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

[drlegendre .]

No, this is actually a very good idea, as far as safety features go. And if
I'd have only thought for a moment, it would have been obvious..

First issue, it's not always totally obvious when an induction hob is
powered up - no visible flame, glowing coil, noise, heat, smell etc. If the
hob were left powered with no load, it would be easy for a (cat, child,
etc) to accidentally knock something onto the surface that could get very
hot - or flame up, like a sheet of aluminum foil.

Or one of those metallized paper fast-food wrappers.. that would make a
nice little fire while the family's out of the house.. or sleeping
upstairs. Then you have the issue that the "burner' sections of a complete
cooktop aren't clearly and mechanically delineated from the "work" area..
oops, corner of the Macbook was WHERE?

A powered but un-used hob is really just a trap waiting to be sprung.
Automatic shutdown is a very wise measure.

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 4:24 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:

> On 11/30/2014 11:54 AM, Christian Kennedy wrote:
>
>> My suspicion is that this is actually in the same category as the control
>> lock that’s supposed to deter children; being the US this smells like
>> someone came up with a novel product liability theory and someone decide to
>> drop a few extra lines of code in order to appease the corporate legal
>> types.
>>
> Yes, and if left to reach completion, they will have you buying all your
> pots
> and pans with serial numbers that match the stove.  All others will be
> refused.  Oh, maybe that is only for printer cartridges.
>
> Jon
>