Hacker News Reader

Comment by bell-cot | Hacker News Reader

>> stove-grade electrical backup systems

> What the heck is that?

Try searching for "UPS" on Amazon. How many of the search results would be capable of powering an electric stove (to cook meals) through a several-day electrical outage? If you looked at larger units (and generators) which were capable of doing that - what physical/electrical/safety issues would you face in actually connecting them to a typical residential stove? And once you're into the generators - those have their own fuel safety issues.

> Where in the western world can't you run an electric induction stove?

Anywhere that does not have electrical power available, during a power outage. Which the comment I was replying to very specifically pointed out.

View on HN

“UPS” is the wrong search term. Buying a “UPS” gets you 1990-era tech for cleanly powering down a computer if the power fails or riding through a brown-out. You’re looking for an off-grid system or a hybrid system or a portable power station. A company like Ecoflow will happily sell you one for $600 or so that will power a perfectly nice induction stove at full blast for half an hour. (You don’t need full blast for very long to cook most meals — this is good for quite a lot of cooking.) Throw in a single solar panel and a patch of sun and it will keep you cooking indefinitely.

Impulse Labs would like to sell you a really nice 4-pan stove with a built in battery that will ride through a decently long outage.

Perhaps.

But there's also the virtue of tech that just works, without everyone having to spend time & money researching/purchasing/maintaining/using backup systems to cover its frequent outages.

Tech like those old gas stoves.

It has 3kwh and the stove costs $6k + installation. Based on their specs thats less than an hour.

Gas stovetop costs $400 and just works.

Well, in most developed countries it happens very rarely (less than once a year) and when it happens it's typically in the minutes or maybe an hour range.

As a backup I would recommend a camping stove that uses ethanol over using a UPS system.

> Well, in most developed countries...

Vs. the USA? Further up the chain of replies, this was specified:

>>> Here in New York I lose power several times a year - sometimes for multiple days at a time. In 5 decades I've never lost my gas.

And I know quite a few people in Michigan who had similar experiences last year. Total outage duration for many of them was >2 weeks.

(I'll admit that, these days, "USA isn't really a developed country any more" is a credible argument.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com