I like cooking. In 2008, when we remodeled the kitchen, we switched from stoves with electric coil heating elements to electrically heated glass ceramic stoves.

This is not my wish, but what should I do if there is no gas pipe in our street. The surface is flat and easy to clean; the food is still burning on the surface, but at least there are no cracks to be treated. Ten years later, after several expensive GE service visits to replace two of these components, I was ready to use a gas stove, which meant putting in my own gas tank.

Immersion: On game days or holidays, the relaxed Chicken Ranch Dip is a favorite of the crowd

Recipe: Holiday Recipe: Double Baked Potato Casserole

Stir fry: stir fry chicken and broccoli with hoisin sauce for 15 minutes

But after visiting a friendly local electrical store, the choice of induction cooker came into the picture. Look! This is the stove of choice in Europe for good reason. It is the most energy-efficient, significantly reducing kitchen heat, thereby reducing your air-conditioning costs, minimizing cleaning, being safer, and providing the heating range of the gas stove without harmful indoor air pollution. Let me explain.

Induction cooking directly heats the cooking pot through magnetic induction, instead of heating the pot through electric heat conduction from a heating element or radiation from the flame. A loop of copper wire is placed under the glass ceramic surface, and alternating current passes through it. The resulting oscillating magnetic field induces an electric current in the pan, thereby generating heat.

Compatible cookware is therefore heated internally, transferring energy with an efficiency of approximately 85%, which is approximately 75-80% or 32% for gas compared to traditional residential cooktops using resistance heating elements.

 According to the Energy Star recently awarded the Induction Cooker Emerging Technology Award (ETA), if all stoves sold in the United States in 2021 use induction technology and meet Energy Star standards, energy cost savings will exceed US$125 million and energy savings will exceed 1,000 GWh.

For almost all types of induction cookers, the cooking vessel must be made of or contain ferrous metals such as cast iron or stainless steel. Iron concentrates electric current to generate heat in the metal. Most induction tops will not heat copper, aluminum, or ceramic containers because the magnetic field cannot generate concentrated current.

The best way to check if your pots and pans are working properly is to see if the magnets stick to the bottom of the pot. The bottom of the pan must also be flat. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that more than half of your flower pots are suitable.

Since induction heating directly heats the container, a very rapid temperature rise can be achieved, and the change in the heat setting is instantaneous, which also helps to improve energy efficiency.

You don't have to wait for the pan to heat up, so you can start cooking as soon as possible. The boiling time of a pot of water is almost half the boiling time of ordinary electric or gas burners. At the other end, all induction burners have a very low non-boiling "warm" setting.

Compared with gas or electric stoves, induction stoves also have important safety advantages. For induction stoves, when you take out the pot, the stove will turn off. If no cookware or empty cookware is detected, your burner will also automatically cut off the power. If you cook food with high power for a long time, it will also cut off the power.

Because it heats up too fast, I admit that sometimes the contents of the pot will boil. However, because the stove itself does not become very hot, and spilled food does not burn, the stove is easy to clean.

In fact, usually after a few seconds, you can touch the burner without worrying about injury. It is the hot pot heating the stove, not the stove heating the pot. In addition, since the stove itself does not heat, there is less chance of accidental burns.

Although on average, induction appliances are a little more expensive than gas or electric stoves, the cheapest induction stoves start at $1,000, which is only a few hundred dollars higher than mid-range gas or electric independent stoves. The price of the high-end model is about US$3,500-this is a lot, but still not comparable to the price of some high-end gas-powered series.

It is true-the strong electromagnetic field generated by the induction burner will affect the pacemaker. Medical literature seems to indicate that it is safe to be close to induction cooking surfaces, but people with such implants should always consult their cardiologist first. The radio receiver near the induction cooker may receive some electromagnetic interference.

I used to feel sorry for myself because there was no natural gas nearby, but this made me consider other solutions. Now I consider myself lucky and ahead of the game. I now have a more energy-efficient stove, which is healthier, safer and faster, and provides me with a wide heating range for gas stoves.

Meta Calder is a member of Sustainable Tallahassee and the editor of Sustainable Tallahassee's Greening Our Community blog. You can contact her at metaorleans@gmail.com. This is an article on "Greening Our Communities", an initiative of sustainable Tallahassee. Learn more at www.SustainableTallahassee.org.

Don’t miss a single story: use the link at the top of the page to subscribe to the Tallahassee Democratic Party.