paul wheaton wrote:Surely we are in an age where we can adjust the amount of power sent to the coils. Cheaply. Rather than 40% of the time it is at 100% power and 60% of the time it is off, how about 40% of the power 100% of the time?
What electric stoves are you referring to which do that? Any electric stove I have ever used, if you set it to a High setting then the coils get red and stay red, and if you set it to a Low setting then the coils don't ever get red. As far as I can see there aren't any thermostats involved.
Unless my assumption that you were referring to the burners on top of the stove was mistaken and you were really talking about the heating elements inside the stove. In which case disregard this.