On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:23:02 +0000 (UTC), (Dave
Martindale) wrote:


In fact, the electronic control wastes a bit of power in the switching
element, and consumes slightly *more* power than the non-electronic
oven. The triac control also distorts the utility waveform into
something that is less of a sine wave, which the utility also will not
like (the power factor gets worse, so they need higher current capacity
for the same billable watts).

How can that be? Any distortion by the triac appears beyond the
triac.

The electricity is billed by what goes through the meter, where it is
undistorted.