Kettle on Gas vs Electric Kettle

QuestionsQuestions13

I know this probably sounds like a very small thing but with energy bills having gone through the roof I'm looking for anything to save some money.  I've turned down the thermostat and even with two of us working from home, rarely have the heating on in the day but I've been boiling a camping kettle for tea and hot water bottles on our gas stovetop and I'm wondering if it would cut bills if we switched to an electric kettle.  Does anyone know?  Thanks for your help.

Grumpy_chap

QuestionsQuestions13 said:

I know this probably sounds like a very small thing but with energy bills having gone through the roof I'm looking for anything to save some money.  I've turned down the thermostat and even with two of us working from home, rarely have the heating on in the day but I've been boiling a camping kettle for tea and hot water bottles on our gas stovetop and I'm wondering if it would cut bills if we switched to an electric kettle.  Does anyone know?  Thanks for your help.

With an electric kettle, all the energy goes into heating the water, bar a very small amount if there is an LED light.

With a kettle on a gas hob, some of the energy escapes directly into heating the air around the kettle.

With both types, the biggest money saving point is to only boil the amount of water you need and no more.

With both types, the kettle itself and residual water retains heat which slowly dissipates to the air around.

Heating just a mug of water in the microwave may use even less energy?

ChaunceyGardiner

When using the gas hob, a lot of heat escapes up the sides of the kettle, although that will heat the room rather than be wasted. On the other hand, a stove top kettle has no minimum fill level, so you can avoid boiling more than you need for a small cup. I'd imagine it works out about the same.

QrizB

^ In addition to Grumpy_chap's reply:

Electricity is currently 5x the price of gas so you can afford to lose 80% of it and still spend less heating your stove-top kettle than your electric one.

In the winter, when you're heating the house, the "waste" heat from the stove isn't really wasted; it offsets the heat you'd otherwise need to supply from your central heating. So I suspect that, holistically, boiling a kettle on your gas hob will cost less than boiling an electric kettle.

In the summer, when you aren't heating your house, the waste heat serves no useful purpose.

We had a thread on this a few months ago; I'll add a link once I've found it.

QrizB

Here's the thread from October:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6301608/cost-of-boiling-water-in-kettle-vs-gas-hob

But it's quite a common question on the forum, it appears.

DiseasedBunny

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

QuestionsQuestions13

Grumpy_chap said:

QuestionsQuestions13 said:

I know this probably sounds like a very small thing but with energy bills having gone through the roof I'm looking for anything to save some money.  I've turned down the thermostat and even with two of us working from home, rarely have the heating on in the day but I've been boiling a camping kettle for tea and hot water bottles on our gas stovetop and I'm wondering if it would cut bills if we switched to an electric kettle.  Does anyone know?  Thanks for your help.

With an electric kettle, all the energy goes into heating the water, bar a very small amount if there is an LED light.

With a kettle on a gas hob, some of the energy escapes directly into heating the air around the kettle.

With both types, the biggest money saving point is to only boil the amount of water you need and no more.

With both types, the kettle itself and residual water retains heat which slowly dissipates to the air around.

Heating just a mug of water in the microwave may use even less energy?

Thank you. That's really helpful.

QuestionsQuestions13

ChaunceyGardiner said:

When using the gas hob, a lot of heat escapes up the sides of the kettle, although that will heat the room rather than be wasted. On the other hand, a stove top kettle has no minimum fill level, so you can avoid boiling more than you need for a small cup. I'd imagine it works out about the same.

Thanks for your help.

QuestionsQuestions13

QrizB said:

Here's the thread from October:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6301608/cost-of-boiling-water-in-kettle-vs-gas-hob

But it's quite a common question on the forum, it appears.

Thank you very much. That's great. Will have a look.

QuestionsQuestions13

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

QrizB said:

Here's the thread from October:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6301608/cost-of-boiling-water-in-kettle-vs-gas-hob

But it's quite a common question on the forum, it appears.

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

DiseasedBunny said:

Plus don’t forget, if you try and heat the electric kettle on the gas job it will melt 

  

Captainkirk54

It takes the same amount of heat energy to boil one pint of water, but it takes far more electrical energy to supply that heat energy than gas.

Electrical energy is far more expensive than gas - so gas is the cheapest unless you are boiling only small quantities.

People who were unfortunate enough to have old storage heaters will tell you how much more expensive they were compared to gas to heat a house, but the power cable supplying modern houses are not large enough for whole house storage heating.

There are electric boilers which can be used as a direct replacement for a central heating gas boilers but for the average three bedroom house they would be 30kw. That level of power is not available to houses or in the street cables.

In 2019 after the prohibition of gas boilers was suggested a price study was undertaken which calculated that electricity prices would have to be reduced by 78% to compare with gas central heating prices at that time, so even if the electrical power was available we would never afford it in the future