On another forum i belong to we are haveing a talk about cooking off grid with only electrical type appliances and in my post i said that i'm single and do most of my cooking with a single burner on the stove and mircowave oven to make up my meals that i eat.. As the one person pointed out that since i only use my oven for bakeing bread and dessert once a week i would be better off useing a quality bread machine that could do the same thing and get rid of the oven in the place becuase of all the wasted wattage i'm drawing from the battery bank just useing a single burner unit .. So here is my list of my major cooking items i'm thinking about useing in the place 1-induction single burner cooktop to cook things as it need and hot water for morning tea or hot chocolate in the evening 2-Zorjirushi bread machine to make up loafs of bread and cakes and square pies here and there with the machine 3-toaster 4-mircowave oven for heating up pop corn or soap or some other thing here and there .. so what do you guys think of the idea of replaceing the stove with more enegry effecient applinaces in the kitchen area for my personal cooking style instead of a small two burner stove with oven unit .. this is a idea i been playing around now for a while and i like some feed back on the idea
Hank, I'm going in a different direction. We are going with wood. While we do not yet have a wood cook stove during a 2 week power outage we made breakfast (eggs,bacon, cowboy potatoes) on the fireplace insert, had hot tea, melted snow for wash water (it takes a crap load of snow to get a quantity of water), lunch was grilled cheese and soup cooked on the insert. Dinner was a roast that i wrapped in tinfoil and put in a dutch oven on the sauna stove and let cook on the hot rocks for about 5 hours with potatoes and carrots. So we are going with co-generation, Heat and food prep. If the electricity goes out (which happens with regularity here) we have about 200 pounds of ice for the chest freezers that are currently on the bottom of the chest but when the power goes out, it goes on top of the food with space blankets and carpets on top of that then cover the freezer with a carpet. that way we only have to run it for maybe 2 hrs per day and the food stays frozen. Electricity is not in our plans, Grid at least in our area is quite fragile. Post SHTF i'm not counting on it be around for long past the first few days. Just Sayin.
i should have add that i have a way to power the my place useing a complete off grid set with solar and wind set up along with it beening completely underground so wood and propane is not a something i can use down there the basic idea is to burie the place with a earth cover and not have to worry about heating or cooling the place in the long run .. plus useing small electrical type items to cook my meals in the place ..
Hank, You should experiment with heating your water in the Microwave instead of on the electrical Induction Burner. See which one is more efficient in WattsMinutes of power used for volume of fluid. I think you will find that the Microwave uses less power to make Hot Water for Coffee, Hot chocolate, and Tea. Time the minutes it takes to make pint of water in the Microwave, as opposed to the time it takes to heat water in the Induction Plate heater, in a pot, to the same temp. Then compare the WATTS used by each appliance. Microwaves are very efficient in making Hot Water, as opposed to contact heating water in a Pot on an Electric Stovetop. Same would go for heating things like Baked Beans, Soups, Hot Dawgs, Hamburger Patties, and the like.
I would suggest a Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor for testing your energy draw from the various devices.
ok guys i going to put the blame on my one friend for putting the bug inside my head about changeing out the cooking set up in my place in the mountain in Az .. he was like you wasteing watts when you fire up the small single burner on the stove to make up my meals and he goes and tells me that i was wasteing power when i use only the single burner on the stove to make up the bulk of my meals .. plus he goes you use the stove oven once a week and he goes try to use a small single burner induction burner and mircowave oven and breadmaker and toaster unit .. he told with those four items you can completely cook all the meals that you cook all the food stowage plan that you cook anywhere and he said with a induction burner it less time to heat up water for diff things that need hot water for meal prep and he also said with the breadmaker you can make up your bread and desserts as they are need .. he goes youhave never cooked a fancy meal if you life as he jokely told me that i never cook any thing more than a basic three meal system with meat and side dish and maybe a dessert here and there anyway i would do better with a smaller set up with three or four items to do your long term cooking inside the cabin ..
i use the kill a watt system on all the major appliances i bought for the place and i begining to think he was right about the small food cooking production set up ..
Hank, you have solar powering your bo place. Why on earth would you even consider using anything that requires elec. to heat or cook with
