Math test - Induction Cooktop

[bmoores]

Most of my cooking is frying eggs, grilling meat at low temperatures, or heating up water. Usually lower settings below 300f. I use an induction cooker off grid, during the day, and solar. It requires a pure sine wave inverter, batteries, and sun. Officially I’ve been using 870Wp of panels, but given time of day and low tilt it is more like equivalent of 400Wp. My inverter is 2000w Giandel. My batteries are salvaged, configured to 24v ad they do experience sag with the induction, but not excessively. I tend to run only one large load at a time, so when using the induction, I turn off my 500watt electric heater.

I keep a propane burner around, in case I want to cook at night. Winter makes running electric appliances difficult, but I bought 6kw of used solar panels for $480.



If I use loads during the day, my plan is to be combustion free... run off of cheap solar panels and free sun

[Villen]

[QUOTE=John in Santa Cruz;
leave the high wattage electric appliances at home, you're CAMPING. cook with gas.[/QUOTE]
I agree!

If you have a generator a Ninja Foodi makes an nstapot Stonehenge. All this modern stuff weighs. I have a Coleman Roadtrip portable grill that will cook anything I want, from a can of Costco chili to a rack of ribs. Light and easy to move/set up.

[Bubz]

Buying enough watts of solar panels, and associated batteries and inverter, to cook with electricity is costly. If I am long time-full time I would consider it. Solar panels have a 1 to 2 year carbon footprint recovery period from what I’ve reviewed.

I just did a single run of my larger 8 qt (I eat a LOT of veggies) Insta Pot cooking veggies and it took .430 kWh (almost half a kilowatt). That is a LOT of energy in solar panel terms.

When I go full time I will probably still attempt to go with max solar and electric cooking, but have gas/butane stove backup.

I LOVE the taste of pressure-cooked veggies.

Jim

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Bubz

I just did a single run of my larger 8 qt (I eat a LOT of veggies) Insta Pot cooking veggies and it took .430 kWh (almost half a kilowatt). That is a LOT of energy in solar panel terms.

aka 430 watt*hours, which at 12V battery, is about 40 amp*hours, just about 50% of the total capacity of a typical group 27M marine/rv battery in a smaller camper. and thats about a full day's typical solar charge from a 150 watt or so solar panel, allowing for typical efficiency losses, etc.

[Bubz]

Agreed John. It is expensive to do electrical Solar powered cooking. Still, it’s an option that many folks have successfully gone with ( obviously location dependent). It takes a LOT of solar panels, large inverter, and expensive batteries. Gas/butane is cheaper and simpler. I am just trying to keep propane out of my planned build and am happy to pay more if I can make it full electric (unfortunately, $$$).

[Bubz]

BTW - Add in % efficiency lost to battery internal resistance (SLA vs Lithium) and inverter efficiency loss (widely varied). It makes Electrical cooking even more cost inefficient.

I will carry a Honda Generator (which I don’t want to use) and a gas/propane cylinder stove as backup.

Jim

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Bubz

Agreed John. It is expensive to do electrical Solar powered cooking. Still, it’s an option that many folks have successfully gone with ( obviously location dependent). It takes a LOT of solar panels, large inverter, and expensive batteries. Gas/butane is cheaper and simpler. I am just trying to keep propane out of my planned build and am happy to pay more if I can make it full electric (unfortunately, $$$).

so no water heater? no furnace?

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by Bubz

I am just trying to keep propane out of my planned build and am happy to pay more if I can make it full electric (unfortunately, $$$).

That is a shocking admission.

[John in Santa Cruz]

A standard propane tank, with 4.5 gallons of propane, has 120,000 watt*hours equivalent energy (412000 BTU)... A 100AH `12V battery has 1200 watt*hours if you run it completely flat (which damages the battery), so that propane tank is equiv to at least 100 fully charged batteries.