AGA cooker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The AGA cooker is a stored-heat stove and cooker invented in 1929 by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist Dr. Gustaf Dalén (1869 - 1937), who was employed first as the chief engineer of AGA company. The cookers are today manufactured by the Aga Rangemaster Group.
AGA is an abbreviation of the company name, Aktiebolaget Gasaccumulator.
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[edit] History
In 1912 Dr. Dalen lost his sight in an explosion while developing his earlier invention, a porous substrate for storing gasses, Agamassen (AGA). Forced to stay at home, Dr. Dalen discovered that his wife was exhausted by cooking. Although blind, he was determined to develop a new stove that was capable of every culinary technique and easy to use. It is also capable of heating a house.
Adopting the principle of heat storage, he combined a heat source, two large hotplates and two ovens into one unit: the AGA Cooker. The cooker was introduced to England in 1929, and its popularity in certain parts of English society (owners of medium to large country houses) led to the coining of the term "AGA Saga" in the 1990s, referring to a genre of fiction set amongst stereotypical AGA owners.
Since 2006, the slump in demand for the cooker has led to severe stock market falls for the company, crashing 25% in one day in November 2008 when the company announced disappointing sales figures across the range.[1]
[edit] Energy use
AGAs have been criticised for their high energy consumption and inefficiency[2]. A small, two-oven AGA running on gas will use approximately 425kWh per week (22,100 kWh per year). The average standard gas oven and hob uses 580kWh during a year, only 2.62% of the AGA's consumption. [3]
AGA's own figures for expected energy consumption for their two oven AGA support this criticism,[4] suggesting consumption of 40 litres of kerosene or diesel, 60 litres of propane gas, 425 kWh of natural gas or 220 kWh for the electric models. This would indicate that the smallest two-oven gas AGA providing simple cooking functions (e.g. no water heating or central heating) consumes almost as much gas in a week than a standard gas oven/hob does in nine months.
[edit] Models
Three main models of AGA are currently in production: two, three and four oven versions, with the four oven version wider than the others. The two oven model has three doors behind which are the burner, roasting oven and simmering oven. The newer three oven model also includes a baking oven,[5] and the four oven version also has a warming oven and warming plate on the top. All models have two hotplates - a boiling plate and a simmering plate.
Fuel options include kerosene, diesel, biofuel, gas or electricity. Solid-fuel models have now been discontinued,[6] but refurbished models can be bought.
[edit] References
- ^ "AGA suffers as property slump cools spending". http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article4976618.ece.
- ^ "Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest". http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/01/13/flying-over-the-cuckoos-nest/.
- ^ "Carbon Footprint - Household Energy Consumption". http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html.
- ^ "Discontinuation of solid fuel models". http://www.aga-web.co.uk/183.htm.
- ^ "Aga Range Cookers". http://www.aga-web.co.uk/121.htm.
- ^ "Discontinuation of solid fuel models". http://www.agafoodservice.com/1766.htm.
