Jackie starts of this series with some tasty stew. Its time to re-evaluate power assumptions about things like skillets and crock pots and determine if these useful appliances can be practically used in the right sized genverter system. If so, you can move off grid sooner with less kitchen equipment? Next in the series, we’ll look at another common kitchen appliance.
One thing I miss about not having grid power is being able to cook with most electric appliances. [Marshall has the exception for his Espresso though] I recall asking about the electric food dehydrator. about the bread maker, and about the crock pot – all No. “We don’t want to short out our batteries for heating food”, he would say. However, yesterday he decided to test that theory after a reader comment.
The Experiment:
I scrounged up a crock pot and this morning put in all the ingredients for beef stew. Below is what went into the pot:
Quick Crock-Pot Stew
|
1 package of beef stew meat, cut into smaller chunks (about 1 inch) cup of carrots cut into 1to 1 and 1/2 inch chunks 1/2 large onion 3 potatoes cut into 2 inch chunks 1 zucchini chopped into 1 inch chunks 3 chopped garlic cloves 2 bouillon cubes 1tsp salt 2 cans Italian stewed tomatoes 1 cup V-8 juice 1 and 1/2 tsp sugar 1 tsp thyme Set the crock pot on the “low” setting and leave it alone for about 8 hours when it should be ready for serving |
After about 8 hours I dished it out. Everything was basically done except for the potatoes. Next time, I will cut the potatoes into smaller chunks, maybe 3/4 inch. The carrots were mostly done but could have gone longer. They should be cut into smaller chunks too.
We are going to try this again, but with the crock-pot on “high” instead to see if the stew will cook better and faster, with reasonable power for Marshall.
Marshall’s Comments:.
First, I forgot how nice a stew simmering in the kitchen all day creates such a pleasant aroma! I used the P4400 Kill-a-Watt power monitor with the crock pot during the test which was run on inverter power (Modified Sine Wave) the entire time.
Model: Rival Crock-Pot, stoneware slow cooker
Test time: 8hours
Power Setting: Low (71W)
Watt Hours used: 570 WH
Each time we collect useful off grid appliance data like this its added to the table in Power Budgets [4] data you can use.
While this level of power would not work for the Small Emergency Genverter System, it is reasonable for larger systems that would be able to store more battery power. This would not be efficient if you needed to run it on the straight generator alone, but trickling out stored power for 8 hours would work.
For example today, my 400W solar array had morning sun and afternoon clouds. We gathered 1300 WH from solar power today and using 570 for a tasty dinner would work on solar power alone!
Jackie continues with; rethinking off grid cooking [2]
What are your favorite Crock Pot recipes? What kitchen appliance would you like to see next? Tell us below in the comment section!
Related posts:
I would think crock pots would be pretty efficient. Definitely cool you got this from solar with power to spare.
.-= Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Consistency – A 7th Characteristic of Trust Building (Everyone can do this) =-.
CRock pots come in various sizes, ours is one of the smaller one and has a 100 watt heat element. This past summer we have seen a lot of insulated bags sold by beer stores as well as super markets. The Beer store version is a zippered bag large enough to accomodatea 12 or 18 can case of beer also large enough to contain a small crocck pot. The big super markets stores are selling these insulated bags for carrying pre cooked chickens home or maybe frozen meats during the hot summer months.
the point being, containing a crock pot in an insulated bag would retain more of the heat and allow cooking with less electrical input to maintain the same cooking pot internal temperature.
Mention was made of a food dehydrator. We were given one powered by a 100 watt light bulb. It seems to me this could sucessfully be adapted to be partially heated by solar power. A furnace plenum chamber thermal switch could be used to switch in aux electric heat once th esolar heat failed to maintain the required temperature. Furnace temp sensors operate in the 140 – 170 F range and are adjustable within a range of settings, Brand new they are not especially expensive but can be scrounged from scrapped furnaces. with so many people converting to high efficiency furnaces,I see a lot of older but serviceable furnaces being scrapped.
You asked for suggestions on other appliances. We use one of the smaller sized George Forman grills. Our first model was a 600 watt unit. We did wear out the non stick coating and dropped it once cracking the cast hinge. Second Grill has a 900 watt rating.The second model has a large enough surface area we can place two hamburger patties side by side. Measured energy consumption was 0.16 kilowatt to cook a meal (the meat part) for two.
to assess how efficient an appliance is likely to be I look at how the heat is transferred into the food and how any heat leak is contained inside the appliance during cooking. Crock pots with integral heating (non immersible) are likely a bit better than the one with a removable liner where heat transfer is ever so slightly more heat lossy. The down side being you have to hand wash the container soon after emptying it or its hard work to clean off dried up food. It may also require more hot water (more energy use) to clean.
Last night we cooked a 2 pound chicken in the crock pot ( 3 quart capacity Proctor Silex ) It took 4 hours. The frozen chicken was placed in the crock pot no water added. After two hours the sliced onions were added. By then lots of liquid had collected in bottom of crock pot. Half an hour before chicken was expected to be done, (usually 4 – 4.5 hours) potatoes and peas were cooked normally on a stove ( could be wood propane or electric)
You know the chicken is almost done if it starts to fall apart as soon as you lift it up.
In retrospect the gravy could have been better if we had used the tiny one quart crock pot to simmer it with flour thickening etc.
To do that would involve ladling off some of the drippings from the main crock pot and simmering it together with flour thickening. What we did this time was simmer the drippings in the main crock pot but this uses slightly more energy than the little one.
One further note. A long time ago we broke the original lid for crock pot. It had a steam vent hole but we substituted a pot lid which doesn’t have a steam hole. Results seem to produce a cooked chicken that is more moist and tender.
Arild, did you happen to get the power used for this recipe?
Yes it took 968 watt hours from deep frozen bird to being ready to serve the 3 pounds chicken. No doubt we could have saved some energy if we had left the bird out to thaw naturally. We were away most of the day doing practice for the easter play at church so wanted something quick as soon as we got home. In real energy saving mode the bird would have been thawed out naturally from being deep frozen. After we got home the stock was simmered for an additional 15 minutes to make gravy. Better planning could have reduced the total consumption by 181.5 watt hour even more if you do not want the bird cooked so tender it falls off the bones.
Crock pots are not sophisticated appliances. They lack timers and temp controls etc.
I cannibalized a defective microwave oven to get the key pad and timer circuits for some industrial timer use. All the microwaves I have dismantled have a relay or two driven by the electronic timer so it could be wired to switch on a crock pot and if the controller has two relays conceivably it could be wired to run low heat part of the cycle and high heat some of the time. HMmmm??? A salvaged capilliary tube temp controller could be added to shut off heat above a specified threshold. and if the crock pot is wrapped in a thermo blanket made from Reflectix it will not need the heater on for as long.
That means further reduction in actual electric power consumed. Conventional stoves have a vent pipe at the top which is very heat lossy.
Looks like I just created yet another experiment for my self.
Marshall I forgot to mention this crock pot was a Proctor Silex model “Crock Watcher” four quart capacity – Low heat is 119 watts, & high heat is 242 watts.
It also has a setting called Autoshift but I have not determined exactly how that is supposed to work. One drawback to buying these at the Sally Ann store being you seldom get the manual with it but for $5 its still a good deal. Some of the smaller models sell for $3 and they are rated for as little as 80 watts power consumption in the 1.5 quart size.
Hi there, I enjoy reading through your article.
I like to write a little comment to support you.
Just desire to say your article is as astonishing.
The clarity in your post is simply spectacular and i could assume you are an
expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow me
to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post.
Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.
http://www.bookofseven.com´s last [type] ..http://www.bookofseven.com