An induction cooker is faster and more energy-efficient than a traditional electric cooking surface.
It allows instant control of cooking power similar to gas burners. Other cooking methods that use
flames or red-hot heating elements have a significantly higher loss to the ambience; induction heating
directly heats the pot. Because the surface of the cook top is heated only by contact with the vessel,
the possibility of burn injury is significantly less than with other principles of heating. The induction
effect does not directly heat the air around the vessel, resulting in further energy efficiencies.
Cooling air is blown through the electronics beneath the surface but emerges only a little warmer than
ambient temperature.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the efficiency of energy transfer for an induction cooker is 84%,
versus 74% for a smooth-top non-induction electrical unit, for an approximate 12% saving in energy for the same
amount of heat transfer. Energy efficiency is the ratio between energy delivered to the food and that consumed
by the cooker, considered from the "customer side" of the energy meter. Cooking with gas has an energy efficiency
of about 40% at the customer's meter and can be raised only by using very special pots, so the DOE efficiency
value will be used.
Cookware must be compatible with induction heating glass and ceramics are unusable, as are solid copper or solid
aluminum cookware for most models of cooker. Cookware must have a flat bottom since the magnetic field drops rapidly
with distance from the surface. (Special and costly wok-shaped units are available for use with round-bottom woks.)
