I have been getting interested in buying and induction stove top, just one of those portable one burner types for now too see how it works and if it saves electricty.
Is there a way to build something like that at home?
Also it is supposed to be cheaper to use than a conventional cooktop, is there a way to make a portable heater using the same technology?
Does anyone know of any "experiments" I can try using induction to generate heat?
Thanks

All electric heaters, including induction heaters, work under the same principle: as electrical current flows through a resistive element, it dissipates energy in the form of heat. In the case of inductive heaters for stovetop use, the current is made to flow in the resistive heater element itself: your skillet. The currents that flow in your pan are called "eddy currents." The simplest way to see the effects of eddy currents is to drag a powerful magnet over a solid piece of aluminum or copper: You will feel a strong drag force caused by electrical currents induced in the aluminum or copper. These eddy currents cause the aluminum or copper to act as an electromagnet and interact with your magnet and produce the drag force. Since currents flow in the material, which has nonzero resistance, this actually will heat up the material very slightly. If you moved the magnet back and forth very quickly, you would eventually heat the material much more. For that simple test, you want to use aluminum or copper (1) so that you can separate the effects from that of ferromagnetism and (2) because those materials have higher conductivity. However, for an inductive stove, you really want to use something with *lower* conductivity so that it dissipates heat (into your pan) more effectively. Ultimately, what you want to do is use an electromagnet with a moving field (i.e., an AC magnetic field), rather than a moving permanent magnet, to induce the currents in your pans. You will probably find that higher frequency and higher current in your drive coils will couple power more effectively to your pans. You can certainly find a number of recipes for doing this on the web, and you might start by looking carefully at what people have done here, here, and here. While you can certainly build your own-- for the kitchen or portable-- it will be difficult to precisely evaluate the efficiency of a given setup, and you are unlikely to meet the efficiency of commercial systems without careful measurement and refinement of your efficiency. One point that you have in your favor is that you could optimize the heater for use with a particular pan. Depending on how much your free time is worth (in dollars!), it might be better to do it yourself or just to buy it.

Thanks for taking the time to reply and finding those links for me. I had a bisic idea on how it worked from reading about it on the web. The second link really simplifies how I may be able to try it myself. I doubt I would every try and build my own cooktop as opposed to buying a commercial one, but I am interested what else I can do with induction heat. Those links gave me a great starting point, thanks.