High-Performing Kitchens Start with an Induction Stovetop

It’s About Time. And Health.

A high-performance home needs a high-performance kitchen. It starts with induction cooking.

People spend 90% of their time indoors, and, according to a poll done by Bosch Home Appliances, we spend 400 hours a year in the kitchen — just in cooking time. But we all know that workhorse of a room hosts homework and study sessions, snack time, and party crowds. In the current open-floor plan designs, kitchens are literally the center of the home. If your high-performance home is going to be energy-efficient, safe, comfortable, and climate-resilient, your kitchen had better be up to the task. Using an induction cooktop is part of the answer.

What is induction?

Induction cooking has been around for decades. Invented in the early 1900s, the technique made its way to the United States in the 1970s but had been adopted in Europe years before that. 

Most induction cooking surfaces are made of glass and look a lot like a flat-panel electric cooktop. Below the cooktop are copper coils that generate an electromagnetic field that heats your cookware, sort of the way a microwave does. Heat is immediately transferred into whatever food you’re cooking, and there’s no heat loss in your kitchen or the stove itself (as there would be with a gas or electric stove). Once the pot is removed, the cooktop is cool to the touch. Some manufacturers are introducing new “invisible” induction cooking surfaces that create a sleek look and increase a kitchen’s countertop space since the induction cooking service serves as a countertop when it’s not in use.

Energy-efficient and top-performing

In terms of performance, the benefits of induction are two-fold, says Rob Howard, president of Howard Building Science, for energy efficiency and as an ideal cooking method.

Howard’s most recent project is an 11-home pocket community in Granite Falls, N.C. that meets the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) standards. Howard equips each home with appliances that meet the standard’s strict energy-efficiency requirements. With induction cooktops, he says, “The elements heat up so quickly that you’re using less energy overall when you cook.” 

And if you’re serious about cooking, as is chef Mareya Ibrahim of Grow Green Industries, using an induction cooktop is best for performance. “You get a lot of hot spots under your pans when you’re cooking on a gas stove. The heat distribution on induction is much more even,” she says. She adds that she finds that she can “use less oil and fewer additives to build out the flavor in the food” when she’s cooking on induction because the cooktop “heats up more quickly and maintains the temperature.”

Healthy air

While we might harbor romantic notions of cooking over an open flame, the fact is, it’s dangerous. Cooking is the number one leading cause of home fires. And, with “open combustion,” says Howard, “you are literally breathing everything coming off that cooktop.”

Even when off, a gas stove leaks methane, as well as other harmful pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde. Several recent studies have found that the use of gas stoves increases the risk of asthma among children.

A high-performance home is going to be tightly sealed with high indoor air quality (IAQ) that meets the ZERH program standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor airPLUS certification. Your high-performance home will have HVAC systems that will filter the air, optimize your comfort, provide adequate airflow, and bring in fresh air in an intentional way. Cooking on an induction stove will help ensure that you can maintain that high indoor air quality.

You’ll still need a range hood since cooking produces moisture, particulate matter, and pollutants from heating oil, grease, and other ingredients, especially at high temperatures. “It’s critical to have a range hood vented to the outdoors and not one that recirculates and dumps the grease right back into your hair,” Howard says. 

A learning curve

With induction, you’ll have to learn to plan your cooking time accordingly and then figure out what to do with your extra time. Boiling a liter (four cups) of tap water on a gas stove takes about six to eight minutes; on a traditional electric resistance stove, about nine to 12. Overall, You’ll save about two to four minutes using induction, which doesn’t sound like much but is helpful when cooking dinner on a busy weeknight.

Then, if you want to go from a boil to a simmer, “the stove reacts as quickly as you can turn the knob, and it will maintain the temperature you need,” says Dirk Sappok, director of category management at Miele. It also might take a while to get used to the stove’s cool surface and the need to use pots and pans made of ferrous metal, such as cast iron and stainless or enameled steel. Glass, ceramic, copper, or aluminum cookware won’t be detected by the burner and won’t heat up. Additionally, these might scratch your cooktop. It’s easy to test your current cookware with a simple magnet to see if it will work or bring a magnet with you to the store. Or purchase pans labeled “induction safe” or “induction ready.”

Once you’re done cooking, cleanup is easy with a damp microfiber cloth, Sappok says. And because the cooktop stays cool and doesn’t retain heat, you can clean a spill while you’re cooking or right after.

Right time

Now, with a focus on combating climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act promises federal support through builder and homeowner tax credits for many things dedicated to more sustainable home building. Induction cooking is having its hot minute. Or, rather, not-hot minute.

Since induction stoves and cooktops run on electricity, you’ll be eligible for rebates that, depending on your income, may cover up to 100% of the appliance’s cost. States may also begin to offer rebates, as well. There are also some tax credits available if you need to upgrade your existing home’s electrical panel to accommodate more electric appliances.