Comment by ksherlock
Comment by ksherlock 15 days ago
It's not waste heat if you only run it in the winter.
Comment by ksherlock 15 days ago
It's not waste heat if you only run it in the winter.
Sure. That has nothing to do with the efficiency of your system though. As far as you are concerned this is about your electricity consumption for the home server vs gas consumption. In that sense resistive heat inside the home is 100% efficient compared to gas furnace; the fuel cost might be lower on the latter.
I'm in the market for an oven right now and 230V/16A is the voltage/current the one I'll probably be getting operates under.
At 90°C you can do sous vide, so basically use that waste heat entirely.
For such temperatures you'd need a CO2 heat pump, which is still expensive. I don't know about gas, as I don't even have a line to my place.
Did you skip searing it after sous vide? Did you sous vide it to the "instantly kill all bacteria" temperature (145°F for steak) thereby overcooking & destroying it, or did you sous vide to a lower temperature (at most 125°F) so that it'd reach a medium-rare 130°F-140°F after searing & carryover cooking during resting? It should have a nice seared crust, and the inside absolutely shouldn't be mushy.
Opt if you ignore that both gas furnaces and heat pumps are more efficient than resistive loads.