Gas or induction cheapest to run?

teddysmum

Cardew wrote: »

I think you are referring to conventional electric hobs - not induction hobs.

I haven't used my induction hob yet, so assumed it would be the same as the present halogen hob, but know my husband won't be reprimanding me for putting a pan on too large a ring, as induction only heats the metal contact area.

HappyMJ

teddysmum wrote: »

After using electric for many years, I found having to use two hands to ignite a gas hob rather annoying, as it meant putting down any item being held.


Not a big issue, but another item in favour of electric hobs.

Two hands? For the last 30 years or so I've auto-ignition gas hobs. Just turn it on and the burner lights itself. That one also had auto-reignition. However, the last gas hob I installed had a flame failure device to turn the gas off if the flame goes out.

macman

I don't dispute that an induction hob is more efficient, but I can't see how this would possibly make it cheaper, given that you will typically be paying 250% more per kWh for electricity than gas if on a single rate meter. If you are on E7 the gap is even wider, unless you happen to do all your cooking after midnight.
Electric heating is likewise more efficient than gas CH, but that doesn't make it cheaper to run, because the fuel cost is so much higher. Two different things.
Many people certainly prefer induction hobs for the various reasons given above, but the OP's specific question was whether they are cheaper to run.
Having said all that, the proportion of your annual energy usage accounted for by a hob is relatively tiny-you'd save much more by turning the CH down 1C than by choosing a cheaper to run hob.

Cardew

macman wrote: »

I don't dispute that an induction hob is more efficient, but I can't see how this would possibly make it cheaper, given that you will typically be paying 250% more per kWh for electricity than gas if on a single rate meter.

This has been discussed before and IIRC someone found a report favouring induction.


Whilst gas is cheaper, there is a huge amount of heat loss into the hob and utensils. I would wager also that with gas you will spend far more on cleaning materials, than any potential savings.


However as you say cooking on a hob by either method is cheap and a few percentage points either way hardly matters.

T_Watts

From a physics point of view, gas has approx 40% efficient transfer to the pan, induction has approx 80% efficient transfer to the pan. However gas is approx 3x cheaper than electricity per unit of heat. This makes gas cooking 2/3 (66%) the cost of induction cooking.
An advantage or disadvantage of induction is that there is less waste heat- 20% waste for induction vs 60% wasted for gas (so that's 3x more waste heat with gas). If you are running a hot industrial kitchen then waste heat can be an issue. However, if it's winter and you want to heat your house anyway then the waste heat is welcome.

phillw

T_Watts wrote: »

However, if it's winter and you want to heat your house anyway then the waste heat is welcome.

Some people close their kitchen door to avoid the cooking smells from going through the house & then open a window to stop the kitchen from turning into a sauna. It can turn into a bigger argument than following someone round the house turning off light and power switches behind them.

DAV1962

this thread is inspiring
:j

reeac

Londoner_1 wrote: »

Induction is good but its only good for certain type of food and for the western pallete. Asian food does not cook well on it as asian foods needs to be thoroughly cooked.

Heat is heat, whatever the source.... the food won't know what the source is.

T_Watts

From the analysis above it's clear that gas is still cheaper to run than induction. Gas is 2/3 the running cost of induction. Or to put it the opposite way around, induction costs 50% more to run than gas.

If you don't have mains gas, or your kitchen gets too hot, get induction.
If you do have mains gas, use it. It's still the cheapest.

Pincher

Don't forget, you can have BOTH.

https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/cooking/hobs/gas-induction/_/N-admZ1z0dnb2