Patent ID: 8843242

Claim:
An electromechanically controlled cooking appliance comprising: one or more power consuming element including at least one of a surface heating unit for surface cooking and an oven heating unit for heating a cooking cavity; at least one of an infinite switch and a thermostat for controlling the energization of a surface heating unit and an oven beating element respectively; a control configured to receive and process a signal indicative of the current state of an associated utility including a peak demand state and an off-peak demand state and operate the cooking appliance in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal; at least one of said power consuming elements operating at a lower power level when in the energy saving mode than in the normal operating mode; and a first element status sensor adapted to provide feedback to said control indicative of whether a given one of said one or more power consuming elements is in use, wherein at the conclusion of an energy savings mode, said control is configured to use said feedback to determine when to restore said given of said one or more power consuming elements to its normal mode power level; wherein upon receiving feedback indicating that said given one of said one or more power consuming elements is in use at the conclusion of a peak demand state period, said control is configured to maintain the enemy savings mode power level for at least said given one of said one or more power consuming elements until feedback indicates that said given one of said one or more power consuming elements is no longer in use.