Kind of an old fantasy of mine, in the impossible search to get commercial-level heat from my apartment stove.
I would think different designed stoves are rated for this. True? Can I continue my fantasy for more heat, on the off chance I could buy one?
If I’m understanding you correctly, stoves with different size burners are quite common. My range top is similar to this, with different size burners. On the lower right is the dual-ring “high output” burner.
I realized after I posted and after my battery ran out that I didn’t mean heat/burner, even though I wrote it :).
I meant, generically, the heat that the burners will put out, given the same I’m-stuck-with-low maximum gas line to my apartment. Unless one burner could tap multiple inputs from the other three when off, which would be neat.
Different stoves have different efficiencies, I would think.
I see.
Again, if I’m understanding you correctly, and I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, but if the problem is the (low) amount of gas coming in, I’d venture that there’s nothing you can really do about it on the output end.
No (replying to Leo and agreeing with DCnDC), not so long as you are using all the gas available and it all burns. The process of converting gas to heat via combustion is 100% efficient. If you were running an engine of some sort it wold be a different matter, but engines are inefficient because some of the energy you would like to use to produce motion gets wasted as heat. Waste energy is heat (in the relevant situations), so if what you want is heat, you’re not wasting anything.
An important safety tip here … just using your stove top for heat might lead to a build of CO2 and CO inside your apartment, and that is a bad thing. I assume you’re renting, does your landlord know the unit isn’t heating up enough? A safer and perhaps cheaper solution would be one of those self-contained oil heaters that runs on electricity.
From [http://www.usfa.fema.gov/citizens/co/fswy17.shtm] I’ve got:
“Never use your oven or stovetop to heat your home. The CO gas might kill people and pets.”
I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to do. I believe Leo’s problem is his stove burners have a weak flame, like they won’t go any higher than “low”.
