Cooking by light-a revolutionary approach to electric hobs

High-powered quartz halogen heating elements have been used to obtain an electrically powered hob, called Halogenheat with a performance comparable to that of gas. The historic trends in electric hob design and their disadvantage in relation to gas hobs are traced. The construction and operating characteristics of Halogenheat, which comprises, in addition to the heating elements, a ceramic surface having specific transmissivity, a control and temperature protection system, and an energy reflecting and insulation assembly, are discussed. The Halogenheat hob is shown to have no significant warm-up time because most of the heating energy passes directly through the ceramic surface to the pan. It also exhibits higher power density than conventional ceramic hobs, greater tolerance to pan material, and greater energy efficiency