Gas or Electric for making your cuppa'

[Graham]

What do you use to boil your water when you have a hot drink, etc.

We guess we have 250 cups between us for the month.

For many years, we have always used an electric plastic jug kettle.
However recently, we have started using the silver "whistler" on the gas hob.

I know that it takes the same amount of "energy input" to raise the water from say, a cold 10 deg to 90 deg, or even 100 deg for tea or coffee.

My electric cost is 15,351 pence per unit (kWh)
My gas cost is 4,2105 pence per unit (kWh)
Both from same provider.

The first thing to hit home is that the electric price is almost 4 times the cost of the gas price.
Sure the electric kettle boils faster, but that doesn't concern me just now.
I am sure by using the old silver "whistler" we must be saving.

What do you think?

 

[Shayne]

I reckon the extractor over my gas hob uses far more electricity than my kettle

 

[silvercruiser]

How much wastage do you get from burning of the gas? at least the kettle has very little loss with the electricity going through the element. Just my theory though. I could be completely wrong.

 

[Graham]

How much wastage do you get from burning of the gas? at least the kettle has very little loss with the electricity going through the element. Just my theory though. I could be completely wrong.

.
I am not convinced yet.
For the water to boil, we need a fixed amount of energy.
Gas is a direct heating medium, where as electric isn't
Is an electric kettle 4 times more efficient as a gas kettle (electric is almost 4 times the cost of gas)

I don't know.

Gra

 

[Towpack]

With gas you get a lot of wasted energy in the form heated air. Just feel the heat above the kettle as the air flows out from the base and disperses.

With an electric kettle the heating element is immersed so the water immediately surrounding it will be heated first with some heat loss due to conduction and convection from the kettle body.

The most effective way of heating water directly is probably by microwave but the actual efficiency of the magnatron in converting the electricity into microwave energy then comes into the equation, plus the electricity to power the kettle and the microwave is probably generated by burning gas to start with.

My money would be on the electric kettle being the most cost effective.....just. JMO

 

[Bat21]

No gas here so we only have one choice.

 

[MuckyPup]

Surround both kettles with bread and boil them.
I'm intrigued but i'm going to hazard a guess the gas cooker heats more bread than the electric kettle.
I tried using a pan to heat water when my immersion was on the blink, it took a lot more than 4x as long but was it using 4x less?

 

[joinerman]

Never ever try and boil water in a micrwave, it doesn't actually boil with bubbles but super heats and if you insert an object into it it will explode

 

[fast but dim]

I find it saves money if you heat the water to body temperature first by putting a plastic water bottle in my armpit for an hour .

 

[chadr]

Just drink beer and cut your energy bills by more than 50% - the fridge will be on anyway, so no energy wasted!

 

[Towpack]

Never ever try and boil water in a micrwave, it doesn't actually boil with bubbles but super heats and if you insert an object into it it will explode

I agree it can be potentially dangerous although I've done it many times (mostly in the caravan) as a quick easy way of quick boiling a small amount (cupful?) of water or even re-heating a cup of tea that's gone cold but with caution. The superheating effect means it will boil at a temp higher than the normal 100 deg C. Introducing a contaminant into the water (coffee, sugar, tea etc..etc..) after it has 'boiled' effectively lowers it's boiling point instantly in much the same way as salt lowers it's freezing point, hence the 'explosion'.

 

[yogi]

It really needs a third option to be valid, I do use an electric kettle, but I also use the range burning a combination of turf and firewood!!

 

[Gary820]

Electric for me, don't think the tassimo would work well on the hob!

 

[Paul_Humphreys]

Neither, as I don't drink hot drinks!

 

[moggy1968]

Just drink beer and cut your energy bills by more than 50% - the fridge will be on anyway, so no energy wasted!

and a full fridge is an efficient fridge, so filling all the available space with beer, and keeping it topped up, actually saves you money