by ericmark »
Sun Nov 20, 2016 12:37 pm
With a modern electric induction hob, all the power goes into the pan, non into the kitchen, so although gas per kWatt/hour is cheaper, with gas much of the heat goes into the kitchen not into the food. So very likely electric induction is cheaper than gas to run.
I did an experiment, daughter has gas and I saw her boil a kettle then fill the pan, I asked why she did this, she demonstrated how her 2.8kW kettle was faster than her 5.5kW gas hob. So on return home I repeated the experiment with my induction hob, 2.8 kW kettle and 3 kW hob took the same time.
This means that over half the power from a gas hob is wasted, so likely they will work out about the same price to run as gas is so much cheaper.
However electric is now more controllable as long as it has knobs, not a silly touch control, The touch control spoils many electric hobs, they are slow to react, hard to see specially if in a wheel chair, may look good, but are useless to use.
However the rest of the features that come with induction hobs are good, auto switch off when pan is removed, auto switch down or off if over heated, surface cooler so less likely to burn, auto boil then simmer, no naked flame, completely flat so less chance of a pan tipping and falling, easy clean, will not blow out even if set low enough just to melt chocolate.