Thread: smart homes...........

I am not a fan of all this smart home stuff but found this article and need to ask someone from a more scientific background to explain it to me..........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12292930

The bit in question is this:

And because the kettle is also powered wirelessly, you can leave it anywhere in the house. The surface senses a kettle has been set down and starts to power it up.

The surface is using magnetic fields to heat directly into the metal inside the product, and only the coil, meaning that you will not burn your hand if you put it next to your thawing meal or boiling kettle.

"It's more efficient than gas and electric," he [Dave Barman] says. "When installed properly, there shouldn't be any cost difference between the traditional method and an induction zone."

My question is, can anyone explain to me the science behind HOW and WHY this system will be more efficient than Gas or Electric?

I can't.

I think there's maybe a bit of "greenwash" to this, fatman. We've had an induction hob in our kitchen for five years. It's powered by electricity. It achieves heating by inducing eddy currents in the thick metal base of the saucepan rather than sending a current through a heating element. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooker . Yes, it's more efficient, but not much, see this bit. LOL, it's about as green as air miles.

How are you using the gas and electric? How much of that energy is wasted as heat to the surroundings?

Induction is focused, concentrated where it needs to be and performs the heating. I suspect that the efficiency comes from having less waste and reduced heating times.

Old technology that's been around decades repackaged.

I don't think comparisons to gas stove efficiency are very meaningful.

Induction burners are pretty nice though. They only draw power while heating and don't waste energy heating the air surrounding the pot. They also cool off very fast so are much safer than conventional resistence stoves or gas. Their biggest inconvenience is they work well for many pans--so you have a limited choice of cookware.

My inlaws house, last upgraded in the 70's has induction burners. Being from Maine they only use it during the summer, when they aren't running the wood stove.

thanks people! about answers my question.........

I think they might be right that induction is more efficient but then again it DOES depend on how the electricity is sourced.

I still don't like all this wireless stuff, it has its place but not in this way..........

Thanks for the info, '57' (I didn't want to call you 'fat').

My house was so smart that it ran away from me when I was a kid.

Somewhere in a hot, dusty areas of Australia, they live underground in dug-out limestone deposits, using skylights.

you can call me 'phat'...... :P

Skylights are a great idea - there is a guy in America using fibre optic cables to transfer daylight from the outside to inside of buildings - an awesome idea and some say a better type of light!

I don't want my home to be too smart............one day my toaster will take over and I don't want that.........best keep people in power, for their egos if not anything else..........