This question concerns only an induction stove, which I abbreviate to IS (and not an electric oven with coiled elements).
I already know that the energy from a Chinese Wok Range exceeds, and so is impossible to reproduce, with an IS at home, but can anything be done to maximise the energy of an IS? Please correct me if I erred in my terminology; I know no physics.
This states the impropriety of woks for IS, but does it imply that certain cookware can convey and realise more energy from IS? If so, which cookware? This comment mentions 'cast iron skillet':
Throw out the wok. They are worthless with electric ranges. Even home gas ranges don't do a whole lot better. The gas burners in Chinese places are crazy!!! Get a big cast iron skillet and use that instead. Lots of heat, preheat for a while. Cook in batches.
If you velvet and cook at a higher heat you will get much closer.
Best Answer
An induction cooktop is already more efficient than a conventional electric range, but there are some "gotchas" due to the way it works. The way an induction heating element works is via magnetic induction (hence the name), which means it's causing electrical currents to flow within the pan itself, which heats the metal (but don't worry, there's no way these currents can shock you). This is a very efficient way to heat the pan, but it requires two things. First, the pan has to be made of a "ferromagnetic" material (which basically means iron or most steels), and second, that the pan bottom be VERY close to the cooktop surface. It's that last part that makes a wok, with its curved bottom, generally unusable with this sort of cooktop. And this also means that copper and aluminum cookware doesn't work well at all, unless you put a disc of iron or steel between the bottom of such cookware and the induction element surface (in which case, that intermediate disc is basically acting as a hot plate).
If you really want to use a wok - and there are certain lots of reasons to - you pretty much have to get a high-BTU gas burner.