Induction Stovetops: Most Efficient, Effective, and Safe?

H

HowToBe

The Living Force
While surfing youtube and watching various science videos today, I came across some videos about induction heating, which led me to discover something called induction cooking. These stovetops work by heating the pan directly using a rapidly pulsating magnetic field.

The first half of this video gives the best description I have found of the induction stovetop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Vurgaaza8
The following video explains how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPd963cCeec

I didn't find any mention of these gadgets in the forum, but they seem like the best type of stovetop available in many ways.
 
Ever heard of magnetic brain stimulation?

Here is a DIY induction heating rig:

http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/indheat.html

A switching circuit dumps energy into the bank of capacitors (yellow cylinders), which resonate with the coil (through the flow of electricity). This magnetic energy encounters resistance/friction in the metal, and dissipates as heat. Even if you can't feel it with your hand, there is a lot of power there, able to affect any tissues which are affected by oscillating magnetic fields.

The frequency of induction heaters differs. As I understand it remains typically between the AM radio band and the human hearing range. The example above was 400W, 171KHz.

An easy test would be to put a gauss meter near it.
 
monotonic said:
The frequency of induction heaters differs. As I understand it remains typically between the AM radio band and the human hearing range. The example above was 400W, 171KHz.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about induction stoves. A mobile phone radiates about 3 Watts which is considered to be unhealthy. 400 Watts in comparison is a lot!
 
The example I posted was heating a nut to curie temperature. I don't know how hot this is in relation to heat a pan. Someone could calculate how much power it takes to boil water, and then that would be the amount of power the coil must dissipate into the pan. From this we may be able to calculate how much magnetic energy is needed.

High frequencies are used for mobile phones because they propagate better through space. This is because air is a dielectric, and the tower and receiver are two plates on a very long capacitor. The current flowing through the air sets up a magnetic field which allows the signal to propagate in EM form. Phones don't need much power because the HF signals travel easily.

Capacitors block low-frequency signals, so at lower frequencies than AM not much current can flow through the air. For this reason broadcasting at these frequencies is not practical. Most of the energy will be magnetic.

I suspect it is the magnetic component of EM waves that is dangerous, because charge cannot penetrate inside a surface; it spreads out. However a magnetic pulse can create eddy currents in a conductive surface, and inside a conductive object.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation
 
Thanks for the information. I'm reconsidering the safety of these things based on the comments here and what I have recently learned about the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on DNA. This is the article I discovered on that topic: http://emf.mercola.com/sites/emf/archive/2011/01/19/the-hard-core-science-of-how-cell-phones-and-other-emf-damages-you.aspx .

According to the scientist in the video, they found that EMFs from ANY part of the spectrum triggered the DNA to produce protective "stress proteins". In fact, they were able to isolate a specific section of the DNA that actually responds directly to stimulation by electromagnetic radiation. So the body certainly treats EMFs as something to defend against. And based on evolutionary thought, those codes came to be there in response to natural amounts of EMF. If protective mechanisms are required even against naturally occurring EMFs, then our cells must be in a state akin to terror in response to our current environment!
 
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