AGA cooker: Difference between revisions
Little grape (talk | contribs) removed 'guzzling', and tightened a bit |
Rick marin (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
==Energy use== |
==Energy use== |
||
AGAs have been criticised for their high energy consumption and inefficiency<ref name="Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest">{{cite web |url= http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/01/13/flying-over-the-cuckoos-nest/|title=Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest}}</ref>. A small, two-oven Aga running on gas will use approximately 425kWh per week (22,100 kWh per year). |
AGAs have been criticised for their high energy consumption and inefficiency<ref name="Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest">{{cite web |url= http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/01/13/flying-over-the-cuckoos-nest/|title=Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest}}</ref>. A small, two-oven Aga running on gas will use approximately 425kWh per week (22,100 kWh per year), which is more than the typical energy used for heating a medium usage house in the U.K, around 20,500 kWh per year. |
||
==Models== |
==Models== |
||
Revision as of 09:15, 10 July 2009
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (October 2008) |
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.
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.
Energy use
AGAs have been criticised for their high energy consumption and inefficiency[1]. A small, two-oven Aga running on gas will use approximately 425kWh per week (22,100 kWh per year), which is more than the typical energy used for heating a medium usage house in the U.K, around 20,500 kWh per year.
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,[2] 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.
The fuel for these is kerosene, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane gas, night storage electric or a 13 amp electric wall socket. New models burning solid-fuel have been discontinued;[3] however, Aga Twyford, the only renovator authorised by Aga, still offers renovated solid-fuel models.[4]
In terms of weekly fuel consumption, Aga expects[5] the two oven Aga to consume 40 litres of kerosene or diesel, 60 litres of propane gas, 425 kWh of natural gas or 220 kWh for the electric models.
Aga also sells kerosene and diesel models which, with slight modification, can be made to run on biofuel[6].