pressure cooker wins (was: crock pot jelly juice)

>From the table below (source "Consumer Guide To Home Energy 
Savings" Amercian Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (1990)) 
the crock pot only saves 22% of the energy of the stove top 
element for the test casserole. It doesn't say if the "frying pan" 
in the table is an electric frying pan or a stove top frying pan, 
however an illustration on the following page shows a covered 
stovetop frying pan. Assuming the illustrator did not make a 
mistake then my perception that a stove top element is much more 
wastefull than a crock pot was wrong. As for a pressure cooker, my 
experience with potatoes is that a pressure cooker takes 10 min 
compared to a pot of boiling water at 20 min, for an energy 
savings of perhaps 50%, and 50% off the energy consumed by the 
stove top frying pan in the table below would make the pressure 
cooker 36% more energy efficient than the crock pot. That's the 
best estimate I could come up with comparing a crock pot to a 
pressure coooker. My erroneous perception was about the stove top 
element rather than the pressure cooker. I knew the pressure 
cooker was most energy efficient method of stove top cooking.

 Comparison of several ways of cooking the same casserole.
 (electricity @ 8cents/kWh, gas @ 60cents/therm)

 Temp  Time   Energy   Appliance
 ----  -----  -------  -------------------------------
 350F  1hr    2.00kWh  16cents electric oven
 325F  45min  1.39kWh  11cents electic convection oven
 425F  50min   .95kWh   8cents toaster oven
 350F  1hr    .122thm   7cents gas oven
 420F  1hr     .90kWh   7cents frying pan
 200F  7hr     .70kWh   6cents crock pot
 high  15min   .36kWh   3cents microwave oven

The following is all the book has to say about pressure cookers.

 "For stove-top cooking, consider using a pressure-cooker. By 
building up steam, they cook at a higher temperature, reducing 
cooking time and energy used considerably."


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William R Watt     National Capital FreeNet    Ottawa's free community network
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