Hi Bill,

There are electronic thermostats for electric heating applications
that modulate output (I have some from Aube that control with my
in-floor radiant heat), but they're fairly expensive. I suspect their
high cost and perhaps concerns related to long-term reliability would
limit their use elsewhere. Variable wattage control would be a nice
feature from the utility's point of view (i.e., by smoothing out
demand), but I suspect most consumers wouldn't care one way or the
other.

Cheers,
Paul

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:03:35 -0800, "Bill"
wrote:

Does anyone manufacture a "variable heat" electric range, where when you
select the heat setting, it would have a constant heat at a certain
temperature? (Like you can do with a gas range...)

This would be sort of like a dimmer switch for a light where you can adjust
how much light is output from the bulb.

The way electric ranges work now is they go on and off, on and off.

Less heat means the "burner" goes on for a little while, then off for quite
awhile. Then with more heat, the "burner" is on for a long time, then off
for a little amount of time.

With a gas range, you can adjust the heat so it is constant - no off and on.
Seems they could do this with an electric range as well....