Kitchen Garden Forum

Ok, not a gardening question, but hopefully you good people out there could settle an argument between my wife and I. Is it cheaper to boil an electric kettle of water, or boil a similar amount of water on the gas ring on the gas cooker? I realise that it may make a difference depending on your energy supplier.
Regards, Essexboy

Hi Essexboy,
There are several factors to take into consideration but an Electric Kettle of 2Kw with a capacity of 2L takes just over 2.5 minutes to boil. A 2L kettle on the gas takes 7 minutes on a 1.9Kw gas ring. If you work out the amount of energy consumed on each and find their unit costs will give you a definitive answer. At a guess electricity is cheaper. I am on Bottled Calor Gas so quite expensive.
JB.

Another point to bear in mind is that in an electric kettle the heating element is in the water itself to that all the energy goes to the water and very little energy is lost to the surroundings. With gas the heat energy is conducted from the flame through the pan to the water and then it has to be circulated mainly by convection through the water. Even though gas is cheaper than electricity I'd say that boiling water by gas is a very wasteful process as so much of the energy from the burning gas is lost to the surrounding air.

John

Ah, so that is what men think about. Quite interesting though!

Woman's viewpoint - only boil enough water in your electric kettle to fill your mug, which only takes a few seconds. If you use a teabag instead of loose tea, you can pull it out and use it a second time if you want another one.

Someone told me that if you only boil exactly the amount of water you need, you are much more likely to burn out the element in your kettle. I don't know if it's true, as I can't say I know anyone who has ever burnt out the element. Has this ever happened to any of you?

caz wrote:Someone told me that if you only boil exactly the amount of water you need, you are much more likely to burn out the element in your kettle. I don't know if it's true, as I can't say I know anyone who has ever burnt out the element. Has this ever happened to any of you?

Only if you have a kettle with an exposed element like this and you don't put in enough water to cover it.

If you have a modern kettle like this the element is built into the base and any amount of water will cover it.

Hi Alan - that was quick!

I'll take your word for it, as I'm a complete technophobe

Though, if I remember rightly, I was told that the damage was done if you totally emptied the kettle as it boiled, leaving it empty when the element was at its hottest. Would that also only apply to an exposed element?
I love this forum, you can get answers to all those things you always wanted to know!

Primrose, I like the one about saving the teabag for another go. When I was at work the person making the tea got a little too economical with the tea bags and made tea for 12 people with one tea bag. One man was heard to say "What is this, witch piss?"