I watched an egg boil this morning, and lamented the waste of heat coming off the countertop from the area of the element not covered by the pot. I presume that temperature sensors are embedded in the glass over the element, and turn on frequently as the heated glass cools off from the ambient air. If this is the case, would an adjustable insulating coaster surrounding the pot that covers exposed heating element help ?
Something would melt: the insulation, the cooktop, the element wires, the pot,... it's not worth the bother. Maybe next time buy an inductive cooktop?
Not to mention the waste of energy spent boiling the water just to heat an egg, and the extra time it took to boil because you were watching it! Although I haven't checked (and won't!), I'll bet that someone makes a cooker for individual eggs. Richard
The wiring and elements within an electric range are, regrettably, the lightest/cheapest that will do the job. The amount of free/open space around them, and the built in venting, are designed to reduce the amount of heat buildup that will melt/overload them. A larger pot on top of the stove still does not force the heat back down into the wiring and elements. The pot will absorb more of the heat - any sort of insulating pad reflects the heat back. Induction might be the best way. Personally, I use an electric teapot to boil water, as it wastes a lot less electricity than boiling water on the stove would.
Electric kettles are very common in Canada. Perhaps that has to do with electric wiring codes here: the kitchen must have 3 dedicated recepticles, each one fed by a separate breaker. So it's common in the morning to plug the kettle into one recepticle, the toaster into another, and the waffle maker into the third one, without tripping any breakers
Yep, microwave does a great job of heating up water very efficiently compared to the stove. Ideally the heating coils would be built into each pan for cooking - induction cook top probably gets closest to that. By invariably not all of the energy will end up in the cookware. Even better than than resistance heating coils would be a heat pump, but it's not easy to get a heat pump hot enough for cooking.
If you're using a pot that fits the element, and the pot has a lid on it, that's already reasonably efficient. It wouldn't hurt to boil more than one egg at the same time, and it's even better if the eggs came from your backyard.
