Induction Cooking In An RV Cutting Down On Heat Effect

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I have no experience with this subject and I am wondering if induction cooking significantly lessens the amount of space heating.

I chased a dozen online threads to no avail. Opinions even varied about the cooking process itself. So I return here where I know I'll get straight answers 🙂

Can't do it on battery/inverter power, that's obvious. But I am weary of a 110F kitchen. Outside it's out of the question....critterland.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

It's hot, but when I passed through Lukeville AZ in August 2010 it tied my personal record (the other being in Cd Orbegon in Sonora in 1988.

50C 122F. That level of heat is dangerous. Big difference between 110 and 122F. Here I step into the shower for 5 seconds then go sit in a plastic chair in front of a fan. It works. Maybe 10 times a day.

I like salads and cold cuts and sandwiches but the diet of only those things gets tiring after awhile. I'd love poached eggs - the toaster is bad enough but poaching the eggs over a blazing burner is awful.

I bought a fence charger, used at a garage sale in San Diego last year. Fifty mile range with a battery backup. Not worth using here but for outdoor cooking and protecting the garden back home some critters are going to get el surprise = this one is way more powerful than the charger monitoring the chicken coop at night.

[westend]

Unless you have ample water and are willing to install a giant evaporative array that shades your living quarters, the next best thing is a backhoe. :B

My SIL, who lives in Brooklyn says old habits die hard. When a Syrian buys property in NY and remodels, the first thing they do is dig down three stories.

[mena661]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You have to turn on the cold water in the shower and let it run cool or risk getting scalded.

"Cold" water is never cold this time of year where I live too. Never been scalding hot though. Where you live is freaking hot MEX!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

You'd positively GRIN when you get your fist DAC power bill down here for fifty six cents US per kWh plus 16% IVA (tax). Seven hundred kWh? No problemo. Here's four hundred dollars! Oh my gosh I forgot, Mexican houses have ZERO insulation. Well toss out that estimate, a twice as large heat pump system is needed. What? They'll send round an armored car when they collect? Hand trucks to cart the sacks of money? CFE is a kinder gentler utility. One glass enclosed mansion Cabo San Lucas imported a gigantic AC unit. Money was no object until the fist sixteen thousand dollar CFE bill arrived. Wotta hoot...












sc

[pnichols]

"A window air conditioner is about as effective as shaking a bottle of beer and pointing it at a forest fire."

A window air conditioner ... in Mexico no less?? :h

We threw ours away long ago after moving out of the Budger Expando Trailer
http://www.allmanufacturedhomes.com/1952_budger_expando_trailer.htm
and into the stick house. We set the 4 ton air-to-air heat pump in the stick house at a low of 70 degrees and a high of 78 degrees to form a comfortable bubble ... can't run it from the genny, solar, or an inverter, though. 😉

Santa Cruz is way too chilly and wet for us. We live way above it's humid fog.

The greatest inventions of all time: The microwave, the absorption refrigerator, the air conditioner, the color television, ... and the battery powered toothbrush that magically charges itself with no electrical contacts (Oooooops .... that just might be "induction" happening there. :E ).

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Lessee,

Here are some questions...

Boil spaghetti in a microwave?
Bacon does great nuked, eggs over easy not so hot. Umm umm microwave hash browns...
I like cold potato salad in hot weather. Microwave the potatoes and hard boiled eggs?
Ever had nuked chicken nuggets? Hell forget the nuggets, do you like nuked slimy chicken, or maybe a flaccid gray hamburger patty?
Chop Suey a la 25 KHz? Sweet and sour, uh, things?
Sauteed scallops. Oops, the butter and wine turned them to mush.
Or salsa veracruzana. Oh jeez the tomato and microwave don't play well together.
The microwave here is 800 watts FOUR MINUTES FLAT to heat coffee A SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE from 84F ambient to 180F.

Microwave ovens are great for specific tasks. Try cooking a tortilla in a microwave and you're going to learn fast the limits of the machine. Yes I eat corn tortillas. I also make chilaquiles, which would turn out to be slop even in my commercial oven back home.

Santa Cruz is a hell of a long way from a desert where we experienced fifty one days of temperatures in excess of 40C 104F since June. The highest was 114F, eight straight days of 110F+ with 90F dawns. A window air conditioner is about as effective as shaking a bottle of beer and pointing it at a forest fire.

Did I mention steam bath humidity during tropical storms and a category 3 hurricane? I was forced to eat canned food, but that's no problem, just hold it out the window for several minutes, pull the tab blow off the steam and enjoy. I wouldn't have lit off that stove if someone was holding a gun to my head. Yes I know, no electricity, but after it was restored it was still miserably hot.

Come on down and play chef. I'd be so grateful I'll throw in the sweatbands. Be careful though! You have to turn on the cold water in the shower and let it run cool or risk getting scalded.

S'Cuse me, the temp has chilled to a knee-knocking 84F for the first time in weeks. Have to go shut down the fans (no this is not a joke)...

[landyacht318]

2008 Northern Baja.

Somebody brings down some scrumptious steak. When cooked we are sitting around the campfire diggin in, throwing back the beers. One guy, gets up for something, puts his plate on his chair and walks away.

A coyote darts from the bushes, runs between me and the campfire, launches itself airborne, and somehow midflight, sticks its head between the camp chair armrests, lifts the steak off the plate, not even disturbing the potato or veggies, whips its head out with an 16 oz steak and runs off at the speed of light.

There were 8 of us around the campfire, only 3 of us saw it happen.

Mexican coyotes are especially wily.

[pnichols]

greenrvgreen wrote:
Why is a microwave not being considered? MUCH less heat than a convection oven.

David,

I'm curious ... you never responded to the above inquiry.

I also am adding my modified version of it: Why is a microwave not being considered? MUCH less heat than that coming from the surface of a hot ferrous pan.

IMHO, the Fad Jury is still out on induction cooktops. As far as I am aware, ultimate chefs prefer the precision control of a gas flame ... in fact after 37 years in our stick house with electric power sourced cooking, next month we finally switch to a propane cooktop in our remodeled kitchen. NG or LP heats cast iron just fine, too. We'll turn on the cooktop exhaust fan to remove burner heat, the same as we do in our RV.

[JiminDenver]

In a situation like that, the wasted heat from the flame not transferred to the room is the difference. The pot still has to get hot enough to boil water. The boiling water is still going to release heat and humidity into the room.

A pressure cooker on a induction burner would mean no wasted heat being dumped into the room. The pot still gets hot but for less time and it releases little steam. A batch of tamales takes 15 minutes, not a hour.

[greenrvgreen]

Pay Carlos Salim his $60 blood money. Cooking indoors in those temps is just crazy crazy crazy. Add to that the humidity, and who cares if the coyotes take a bite out of your steak--all the germs get cooked!!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

It's 7:25PM here. Temperature 88F humidity 57%. At 5PM temp was 106F

Fire up the stove for a COVERED pot of spaghetti return to kitchen temp would be 109F humidity 70%+ Yes this is with doors open. Yes, this is with windows open, yes there are THREE FANS going in the house.

I -thought- perhaps induction cooking would not not make things worse. Combusted LPG gives off water vapor. The tight lid on the casserole vessel helps. But eating in a 109F 70% humidity dining room is not fun. I eat ONLY SALAD 5 days a week, or fruit. But I would like oatmeal. The remaining two days of last week had me dragging celery through a jar of Aladino peanut butter. Pretty warm. At dawn the temp is 84 with 100% (condensing) humidity. This is the Vizcaino Desert.

[MrWizard]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
An induction OVEN. Man I gotta get me one of those. Will go nicely will the microwave toaster. Hope they have them in brushed stainless steel finish.

Unclear on the concept comes to mind...

Ever lose a 3 lb whole chicken to a coyote? Or a treasured 18 oz T bone to his brother in law? They WILL and they DO leap upon a barbecue and snatch the meat. From the school of reality.

it was a House Cat..and she could only get one piece at a time
20+ years ago
still being a working stiff and such
girlfriend of the time.. had a cat.. that would jump on the kitchen counter and steal the FRYING chicken right out of the hot fry pan on the gas burner
you could not leave the cooking area longer than it took to open the fridge.. and you had too turn your back on the stove to open the fridge.. so cooking was 'touch and go" situation

had too lock the cat outside or in the kids room, if you needed to move about while cooking

BTW the cat was named "Bonkers"..because thats what she drove me
and for some reason that dang animal liked me, unless i was trying to use flea spray on her.
she would climb up on the back of my easy chair and sleep against my neck
cats are OK sometimes..but i'm a dog person

[johnhicks]

Be careful you don't have anything ferromagnetic really close by an induction cooktop or it'll heat up too.

Also you can obtain carbon steel pans that are compatible if you don't want to use heavy iron.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I am stationary in a RENTAL house 2,000 miles from home. Expendios de Pemex want SIXTY DOLLARS FOR AN OIL DRUM. This isn't about coyotes, or oil drums, or ovens, it's about an induction cooker. Used indoors.

Outdoors? Mosquitoes, no-see-ums, tabano biting flies, and a hundred million uninvited insects turn dinner time cooking into an adventure. They'll attempt to flip you over to get at the white meat.