Sarah, I don't have problems cooking on regular resistance coil elements, but to avoid waste heat and lighten the load on my older range surface units, I use induction to bring pans of food to cooking temperatures then move them to a surface unit that I have turned on to low or medium low to finish cooking. It is so much more efficient to bring a pan of frozen vegetables to a boil in about 60 to 90 seconds on a 3000 watt induction unit where the heat is being created in the base of the pan than to have the same pan on a resistance element of around half that wattage which is forcing its heat into the pan and giving off a percentage of its heat to the space around it.
People moving from gas to induction have more of an adjustment than thinking people used to electric cooking because the old 5 and 7 heat switches gave percentages of heat so medium high was 50% of high and on down the line so with an induction unit with 20 power positions, 10 is medium high, 4 or 5 is medium 2 or 3 is low and 1 is simmer, depending on the wattage of the unit and the quantity of food. People who do not know that wind up with pans that are too hot. Because of the power and efficiency, almost no cooking is done in the upper power levels, once large amounts of water, for example, are brought to a boil, although they are great for keeping water boiling when blanching stuff for canning or freezing.
People moving from gas to induction have more of an adjustment than thinking people used to electric cooking because the old 5 and 7 heat switches gave percentages of heat so medium high was 50% of high and on down the line so with an induction unit with 20 power positions, 10 is medium high, 4 or 5 is medium 2 or 3 is low and 1 is simmer, depending on the wattage of the unit and the quantity of food. People who do not know that wind up with pans that are too hot. Because of the power and efficiency, almost no cooking is done in the upper power levels, once large amounts of water, for example, are brought to a boil, although they are great for keeping water boiling when blanching stuff for canning or freezing.
