INDUCTION COOKER:PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION

What is Induction Cooking? 

Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. To be used on an induction cooktop, a cooking vessel must be made of a ferromagnetic metal, or placed on an interface disk which enables non-induction cookware to be used on induction surface.

In an induction cooker, a coil of copper wire is placed underneath the cooking pot. An alternating electric current flows through the coil, which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric current in the pot. Current flowing in the metal pot produces resistive heating which heats the food. While the current is large, it is produced by a low voltage.continue..

Advantage and Disadvantages of Induction Cooker 

To serious cooks, the most important favorable point about induction cookers--given that they are as or more "powerful" at heating as any other sort--is that you can adjust the cooking heat instantly and with great precision. Before induction, good cooks, including all professionals, overwhelmingly preferred gas to all other forms of electric cooking for one reason: the substantial "inertia" in ordinary electric cookers--when you adjust the heat setting, the element (coil, halogen heater, whatever) only slowly starts to increase or decrease its temperature. With gas, when you adjust the element setting, the energy flow adjusts instantly.continue..

How Induction Cooker Works? 

Put simply, an induction-cooker element (what on a gas stove would be called a "burner") is a powerful, high-frequency electromagnet, with the electromagnetism generated by sophisticated electronics in the "element" under the unit's ceramic surface. When a good-sized piece of magnetic material--such as, for example, a cast-iron skillet--is placed in the magnetic field that the element is generating, the field transfers ("induces") energy into that metal. That transferred energy causes the metal--the cooking vessel--to become hot. By controlling the strength of the electromagnetic field, we can control the amount of heat being generated in the cooking vessel--and we can change that amount instantaneously.continue..

History of Induction Cooking 

Induction cooking is not a new technology, it has long been widely used around the world. People witnessed magic of induction cooking first time in early 1900s. Induction cooking technology was introduced at Chicago in a 'World Fair" in 1933 as well in the mid-1950s.  Induction cooker demonstrations were held by GM in North America by the Frigidaire division of GM.  To demonstrate convenience and safety of Induction cooking the induction cooker demonstration was shown by placing a newspaper between Induction cooker's surface and the pot while boiling a pot of water. But it never quite caught on and induction cooker productions were delayed for another few more years and for subsequent 40 years the technology was used mostly in industrial applications.continue..

Induction Cookers Versus Conventional Cookers 

The innovative cooking concept using an induction cooker has a number of benefits over conventional cooktops. An induction cooker combines the simplicity and rapid heating quality of electric stoves with responsive temperature control. Unlike conventional cooktops that make use of a gas element or a heating coil, the induction cookers utilize magnetic energy for cooking. Induction cookers make use of induction heating to generate heat directly in the cookware without any need of warming the burner. continue..

Effect of Induction Cooker in Reducing Electrical Losses 

To know the effect and benefits of induction cooker in reducing electrical losses, you can explore the Power Systems Loss Blog. continue..