Rayburn efficiency?

[Mary Fisher]

I agree - the answer is to plan meals so that you don't use more than two elements of the cooker.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I agree.

But what I wonder about is people wanting to do much cooking in warm weather ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Aga toast is superb! I intend asking Spouse to make a device for our cooker to make toast like that.

Mary

[Ophelia]

are you an expert Mary?

[Ophelia]

O rolls eyes

[Mary Fisher]

I was joking :-)

Mary

[Chris Bacon]

Watch the blinkers being strapped on.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thats pretty much my attitude too.

Ive cooked on just about every device known to man, and an aga or rayburn is not near teh bottom by a long chalk.I think a baby belling is probably the worst thing EVER.

I'd rather have a charcoal barbecue from green logs...

I've stayed in hoses that ONLY had range stoves, and its fine. You can't grill, but you can toast...everything else is possible, but you have to work out how.

BUT in summer, its insufferably hot, so I alsio have alternatives.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup. The kitchen with an aga is actually cooler tna when cooking with a stove.

And less humid, than gas, too.

But ione doesn;t do elaborate meals in summer anyway, Cold salads and BBQs mainly.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not if it replaces 16.8KWh of less efficient CH boiler.

But agas are better than boilers at producing heat.

That heat level is just about right for spring and autumn to heat almost a whole medium sized house.

Oil and gas ones are fine...they are a LOT easier to switch on and off too. Lighting a coal fired aga is vile, and regulating the temperature is almost impossible.

[The Natural Philosopher]

There is actually, we have 40 sq meters of well inuslated kitchen, and believe you me, even with the doors into the other rooms permanetly open, with summer temps often over 20C, ANY heat beyind that is not wanted.

I personally do NOT like having an aga on and openiong all the windows just to stay cool.

So I turn the bugger off.

Oh for sure, but when temps outside are up around 23-25C? No way.

We like to come into a COOL kichen with a mass of cast iron and a brick alcove that is still cool from last night...

[Steve Firth]

Funny how when Aga owners rant about their cookers the selling points seem to be toast, stews and keeping the pets warm. Personally I don't think that's worth the energy costs, but then again, unlike Aga owners I can cook.

[Andy Hall]

I don't need to sell anything in terms of cookers. Aga toast toast is legendary, it is true; however one can cook anything else very well also, and certainly better than can be achieved in fan ovens and the like.

Generally people who criticise storage cookers have never tried one or read something in a magazine, both of which make their comments meaningless. If they have tried one, then either they had a very old or badly set up one or themselves are unable to cook, since it is really very easy.

[owdman]

I've had three - 2 Rayburns and 1 aga. All my opinions are my own. Yes I can cook reasonably well. I speak from experience. Rayburns/Agas are crap.

cheers

Jacob

[owdman]

So, if my gas cooker was 1/5th as efficient this would be a good thing as "the heat is virtually all used within the house and may be subtracted from the consumption of the other heating systems"? Righto I'll make a point of leaving it on unecessarily, and remove all the insulation from around the oven! cheers Jacob

[Andy Hall]

I think that you must have missed my point.

The Aga produces heat at a virtually constant rate of around 700W.

It is released in part in the kitchen and in part from the lower parts of the flue where it usefully warms the house.

The cooking techniques are different from conventional cookers in that there are a wide range of temperatures available across the four ovens and a large proportion of cooking operations that would be done on the top on a conventional cooker are done in the ovens. Thus, the top plates, proportionately, are not used as much as the ovens.

A conventional set up of a cooker or a cooker and hob is quite different. Firstly, insulation is comparatively poor for the oven and large amounts of heat (2-3kW) are released into the room when it is running. Secondly, the designs are poor. The one-size-fits-all fan oven is one of the worst services to proper cooking ever invented. It limits the range of temperatures available and dries the food badly. There needs to be much more use of the hob. At around 2-3kW per burner, it is very easy to be producing 10-12kW released into a small space in the kitchen while cooking.

That is the essential point. There is no value in having this amount of heat released into a small space because it will overheat it, necessitating opening of the windows. At that point, the heat is wasted. This is a very different proposition to having 700W released on a continuous basis and forming part of the heating of the house. If you think about the amount of heat required to heat a room in a typical house (whatever that is), it is generally much closer to 700W than 10kW.

[Andy Hall]

Presumably you were unable to follow the cooking techniques or they were all poorly set up......

[Chris Bacon]

Don't think I've ever heard of a quality restaurant (or a crap one, even) using Agas or Rayburns to cook for their customers.. presumably they use inferior cookers to cook their superior food.. LOL.

[Andy Hall]

That's a rather stupid remark.

Obviously the scale is very different. Commercial restaurants don't use domestic cookers either.

There are, however, a few small country house hotels around which do use an Aga for cooking because their customers appreciate it.

[owdman]

Yes I have - what is it exactly? You have certainly missed mine!

cheers

Jacob