Converting watts to amps?

[pennysmom09]

I purchased a 1000 watt single burner hot plate to use in our RV. Without knowing the volts, (haven't received it yet), is there any way to determine if our 50 amps will be able to handle it? Hopefully I won't have to return it! I find the stove inadequate for a lot of cooking, and I just don't have room for the typical toaster oven.

[pnichols]

Of course .... you're supposed to always run the RV's cooktop hood fan whenever using the burners. Since the water is in vapor form from the propane flames, the bulk of the water vapor will be vented to the outside when cooking.

We always run this hood fan whenever using the cooktop.

[DrewE]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Drew,

One of the waste product from burning propane is water in the form of vapor. When the vapor touches any surface that is below the dew point temperature it will condense out. So even preheating a pan will put lots of water into an RV.

DrewE wrote:

pnichols wrote:
Also, for extended-stay hookup camping during cold weather where you don't want a lot of windows/vents open, electric plate and induction plate cooking probably helps keep interior moisture levels down - as opposed to gas cooktop cooking.

I suspect the difference is pretty much immaterial when compared with the moisture released by the cooking itself. You're going to get a good bit of water vapor in the air when you make pasta, whether your pot of boiling water is heated by gas or electricity (or wood or kerosene or solar reflectors or....)

Complete combustion of any hydrocarbon will of course result in water vapor and carbon dioxide. (incomplete combustion results in other byproducts, notably including carbon monoxide.) The question to me is how much water vapor is released by the combustion in relation to other sources of water vapor when cooking.

According to one calculation I found online, one gallon of propane will produce about 90,000 BTUs when burned, and will produce approximately one gallon of water (in vapor form) during the process. A typical high power RV stovetop burner is rated at 9,000 BTUs per hour, so will produce the equivalent water vapor of boiling away a little under a pint of water durning the hour. I guess that is more significant than I would have initially guessed, and is likely to be noticeable during at least some cooking operations. Boiling or simmering especially (and, to a lesser extent, most all cooking operations) still produce a good deal of water vapor regardless of the heat source, of course, so merely using an electric cooktop won't completely solve condensation problems, though it may help somewhat I suppose.

[pianotuna]

Hi Drew,

One of the waste product from burning propane is water in the form of vapor. When the vapor touches any surface that is below the dew point temperature it will condense out. So even preheating a pan will put lots of water into an RV.

DrewE wrote:

pnichols wrote:
Also, for extended-stay hookup camping during cold weather where you don't want a lot of windows/vents open, electric plate and induction plate cooking probably helps keep interior moisture levels down - as opposed to gas cooktop cooking.

I suspect the difference is pretty much immaterial when compared with the moisture released by the cooking itself. You're going to get a good bit of water vapor in the air when you make pasta, whether your pot of boiling water is heated by gas or electricity (or wood or kerosene or solar reflectors or....)

[wa8yxm]

There are inductive chargers for cell phones and such, but you have to buy a special "Back" for the phone, and there are other reasons to not use inductive charging (For one thing it is less efficient, (How can it be more efficient for cooking and less for charging,,, Well, Different jobs work differently is all I will say, Majored in physics and electronics).

I would rather charge with a cord.

One advantage of an inductive charge-a-plate as I will call it.

Though today most every re-chargable wants 5 volts, in days of old some took 5, some 9, some 12, some ______ and my computers all take different voltages in the 14-25 volt range.

With the inductive charger the charger plate is identical for all, but the charger "Back" for the phone or device is different,, So you can toss any old device on the standard plate and it will charge.

[pnichols]

wa8yxm wrote:
With induction cooking the pan is the burner, so the match is always perfect, the cooking surface is NOT the burner, the pan is, and thus yes, You do save energy.. Very sharp of you to notice that.

Yep ... we need more induction energy transfer in our daily living.

Take a look at how electric toothbrushes charge ... by induction through the plastic in their charging stands and cases. How come our cell phones, iStuff, and portable computers gotta have cords plugged into them to charge them? Probably dumb. Why not eliminate the cords and just set them on plastic induction charging stands? :h and :?

[Caveman_Charlie]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

I tried a unit that had only 10 power levels. I returned it and bought the Nuwave which had 52, with temperatures from 100 to 575 F. The latest version has 94 levels at increments of 5 f. Perfect for simmering. If they did not have a timer that shuts the unit down after 90 minutes it would be a great replacement for a slow cooker.

bob213 wrote:
Well rated competitor for the NuWave:
induction

My NuWave has an adjustable timer. I Do use if for slow cooking. I didn't understand this at first but a e-mail to NuWave was quickly returned and they told me how to set the timer to go for more then 90 minutes.

I did have to give up on all my old pans but, they were wore out anyway. I shut off my household stove, I never use it anymore. I'm going to replace it with a cabinet for more storage and just use the NuWave cookers and a nice convection oven for baking.

[DrewE]

pnichols wrote:
Also, for extended-stay hookup camping during cold weather where you don't want a lot of windows/vents open, electric plate and induction plate cooking probably helps keep interior moisture levels down - as opposed to gas cooktop cooking.

I suspect the difference is pretty much immaterial when compared with the moisture released by the cooking itself. You're going to get a good bit of water vapor in the air when you make pasta, whether your pot of boiling water is heated by gas or electricity (or wood or kerosene or solar reflectors or....)

[wa8yxm]

pianotuna wrote:
The induction cooker is probably not going to operate on less than a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. They will not work at all on modified sine wave according to reports posted on the forums. I was too chicken to try it on msw.

What I am about to post is simple logic and physics.

One of the issues when cooking is how efficient the heat transfer is.

Now with a traditional burner, be it gas or electric, you need to match the pan size to the burner size as closely as possible, if the pan is larger than the burner, you get a hot spot that burns some of the food, if the pan is smaller, heat is rising outside the pan and not cooking (And even if it is a perfect match this is happening)

With induction cooking the pan is the burner, so the match is always perfect, the cooking surface is NOT the burner, the pan is, and thus yes, You do save energy.. Very sharp of you to notice that.

This, in fact, is the single strongest argument in favor of induction cooking.

[pnichols]

Also, for extended-stay hookup camping during cold weather where you don't want a lot of windows/vents open, electric plate and induction plate cooking probably helps keep interior moisture levels down - as opposed to gas cooktop cooking.

[Clay_L]

50 amp service has two 50 amp legs so more than 50 amps can be pulled depending on which legs are being used.

[TenOC]

Since I learned to cook on an electrical stove, I have never "liked" gas or propane cook tops. Thus I have the same type of electrical "hot plate" as you have.

However, when I pop corn in a pan or make candy I need the extra heat of the propane stove and use it not the hot plate.

[D___M]

pennysmom09 wrote:
I purchased a 1000 watt single burner hot plate to use in our RV. Without knowing the volts, (haven't received it yet), is there any way to determine if our 50 amps will be able to handle it? Hopefully I won't have to return it! I find the stove inadequate for a lot of cooking, and I just don't have room for the typical toaster oven.

Since your hot plate only uses 8.3 amps, your 50 amp system can handle it...unless you are already runing appliances that total more than 41.7 amps 🙂

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I tried a unit that had only 10 power levels. I returned it and bought the Nuwave which had 52, with temperatures from 100 to 575 F. The latest version has 94 levels at increments of 5 f. Perfect for simmering. If they did not have a timer that shuts the unit down after 90 minutes it would be a great replacement for a slow cooker.

bob213 wrote:
Well rated competitor for the NuWave:
induction

[pianotuna]

Hi Phil,

Yup, induction cooking does use less energy than a hot plate. It is a strange system where the induction cooker cycles through three levels to keep the temperature constant. On a kill-a-watt unit set at 220 F once the unit has heated up, the wattage jumps something like 200, 400, 600 then repeats. This happens every few seconds. I have not checked what happens at the highest possible setting.

On the generator, the jumps are enough that in eco mode the engine speed jumps around. This happens even using a Yamaha 3000 sIEB, which surprized me--I thought the boost feature ought to "carry" the induction cooker.

The induction cooker is probably not going to operate on less than a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. They will not work at all on modified sine wave according to reports posted on the forums. I was too chicken to try it on msw.

I'm pretty sure that my Nuwave consumes fewer amp-hours than my hotplate to accomplish the same amount of cooking. It is MILES faster than the hotplate.

pnichols wrote:
Don,

If induction plates are so efficient and if one is patient enough, why can't an induction plate be operated at low wattage settings so as to be about equal to a regular hot plate in rate of heating .... while then being quite practical to power them when drycamping with inverters, large battery banks, and solar panels?

Hence, do induction plates used at lower settings make possible drycamp cooking without using one's propane supply?

IAW, you seem to talk them up with regards to being faster .... but how about them also being better misers of precious electrical power?