Induction vs Gas Hob?

Raitken70 · 24 May 2022 at 10:48AM

At the energy prices in the latest Standard Variable Tariff, does anyone know definitively whether an electric induction hob or a gas hob is cheaper to use?

Sandtree · 24 May 2022 at 11:32AM

Induction hobs are about 85-90% efficient and gas is about 40% so as long as your gas kWh rate is notably less than half your electricity price then gas is the cheaper. That said, if you use a ring that's far too big for your pan that 40% efficiency can drop dramatically.

wild666 · 24 May 2022 at 12:02PM

I've used both gas and electric to cook and my monthly cooking and heating bill on gas was £45 to £75 per month but then I was wasteful with energy over 10 years ago. Now my daily usage on my electric oven or single induction hob plate is around 600W per day, around 4.2 kWh per week, £1.15 per week, present prices. I did get a BG bill whilst I had a gas cooker saying that in 12 months I'd used around £120 using the gas cooker, I'm not certain but it was over £100 in 12 months, that's roughly £2.30 per week.
I do prefer induction to any other form of cooker but I won't be replacing the ceramic hob cooker any time soon.

Raitken70 · 27 May 2022 at 9:47AM

Thank you for your replies. That's very helpful. Am about to switch from an expiring fixed price energy contract to an SVT and so far as I can see (without having had the official documentation yet for the new deal) the gas rate is still well less than half the electricity rate, so should be good to stick with my gas hob, then need to recheck when SVT goes up again in October.

matelodave · 27 May 2022 at 10:15AM

There's not really any point in swapping gas for electric cooking (or vice versa) to save money as the cost of the hob and installation will probably wipe out any perceived savings.

As said above, leccy costs around 3 times as much as gas, but an induction hob is much more efficient than gas so the gap between the energy costs narrows quite a bit. An induction hob is easily as controllable as gas. It's much cleaner as there's no condensation from burning gas and food or spillages don't burn onto the hob.

Over the years we've had all sorts, gas, ceramic, halogen and induction and by far the easiest, cleanest and most efficient is induction.

Patr100 · 27 May 2022 at 10:37AM

Bear in mind as well you can set a timer on the Induction hob once you have predictable results that you can repeat while gas hobs cannot (as far as I know) so you can avoid over heating/cooking and wasting energy with the induction hob.

FrankRizzo · 27 May 2022 at 10:47AM

Does anyone know what kind of things break on Gas hobs?

Just curious as induction would expensive to replace if it breaks.

Sandtree · 27 May 2022 at 10:58AM

FrankRizzo said:

Does anyone know what kind of things break on Gas hobs?

Gas leak... obv could have a catastrophic impact if not detected/fixed
Ignition system fails... can always use a lighter or such
Thermocouple fails... normally a ring by ring issue, ring cuts out as soon as you release the ignition system
Glass/ceramic gas... you can break the glass just the same as an electric hob

Generally much simpler devices to induction as also indicated by their lower sales price

Clearly some high end brands add more electronic functions to gas hobs which all have the potential to fail... in most gas hobs if the flame goes out the thermocouple will cut the gas supply quickly as the temp falls as a safety measure but some high end gas hobs instead will self reignite instead. Probably then have the double whammy of it being something a bit esoteric that your average gas person hasn't seen/doesnt carry the part so have to pay for the appropriate brand engineer with their higher fees

SAC2334 · 27 May 2022 at 11:46AM

I ve had the thermocouple pack in on the gas oven . The oven is not usable when that happens .

It looked very difficult to replace so I bought a very cheap used gas gooker same make and model and the oven door seal broke in half on that making the oven lose a lot of heat .

New oven door seals not available anywhere for my make /model and the universal ones don t work well so I ended up making a new connector to join the two half's out of a screw which has worked well.