which is cheaper? Gas or Electricity?

strumpet

A given amount of water requires a given amount of energy to raise it by a given number of degrees centigrade, hence all things being equal it shouldn't matter what method is used to provide the energy required. A kettle may boil more quickly than a pan of water on a hob, but will be working harder for less time.;)

But all things are not equal!:mad:

Boiling a kettle is less likely to waste energy as all the energy goes into heating the water, whereas some of the energy from the hob will heat the air around the pan and not the pan. :T

Then there's the argument over which is more economical fuelwise - gas or electricity and how efficient both fuels are at getting the heat into the water. I would assume that gas was more efficient as it is direct heat, whereas electricity first has to heat the ring and is still giving off heat once the water has boiled which is wasted, whereas the gas can be turned off immediately.:mad:

Then you need to factor in the price per unit of gas / electricity and the fact that in the time it takes to boil the water, thanks to the current (no pun intended!) climate, the price has probably gone up fourfold :eek:- so you'd need to take an average. (Tongue in cheek argument here!!!)

It's not as straightforward as it first seems.

Answer: Make a sandwich instead!!!
LOL:rotfl:
Strumpet
xxx

bilibala

samtheman1k wrote: »

The price is hidden in the figures, a kettle uses 0.061 kWh of electricity which will cost around 0.061*8p/kwh = 0.488p whereas the hob uses 0.200 kWh*3.5p/kwh = 0.7p (assuming electricity costs 8p/kwh and gas costs 3.5p/kwh), so the kettle wins!

using the above equation it costs more for me to use the kettle.
my electric is 25.94p and gas 4.6p

Cardew

bilibala wrote: »

using the above equation it costs more for me to use the kettle.
my electric is 25.94p and gas 4.6p

You are quoting the tier 1 prices for gas and electricity.

The majority of your electricity and gas will be much cheaper than those figures - around 10p and 2.5p for most people.

jd87

So with the gas vs electricity argument aside, if you have an electric kettle and an electric hob, is it better to boil water in the kettle?

Cardew

jd87 wrote: »

So with the gas vs electricity argument aside, if you have an electric kettle and an electric hob, is it better to boil water in the kettle?

Without question!

HUX_2

in any comparison it is important to know what you are comparing and what is not said.

What no-one has mentioned is the quality of energy used. Electricity is high-quality energy. It can be used for a number of things, but to make it you have to burn gas or coal and then it has to be transformed, transmitted, transformed and distributed. This all takes energy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_plant so let's use this figure 40% of the energy in the gas is converted to electricity at your socket outlet. That means you wasted 60%. If you want heat, burn a lower quality energy source such as gas, put 100% of that heat underneath your stovetop kettle (not too large a flame, mind!) accept the coupling inefficiency and accept that it might be slightly more expensive - it depends who did the sums here, as to whether this is actually true. But it will be better for the environment.

DO NOT use a microwave oven to boil water. An 850W oven actually consumes twice that, about 1700W. I have measured this, the magnetron has quite a bit of cooling provided to get rid of the waste heat. You are now only using 20% of the gas burned to generate the electricity to heat your water, wasting 80%.

I hope this helps.

paceinternet

Hux, "what is not said" also is that the gas to your cooker does not just percolate from the pipe without consuming some energy to get it there. Some of it may well have come out of the ground as far away as Russia so some serious energy consuming pumping has taken place to get it to you.

And an increasing proportion of the electricity we use will have been produced from processes other than burning fossil fuels.

I have no idea of the numbers, but I hope this helps balance the discussion.

steadynerve

Some good info here on boiling water in kettle v on a gas stove.

Does anyone have info on which is cheaper on cooking on ovens/hobs gas or electric?

It would be good to have some formulas so you can plug in the price or gas and electric to keep the comparison upto date with constantly changing energy prices.