Battery-Powered Induction Stove
There is a problem with induction stoves that needs to be solved before mass adoption can take place – they use a lot of power. In fact, they can use as much power as a home Level 2 EV charger.
That means, for a lot of older homes, the already-pricey induction stove could come with an even pricier upgrade to the electrical panel. A new company called Impulse thinks it has the solution — their induction range comes with a lithium-ion battery, which means it doesn’t pull the usual 40 amps of power when it’s in use. In fact, it arrives ready to install and can plug into regular a 110-volt outlet.
That means homeowners can switch to induction cooking without having to worry about expensive upgrades to their electrical panel. It also means the induction stove can be used during a power outage. Its battery could even store power for the rest home and potentially feed it back to the grid in much the same way that an electric vehicle’s battery can.
Instead of V2G (vehicle to grid) we could soon have K2G (kitchen to grid).
But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, since the San Francisco-based company has only just launched, announcing a $20 million Series A funding round on November 15, secured from Lux Capital, Fifth Wall, Lachy Groom and Construct Capital. This investment was in addition to a $5 million seed round backed by Lux Capital, Construct and Lachy in 2021.
It joins a growing number of enterprises joining the home-electrification industry, no doubt hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning home electrification movement, as well as tap into legislative support from the Inflation Reduction Act and various other incentives that might be available at the state level.
The original plan had been create a top-of-the-line electric pizza oven using batteries, according to CEO Sam D’Amico, but, “what started as a cool idea to make pizza became a mission to re-frame the home appliance industry.”
Preliminary market research allowed D’Amico to see the potential of induction cooking and set he out to find ways to make it an even better experience for users. Now the induction stove looks likely to be just the first in a line of battery-integrated home appliances.
“Adding batteries to appliances not only unlocks performance abilities,” claims D’Amico, “but also creates opportunities for energy storage in alignment with home electrification, emerging policy tailwinds, and distributed energy resource incentives.”
No price for the range has yet been announce and Impulse is not yet taking orders, but as the cost of lithium-ion batteries continue to decline, battery-powered appliances like this couple possibly benefit from the 30% tax credit that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s new residential battery incentive.
That would help offset the cost of induction stoves, which are typically about 20% more expensive than gas stoves of similar quality.
And reduced emissions are not the only benefit of induction cooking. A growing number of studies are demonstrating the adverse effects of cooking with gas, particularly on children’s health; chemicals such as benzene and other dangerous air pollutants released from gas stoves have been linked to cancer and increased risk of asthma.
Induction stoves are already helping to solve this problem. Whether Impulse’s yet-to-be-release battery version brings enough to the table to accelerate their adoption remains to be seen. But any time a barrier to adoption is removed, we can assume we’re taking a step in the right direction.
