Info about Induction Cooktops

The invention of induction technology has been put to use in cooking since the early 1900s. It only gained mainstream consideration in America in the past few decades. Manufacturers are now working to produce more cost and energy efficient models, which are gaining popularity all over the world. A Brisbane induction cooktop (called a "hob" in European countries) is simply an electromagnet you can cook with. Inside the glass cooktop, there's an electronically controlled coil of metal. When you turn on the power, you make a current flow through the coil and it produces a magnetic field all around it and directly above it. Now a simple direct electric current which is the one that's always flowing in the same direction produces a constant magnetic field: one of the laws of electromagnetism is that fluctuating magnetism is produced only by a constantly changing electric current. You have to use an alternating current which is the one that keeps reversing direction to make a fluctuating magnetic field that will, indirectly, produce heat. And that's all that an induction hob does: it generates a constantly changing magnetic field. Don't ever put your hand on a cooktop that has recently been used for cooking because it may have become dangerously hot from the cooking pan that's been standing on top of it.

The difference between a ceramic and an induction cooktop is how they create heat:

• Ceramic cooktops contains coiled metal elements under the tempered ceramic glass. These elements are electronically heated to the desired temperature. This coil then heats the ceramic surface and, consequently, warms the pan. The elements do cycle on and off during use making accurate heat control less than induction cooktops.
• Induction cooktops feature powerful, high-frequency electromagnets instead of heated coils. These magnets generate a magnetic field that heats the pan and not the cooktop’s surface.

To put it simply, an induction cooktop is far more efficient than ceramic cooktops as they only heat the pan and not the surrounding air or the cooktop’s surface. Induction cooktops remain cooler during the cooking process, the ceramic top only heats from residual pan heat and loses heat quicker once turned off. When you stand a suitable cooking pan on top of a Brisbane induction cooktop that's powered up, the magnetic field produced by the cooktop penetrates the metal of the pan. It is a fluctuating magnetic field moving around inside a piece of metal which the base and sides of the pan and that makes an electric current flow through the pan too. This is quite the same as the electric current that flows through a wire, carrying electrical energy in a straight line from a battery to a flashlight bulb. It's a kind of swirling electric current with lots of energy but nowhere to go. As it swirls around inside the metal's crystalline structure, it dissipates its energy. So the metal pan gets hot and heats up whatever food is inside it, first by conduction whereas it passes its heat energy directly to the food but also by convection whereas liquid food rises and falls in the pan carrying heat with it.