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Rocket Scientist Designs "Flare" Pot That Cooks Food 40% Faster
An anonymous reader writes Oxford University engineering professor Dr Thomas Povey just invented a new cooking pot that heats food 40% faster. The pot is made from cast aluminum, and it features fins that direct flames across the bottom and up the sides, capturing energy that would otherwise be wasted. The pot is set to hit the market next month in the UK. "Povey specializes in the design of high-efficiency cooling systems for next-generation jet engines. He is also an avid mountaineer and says that this invention was spurred by the long time it takes for water to reach a boil at high altitudes. He and a group of his students worked three years experimenting with different designs before they came up with one being marketed."
The pictures show it to be quite different.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
A liquid boils when it reaches the temperature at which the partial pressure of its vapor equals the external pressure. Higher altitude means lower external pressure which means water boils at a lower temperature at high altitude which means a pot of water boils faster, but food cooks more slowly.
Damn rocket scientists don't understand freshman chemistry.
So, what this pan does is actually very simple; the fins on the sides provide more surface area to catch the heat that slides up the side by convection forces when the pan sits on a gas burner. The "gas burner" part is incredibly important, as if you have an electric burner there will be negligible benefit, and maybe even a negative result. That extra surface area can bleed heat as well as it collects it. And since the pans are cast aluminum, if you have an induction cooktop they won't work at all.
So, let's say you have a gas burner, and one of these pans. Here's what I see as a potential issue. The walls of this pan will get hotter than they do when you use another more traditional type of pan. And that's not necessarily a problem, as long as you keep stirring. But that extra heat will tend to cause liquid at the edge/top of the contents of the pan (the meniscus) to heat far more aggressively. Which means that you will likely get a degree of crusting, scorching, etc...depending on what's in the pan, of course. Water? No problem, it's water. But if you're cooking a sauce, or making something like boxed risotto (not the real hardcore risotto, which requires constant stirring and so would not scorch) or some other grain, you may have some issues. They have a stockpot, which at first would seem like the ideal situation...except that if you're doing most things you would do with a classical stockpot (like making a large batch of stock or soup or stew) you may have MAJOR issues with that scorching.
I have to say...I have a gas cooktop, I cook a lot, I cook elaborately, we have a gas dryer, we have gas-fired heat in the winter. It's a decent-sized single family home. And my gas bill doesn't get high at all...average is a bit less than $50/month. I find it hard to imagine that these pots would make much of a difference in my gas consumption at all. Maybe if my cooktop were really wimpy, the speed of cooking would be nice...but isn't the better option just to get a better cooktop in that case? These pans don't help if you're using a skillet, or the oven (which would also probably be weak if the top burners of the stove are weak), and they cost quite a lot. It'd be cheaper to just upgrade the cooktop than replace all of your pans with this, and the results will be more controllable. I'd love a big pot to boil water for pasta that worked like this...but for every other application it seems to me that upgrading the range would be a better way to go.
But hey, that's just my two cents.
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Or I guess he never heard of or used MSR equipment, eh? Y'know, 'cuz it's only been around, like, thirty-five years or so.
Jetboil is great for camping - not so great for everyday stovetop use - the exchanger is way too delicate and the insulation jacket is impractical for a set of pots and pans. MSR Reactor is similar (I prefer it - no jacket - if my MSR Rocket ever fails it'll be next), and I expect a lot of the benefit from both comes from a much better windscreen - and that includes the Jetboil accordion that helps channel the heat. The biggest issue with any camp stove that perches a pot above a burner is the relatively giant wind-whipped space between them. You learn to practice a delicate dance of non-flammable objects upwind of your stove - chef included - with most others. The trusty old suitcase Coleman stoves are still revered for having this built into the design, but for backpacking they're an albatross. Jetboils are also only for boiling water - cooking in them can cause the aluminum exchanger to fail, as they depend on the constant flow of heat into the water - this has been an issue with Jetboils, though predominantly with the Ti version.
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Nope:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/...
The clear winner in the energy efficiency battle between gas and electric is gas. It takes about three times as much energy to produce and deliver electricity to your stove. According to the California Energy Commission, a gas stove will cost you less than half as much to operate (provided that you have an electronic ignition--not a pilot light).