Gagging discussion on using Off Grid electic power for cooking

karrak
karrak Solar Expert Posts: 326 ✭✭✭✭
I felt compelled to post a reply in the "GE Induction Electric Cooktop" thread in reply to this comment by Carlboocoot and i quote

"Well here are the facts again, and they are the facts. Electricity is not a practical way to heat things off-grid. It requires more system capacity to store and make use of the power needed than a simple tank of fossil fuel which, unlike a battery bank, requires no maintenance. When not in use the extra electrical capacity because an expensive non-returning capital investment."

I have successfully been running an off grid system for many years now, the last eighteen months on a full time basis. During this eighteen months all our cooking has been done using a mix of electric appliances and in winter a wood stove.

My post to the "GE Induction Electric Cooktop" thread was i thought politely refuting Carlboocoot's statement by describing our setup and the reasons why it works for us and the benefits of the approach.

My post along with the one before it which i thought gave a good explanation on the power use of the particular GE Cooktop from someone who seemed to know what they were talking about were deleted from the thread and the thread locked. I have received no explanation as to who removed my post or the reasons for its removal.

I note in this locked thread which i cannot reply to http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?21860-Attention-all-forum-members that two posts were deleted because they were "technical gibberish", is mine one of these?

If my post is technical gibberish, i would be interested to know where the flaws in my thinking are.

I will certainly agree that it is counter intuitive to think that one can use electricity for such an energy intensive task as cooking in an off-grid system, but it works well for us and i am sure for many others. It would certainly not work in many cases with different climatic conditions or differing power requirements to ours.

I think the topic of cooking using Off-Grid electricity is an important one that has no right or wrong answer and should be open to discussion.
Off-Grid with LFP (LiFePO4) battery, battery Installed April 2013
32x90Ah Winston cells 2p16s (48V), MPP Solar PIP5048MS 5kW Inverter/80A MPPT controller/60A charger, 1900W of Solar Panels
modified BMS based on TI bq769x0 cell monitors.
Homemade overall system monitoring and power management  https://github.com/simat/BatteryMonitor
 

Comments

  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Gagging discussion on using Off Grid electic power for cooking

    karrak,
    you are pushing your luck if you try bypassing a moderator's opinion. try discussing this with the moderators via pm as you may get to understand what was objectionable and may still be able to post about it in an acceptable manner. good discussions are not objectionable to moderators, but what some people deem to be a discussion can be objectionable too as it may not truly be a discussion if a moderator sees red flags in it.
  • vtmaps
    vtmaps Solar Expert Posts: 3,741 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Gagging discussion on using Off Grid electic power for cooking
    karrak wrote: »
    My post along with the one before it which i thought gave a good explanation on the power use of the particular GE Cooktop from someone who seemed to know what they were talking about were deleted from the thread and the thread locked.

    I saw those posts and didn't notice any violation of the forum rules, but I'm no expert on the rules.
    karrak wrote: »
    I think the topic of cooking using Off-Grid electricity is an important one that has no right or wrong answer and should be open to discussion.

    I agree. Here's something to discuss (I hope doesn't violate forum rules):

    There is nothing attractive about burning an UNVENTED propane cook stove in a very tight house. Propane ovens draw 30,000 or more BTU per hour. The stovetop burners draw 8,000 or more.

    Electric cooking is not practical for most of us... but for some of us it has a role. If I decided to run a propane generator to power an electric stove, I would be burning my propane outdoors, rather than in the house. Of course, I would burn more propane that way, but clean air has its costs... there are also costs to running a home ventilation system that can handle all the humid propane exhaust.

    --vtMaps
    4 X 235watt Samsung, Midnite ePanel, Outback VFX3524 FM60 & mate, 4 Interstate L16, trimetric, Honda eu2000i
  • stephendv
    stephendv Solar Expert Posts: 1,571 ✭✭
    Re: Gagging discussion on using Off Grid electic power for cooking

    I think there is definitely a place for electric cooking, water heating and space heating in an off-grid home if these are used as opportunity loads. I.e. you have some other non-electric backup for the bad days, but can use electric on the good days.
    An off-grid friend who lives in a nearby town has a similar setup to karrak: electric induction cooking and electric water heating in summer; and a woodstove with backboiler for cooking and water heating in winter. Works very well so far.
    Although the days are now much shorter, we're still using a 2kW electric kettle to heat the odd bit of water for tea and cooking and regularly use the breadmaker in winter. For heat, I turn the mini-split AC on heating mode at 20C and have it come on at 5am, by 7am when we get up the house is pleasantly warm. I also have a 400W IR heating panel in the living room which I leave on during the day, this means that on clear winter days we're heating the house 100% through solar (a large portion of this is passive solar through south facing windows). Outside temps drop to -2C, and we keep the inside at about 20-22C.

    As long as you don't _rely_ on electric cooking/heating/water heating as the only source of energy you'll be fine.