My Cluny’s warming oven is electric.

Hu, thanks for the response. I"m a bit unclear though. The Cluny is a double oven and yes, one of them is electric, but I thought that was different from the warming cabinet in the Volney.

I thought the electric oven in the Cluny was a full oven when you can heat up the electric heat to temperatures similar to the gas oven beside it.

Whereas the warming cabinet in the Volney can not exceed 110F, and is just for low temperature applications like crock pot cooking, proofing bread etc.

What do you think?

@johnmnoble --

you might have better luck getting a quick and accurate answer by contacting vendors who handle Lacanche stoves, such as The French Barn or Art Culinaire. Maybe you've already done that?

FWIW, serveral years ago, I tried finding electrical specs for a friend interested in such stoves and turned up this publication on the electrical requirements for Lacanche ranges: https://www.frenchranges.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SIL-Power-Specifications.pdf 

Dunno if this is still current but, as best I can recall, the gas burner & gas oven Volnay/Vouget models had a "G" in the model number and there are separate listings for those with and without warming cabinets.

From that, it seems that the warming cabinets (like warming drawers on most major-brand ranges) are electrical but run off a standard 120v power rather than requiring a 240v line that would be beyond most home solar systems. That seems to answer your question about how the warming cabinets work.

As for whether they can be used with off-the-grid solar PV and battery systems (and presumably, a back-up generator for cloudy days and late nights), according to page 8 of these charts, the "G" model ranges with a warming cabinet draw a maximum of 4.1 Amps and 922 watts with everything running and the warming cabinet on full power. For comparison, hand-held blow dryers can pull 15 amps and 1800 watts. Check with your solar contractor to find out if your new house's system can handle such loads and for how long.

@johnmnoble

I have a cluny 1400. One gas and one electric oven + warming cupboard.

Verbo, thanks for the tip about Bluestar. I'll check them out. I'm new to Houzz, but your description is Pro. Does that mean you work in the industry?

Yeah, the Lavanche vs Bluestar may be a heart vs head decision.

And JW that was very helpful about the power draw. Exactly on point.

That's what I was hoping, that the warming cabinet draws very little. I call my place a cabin, but it's more than that, and has pretty good solar.

But no way could it handle a full 240V Cluny electrical oven.

But a mere warming cabinet that only goes 80F to 230F, I'm sure it can do that.

I"m meeting with Lavanche sales this week. Of course they'll say it's great.

I had a good chat with my solar installer. I'm going to avoid the warming oven. At almost a thousand watts per hour, if I run it for a couple hours that is two kilowatts.

It gets dark early in hawaii and I'll be cooking with the sun down, so have to rely on the batteries. Sometimes I'll be fine but sometimes I won't. And running a generator in the middle of a dinner party isn't cool.

I'll get a single gas oven.

Thanks for your assistance.

Hello @johnmnoble,

I am just seeing your post now. The warming cupboard on all our models is electric, it pulls approx. 4.5 Amps and requires 230V.

I'm not familiar enough with solar to know if this would be possible or not. A "safer" choice of course would be an all-gas range, like the 40" Cluny, or Volnay if you want ot have the large oven but with a storage cupboard only (not warming).

I hope that helps.

Patrick