Residental electrical load [was Re: Who's rewired their house for this hobby?]

[Chuck Guzis]

On 11/28/2014 11:48 AM, drlegendre . wrote:

> So we have a situation wherein aluminum pots aren't at all suitable for
> cooking, but yet foils of the same (well, a very similar) metal will burn
> right through. To me this means that it should be possible to design a
> purely aluminum, non-magnetic vessel of some particular shape and thickness
> that does more-or-less work on an induction cooker.

Okay, I grabbed some aluminum foil from yesterday's turkey roast (FWIW, 
the "dry brining with herbs under the skin" works wonderfully). 
Interesting effect--the foil must be in close proximity to the coils to 
heat up--and it does indeed do that very quickly.  Move it an 1/8" away 
and the effect is negligible.  What's interesting is to see the foil 
"jump" when power is applied.

So it seems that iron does play a part in providing a magnetic path.

Carrying this on further, I have some 18/10 pots with a slab of aluminum 
(as a heat spreader) laminated into the bottoms.  Nada, zip.  I also 
have an 18/10 double boiler whose bottom is a hunk of copper bonded to 
the steel.  Again, nothing.

Hmmm, I smell some more experiments.  I have several thicknesses of 
brass sheet (used as shim stock) down to about 5 mills.  It will be 
interesting to see if the 5 mill is thin enough to produce a heating 
effect--and if backing by a thicker metal interferes with the effect.

-Chuck