Kettle on Gas vs Electric Kettle

Sandtree

Captainkirk54 said:

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.

You are totally forgetting to factor in the efficiency of an electrical heating element submerged in the water -v- a gas flame sitting under a pan.  There will be massively more of the energy used in the gas lost to the room rather than heating the water than an electric kettle. Is that sufficient to offset the cost difference in the energy? Probably not but it does actually depend on the OP's tariffs

The comparison to central heating is poor as gas boilers are massively more efficient in comparison to a hob (90% -v- 40%) 

QrizB

Captainkirk54 said:

It takes the same amount of heat energy to boil one pint of water

True ...

 but it takes far more electrical energy to supply that heat energy than gas.

Not true.

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

True.

Captainkirk54 said:

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.

Not true, not true, not true.

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 

If a study reached that conclusion it was making the wrong assumptions.

PennineAcute

5 year ago, using my In Home Display, it took 115w of electricity to boil a mug of water.  Boiling the same amount of water took 175w of gas. 

Needless to say, I have been using my gas cooker to boil my water for brews ever since.

jbryce

Captainkirk54 said:

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 

Electric heaters are 100% efficient. An open flame gas heater is about 28% efficient. When you consider that pretty much all of the heat from a kettle will go into the water, and not so much of the gas heat will, electric is likely to be cheaper even if it is 5 x more expensive.

Ectophile

jbryce said:

Captainkirk54 said:

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 

Electric heaters are 100% efficient. An open flame gas heater is about 28% efficient. When you consider that pretty much all of the heat from a kettle will go into the water, and not so much of the gas heat will, electric is likely to be cheaper even if it is 5 x more expensive.

That doesn't add up.  Gas and electricity would be equally expensive if a gas kettle was only 20% efficient.

maisie_cat

DiseasedBunny said:

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

My husband actually did that and destroyed a perfectly good Dualit kettle

Sandtree

Ectophile said:

jbryce said:

Captainkirk54 said:

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 

Electric heaters are 100% efficient. An open flame gas heater is about 28% efficient. When you consider that pretty much all of the heat from a kettle will go into the water, and not so much of the gas heat will, electric is likely to be cheaper even if it is 5 x more expensive.

That doesn't add up.  Gas and electricity would be equally expensive if a gas kettle was only 20% efficient.

Who says it isnt? It'll come down heavily on your current tariffs, if you are still under a historic electricity price but have only recently signed up on a new gas tarriff then its more probable that the gas mechanism is going to be more expensive than electric.

That said, most figures I've seen for gas hobs is closer to 40% efficient rather than 28% plus it clearly depends on your use too... put a tiny kettle on the largest burner and you'll lose more heat warming the air than if it were on a burner of an appropriate size for the kettle

greyteam1959

Has the OP looked at one cup water boilers ??
https://www.argos.co.uk/sd/one-cup-water-boiler/

Spies

I'm going to try this later when my heating goes off so I can an accurate gas reading. 

Spies

The half hour reading on my Gas smart meter has updated so we have results.

These workings are based on unit prices of 20p/kWh for Electricity and 4p/kWh for Gas.

500ml of cold water, enough for 2 cups of tea took 5 minutes to boil on the gas stove, that was using a small milk pan with a lid over the top, this used 0.19kWh of gas, costing 0.76p

The same test using an electric kettle, which ran at ~2800w for 1 minute 24 seconds, used 0.0715kWh of electricity at a cost of 1.43p