Wood burning stove/boiler

[french frank]

Two vents are open for lighting but once up to temperature the one directly under the grate is closed.

My new one (it's a multi-fuel stove) now has three controls, a tertiary vent has a permanent setting if burning wood since it controls a secondary combustion to reduce emissions. The other two control the airwash and the temperature/speed of burn.

[JasonPalmer]

We have a small log burner, used varied wood but find firelogs from waitrose or amazon best, we only need it lit for a few hours of between son put to bed and us going to bed.

[oddoneout]

Interesting that you suggest the heating areas of induction hobs don't heat up. I don't think that is quite true. We used to have a couple of induction hobs (two because one failed after a year or so, so actually only one at a time), and as I remember there was a period of 5-10 minutes after use when a red light came on to warn us not to touch. Other than that though, it was indeed possible to clean these easily after use as mentioned earlier. The kinds of things I found difficult were anything which involved taking a pan off the heat or shaking it around. For example making omelettes by rolling butter or oil around in the pan, then positioning the egg mix to get a good shape. There are techniques which might work with pans which don't move the way I wanted them to, but I never found any really good way of doing some types of cooking with induction hobs.
Sometimes the methods used for cooking have to be adapted.ct.

I've been using an induction hob for well over 10 years now and it's my only source of hob cooking in this house (long story to do with incomplete kitchen refit and only me to cook for). It takes some getting used to, and I think that process is what puts some folk off. I started with a single portable Kenwood hob, as the cooker had solid plates which were frustrating for the type and quantities of cooking I was mostly doing. I now have another similar portable meant to be a replacement for the original which had started to play up a bit and I thought it might be about to expire. In fact it is fine and I use both as the newer one is in fact rather tiresome. It has set power levels as the old one does but they are at a much higher level so tend to be too fierce for things like simmering. There are a few prest programmes which are supposed to do such things but they simply don't work for me - I have a feeling they are designed for family size pans and quantities of ingredients cooking. I work between the two now depending on what I'm cooking - the overpowered one is great for heating up a pan of water for pasta for instance.
Depending on the power level (so how fast the pulses are coming) both hobs will beep if the pan is taken off, but I haven't had either turn itself off (as I think will happen after a certain time as a safety measure) as the absence is only momentary, so the likes of swirling butter or oil around the pan isn't an issue - apart from me saying tetchily "OK I know there isn't a pan there" if it beeps!
The more powerful hob tales longer to cool down, as the pans get hotter, but it doesn't stay at "hurt skin" level for very long at all, but the red flashing light stays on until it's virtually cold. I wouldn't try to use a wet cloth on it until it's cooled a bit in any case for fear of cracking the glass through thermal shock. I don't find they get dirty very much as nothing gets cooked on (unless it gets under the pan and isn't noticed, and even then the effect is limited by interrupting the induction process between pan and hob) as it falls on the part of the plate that isn't being heated. I wouldn't be without them now - cooking is so much quicker - but the fixed power levels can be frustrating at times, so perhaps at some stage I'll treat myself and upgrade to a proper inset hob with sliding rather than step power levels. The cost has gone down and the choice increased significantly in recent years so it's far more of an option now than when I first started.

[oddoneout]

My new one (it's a multi-fuel stove) now has three controls, a tertiary vent has a permanent setting if burning wood since it controls a secondary combustion to reduce emissions. The other two control the airwash and the temperature/speed of burn.

Mine is multi-fuel as well but set up for wood only (a different setting for the grate) as that is what I use. Setting up for coal I can do myself if I want but it would also mean learning a different way of operating the stove as the vents are used differently.

[gradus]

Would not the heat of the surface of the induction plate come by conduction from the hot vessel in which the cooking was taking place, rather than directly from the induction plate itself?

Exactly and they quickly cool as there is no intrinsic heat generated.