A nice big Aga slowly chewing it's way through the North Sea gas reserve as it bakes a cottage pie, inefficiently boils a kettle and dries a tea towell is a wonderful thing. The rampant inefficiency warms the heart and also the kitchen/large outside wall to which it is attached/supporting. They are also available in electric and if you live in the sort of place favoured by horsey- types... fuel oil.
Now, Aga should make a nuclear powered version. For several reasons:
1. There will be no noticeable difference in size, construction or weight.
2. Everyone likes nuclear power
3. It would force Marks and Spencer to mark their packaging differently: "Heat at 200C/395F, gas mark 6 or control rod setting 4"
4. You wouldn't run out of oil... like my auntie did. Don't worry, the horses were fine.-- bs0u0155, Nov 15 2012 Rayburn stoves, the design choice for Scotland's nuclear future http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Rayburn_Range [calum, Nov 16 2012] Apparently half of Gloucestershire's already got one. http://www.newsbisc...ar-powered-aga-297/ [TomP, Nov 17 2012] This is the finest idea I have read here this week. A toasty-warm bun for you.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 15 2012 They did consider things along these lines in the 60s. I believe there were even prototypes built of nuclear-powered washing machines, amongst other kitchen units.
Unfortunately though, Aga ownership seems to go hand in hand with an irrational fear of nuclear power.-- mitxela, Nov 15 2012 Ah, but that's because there has always been a disconnect between the warm glow of an Aga and the fenced-off nuclear power stations.
I contend that, if a block of suitable nuclear waste were wrapped lovingly in cast iron and presented to the knitwear-wearing knitwear wearers of Agaland as an always-toasty-warm brick of toasty goodness, it would soon be accepted.
"Look, mummy, that orphaned lamb has survived _and_ it's growing extra gills!"-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 15 2012 Plus it could have an "irradiate" setting for food preservation. [+]-- 8th of 7, Nov 15 2012 //Plus it could have an "irradiate" setting for food preservation.//
No. It wouldn't NOT have a setting for irradiating food.-- bs0u0155, Nov 15 2012 //I contend that, if a block of suitable nuclear waste were wrapped lovingly in cast iron and presented to the knitwear-wearing knitwear wearers of Agaland as an always-toasty-warm brick of toasty goodness, it would soon be accepted.//
It's a nice idea, but I don't think it's true. If you gave enough people *any relatively novel thing*, some of them will get sick for unrelated random reasons which they will then attribute to that thing. The resultant scare-stories lead to a long-term chilling effect on adoption. Conversely, when people have been using something for long enough - however harmful it's known to be, it's very hard to persuade them that stopping it would be a good idea.-- Loris, Nov 16 2012 I never heard of an AGA oven before.
This post caused me to look it up. What a wonderful diversion!
The ovens seem insane to me, and I don't know why anyone would want one.-- Kansan101, Nov 16 2012 As usual, MaxBuch is on the right path but is on the wrong scale. The plan should not be to wrap nuclear waste in an Aga-shell but to legitimise the entire enterprise of generating electricity from nuclear fuel by designing retrofit Aga covers for nuclear power stations: you approach by land over grim windswept moorland watching a massive polished racing green and brass form gain definition and size, until you are at the chainlink fence, now fully agog the colossal Aga rising perfectly perpendicularly from the ground, towering comfortingly over fencing, carparks, portakabins, looking for all the world like a spaceship expertly and gently landed by semi-gentrified skypilots from Planet Homesandgardens.
I have a Thing about Agas, in that I hate them and I want them to die.-- calum, Nov 16 2012 My mother has an aga, it was in the house when she moved in (possibly it has been there for at least 50 generations). She lives in a stone farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. The aga runs on coal, wood, food scraps, dog poo, body parts, whatever you stick into the furnace. It heats the entire big house on central heating and it provides the perfect oven for her non-stop baking of bread, cakes, pies, roast dinners, biscuits, shortbread, muffins, flans, tarts, pizzas, and then a brief break for lunch before starting again in the afternoon...
However anyone who doesn't bake all day and doesn't live in a big old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere deserves everything you can throw at them.-- pocmloc, Nov 16 2012 [calum], you might just have come up with the perfect design for the new Chernobyl sarcophagus.-- Wrongfellow, Nov 16 2012 I'm off to answer this question for myself, but the first thing that came to mind when I read this was "what the hell is an Aga?" It would be nice to have had that explained in the post.-- Alterother, Nov 16 2012 //"what the hell is an Aga?" It would be nice to have had that explained in the post.//
I think it was assumed that they are WKTE. I certainly would have.-- TomP, Nov 17 2012 never heard of them; fortunately context was enough to establish the possibility of "stove" or "oven".-- FlyingToaster, Nov 17 2012 I'm told that this has been baked before. Probably at control rod setting 3 for four years. [link]-- TomP, Nov 17 2012 bugger-- bs0u0155, Nov 18 2012 random, halfbakery