00. Don't give up !

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I believe the main case to be made for an all-electric galley is that it eliminates the hassle of propane procurement while cruising. The logistics can be frustrating and time consuming in some ports.

It is safety and maintenance:
No more propane, no gas leaks, no maintenance, no explosive stuff, no risk of poisoning

It is convenience:
No carriyng gas cylinders around for a refill, no country adapters for refilling, no hassle with different standards for regulators...

It is quality of living:
No excess heat and moisture in the galley from combustion, no CO2 inside from cooking.

With solar, you don't need diesel to run the hobs, so diesel prices are not always relevant. Also running your generator to charge the LFP battery is far more efficient with the right chargers, you can recharge it in a fraction of time (1h regular or quick in 20 minutes from empty to full).