In "Vox Humana"
> wrote:

>
> "Bert Hyman" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In "FDR"
>> > wrote:
>
>> Simple full-on/full-off switching of the heating element causes
>> significant temperature over and undershoots, although the long-term
>> average might match the dial setting.
>>
>> A proportional control could apply full power to the cold oven,
>> reduce power as the oven approached the desired temperature and then
>> continue to apply just enough power to maintain a constant temperture
>> in the oven to balance heat loss.
>
> That sounds like a good idea to me. Would this be expensive to
> implement?

I think the biggest problem would be trying to figure out what
the temperature of the oven actually was, or for that matter what "the
oven temperature" actuall means. Oven tests always show extreme
variations of temperature from place to place in an oven. Unless this is
something that can be solved in a straightforward way, this whole
scheme that I'm describing is worthless. Maybe convection ovens have
more uniform temperature distribution; I dunno.

> I would also think that it would prolong the life of the
> heating element in the same way that dimmers prolong the life of light
> bulbs.

In my life, I've experienced ->one broiler element failure.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN