Induction cooking hob including a cooking area with three or more induction coils and a method for controlling a cooking area

A method for controlling a cooking area on an induction cooking hob, wherein the cooking area comprises at least three induction coils and said method comprises the steps of:

• setting a requested power for each used induction coil by a user interface, selecting a number of subsequent plurality of cycle patterns from a table stored in a memory of a control unit,
• defining activated and deactivated induction coils based on each of the selected cycle patterns,
• determining a cycle time for each selected cycle pattern and a power balance between the activated induction coils, so that a desired average power for each induction coil is obtained over a period of one or more selected cycle patterns, and
• the sum of instant powers of the activated induction coils within each selected cycle pattern is equal to the sum of the requested powers for each used induction coil.

An induction cooking hob comprising:

• at least one first cooking zone having a first induction coil and a first pot detection device for detecting when a pot is placed above the first induction coil in the at least one first cooking zone;
• at least one second cooking zone having a second induction coil and a second pot detection device for detecting when a pot is placed above the second induction coil in the at least one second cooking zone;
• and
• at least one control unit operatively coupled to each of the first and second induction coils and the first and second pot detection devices, said at least one control unit being configured in a predetermined cooking mode to apply a first predetermined power to the first induction coil, and to apply a second predetermined power to the second induction coil, the second predetermined power that is applied to the second induction coil is different from the first predetermined power that is applied to the first induction coil.

An induction cooking hob comprising:

• a first cooking zone and a second cooking zone having respective first and second induction coils;
• a pot detection device configured to detect when a pot is located in each of the aforementioned cooking zones;
• and
• a controller configured to activate each of the coils only when a pot is located in the respective cooking zone, the first induction coil being activated at a first power level and the second induction coil being activated at a second power level higher than the first power level,
• wherein cooking power to the pot is automatically adjustable between the first and second power levels by sliding the pot across the cooking hob from the first cooking zone to the second cooking zone and from the second cooking zone to the first cooking zone, respectively.