Abstract: An appliance for a hotplate has two heating devices installed parallel to one another. With an energy control device and as a function of an angular position, either a first heating device is operated in controlled manner or a second heating device is connected thereto in fixed form. The power of the second heating device is defined so low that no temperature limiter for protecting a glass ceramic plate has to be provided in the control path of the second heating device. On connecting in the second heating device, the controlled power of the first heating device is lowered to an initial value by roughly the amount of the power of the second heating device. The total power results from the summated power of the two heating devices.