Why do i use a 2000 watt grill to cook one hamburger ?

Question

If i wanted to make a cup of tea ; i would use a kettle of 1000 watt . a 2000 watt for a an ordinary grill . washing machine : 4000 watts .

with this huge amount of electricity to make very simple things how can we find other subistitutes for oil ?

Answer 1

The simple answer to this question is that you don't need to use the full 2000 watts to cook the burger.  If you can find a way to insulate the system you will lower the amount of power you consume to cook the burger.  If you have a George Forman Grill, you could try placing a cardboard box over the entire grill (make sure the cardboard is at least a couple of inches away from the grill).  This would seperate the air in your kitchen from the air inside the box, which would minimize the amount of heat you would lose from the grill to the kitchen.  This would be the most effective way of lowering how much energy you use to cook the burger.  Basically, you don't need 2000 watts if your system is insulated.  They determined that with heat loss from the grill to the kitchen, you may need 2000 watts to raise the temperature of the grill since you will lose some of that energy to the surroundings.

When you cook the burger you are raising the temperature.  Basically, the wattage is the rate at which you put energy into the grill/burger (1 watt = 1 joule per second).  The rate of energy (wattage) dicates how fast you are putting energy to the grille/burger, and hence fast the temperature rises.  The rate at which the temperature of the outside of the burger rises is proportional to the amount of energy you put into the grill.  However, if you put too much wattage into the burger, you could just burn the burger, because the heat doesn't have enough time to reach the center, and the temperature of the outside of the burger will get hot enough to char it while the center of the burger will stay at a lower temperature.  The main energy loss of this system is from the grill to the kitchen, as the rest of the energy will go to raise the temperature of the burger.  So, if you have the grille at a lower setting (no risk of burning the burger), and you insulate the system somehow, you will lower the energy lost to the kitchen, thereby making the cooking process more efficient.

Answer 2

The important thing is energy. To cook a hamburger, cup of tea, ect, you are using that number times the number of hours you have the appliance on. For example a 2000 watt grill might cook a hamburger in 15 minutes. That is 0.5 kWh, or pennies worth of electrical energy. The the hamburger meat is 400 food calories. That would equate to 0.465 kWh.

That would also mean that you are putting more energy into cooking the patty than getting from it. To compare energy to energy, an average human needs about 2.3 kWh in food energy per day. That is just under the 2.4 kWh to burn a 100 watt light bulb for the same day.

Why do we need that much energy to cook our food? To make it taste better and moreover, make it safer to eat.

I think it's pretty neat to have the physics background to see how energy compares from one source to another.

Answer 3

Better yet, why do you eat meat?

Answer 4

The hamburger may contain virus which may not get killed

at 1000 watt hence 2000 watts required to kill all diseases

causing creatures.

Answer 5

we have gas grill..use microwave to save elect...eat cold corn flakes...well at least you are thinking...what to do,,,full loads of laundry,,,get new appliances with energy star rating... make next car smaller [no suv]..wearher striping in house,,,

Answer 6

Pretty simple, really.  You need close to 2kw to get it hot enough to cook the burger properly.  Actually, if you're in the US, they're closer to 1,500 watts, not 2,000.  A standard outlet in North America only puts out about 1,800 watts.

A 4,000 watt washer?  Never saw one that high!  Dryer, sure, but not a washer!

Answer 7

Why not?  Does it make a good burger?  Does your kettle get the water hot enough, does your washing machine clean your clothes?  If your answer to these questions is yes, then you have answered your original question.  You do it because it works.  What alternatives do you have that would work as well?

Kate, I eat meat because I like it.

Answer 8

The wattage on an electric grill is the maximum. If you don't have it on high, you are not using the full wattage.

Also if it has more than one burner, then that is the total for all burners on high.

And as far as a washing machine that uses 4000 watts, are you kidding?

My clothes washer is 840 watts.

Maybe you have a single unit washer/dryer combo, because that's the only way a washer will draw that much. Not that the washer will, but with the dryer at the same time, it will.

4000 watts, divided by 120 volts, equals 33.3 amps.

You have a washer/dryer combo because a stand alone washer comes with a regular outlet plug on it.

The most you can get from a regular outlet is 20 amps.

Electric dryers, like electric stoves, have heater elements in them. A heater element is nothing more than a controlled dead short. That is why anything with a heater element uses a lot of power.

Remember, the name plate number is the max when every aspect of the unit is on, and on full.