Is there a good reason why I can't set my oven below 200F?
Or almost every oven commercially available, for that matter?
I am trying to keep the oven warm to rise some bread and I'm wondering if it's a pointlessly frustrating process or if there is any reason for this?
Slide a cookie sheet in the bottom of the oven and fill it with boiling water, close the door. You don't need to cover the dough using this method. It will always proof in the same amount of time. Anytime you want to talk about yeast fermentation, I'm your guy.
If I had to wager a guess I would expect that they are trying to prevent people from undercooking their food and ending up with food poisoning.
I think a cheap gas powered oven would have difficulty regulating to anything too low. Mine acts like an HVAC system. It clicks on an off to stay at the desired temp. There is no high/low/mid setting to the flame, which is large and in small space. My guess is that this leads to large temp swings where low settings can’t be accurately maintained.
Not a problem with my oven which starts at 30C (86F) in 5 deg steps.
I guess they are using some cheaper components that are specified only for a temperature range above 200F.
My ovens all had a row of burners. Maybe the maker does not want invest in the engineering required to make a subset of the burners fire below a certain temperature, so they instead make the lowest temperature the temperature the burners can achieve in unison at a low flow.
Mine (white, electric, Frigidaire) goes to 170F. Maybe you need a cheaper oven.
For me, keeping the light in the oven on keeps it bit warm.
I haven't measured the temperature though. YMMV.
My Dacor oven goes down to 100 F.