Electric Kettle Vs Gas Kettle

[geoff]

I would shop around for a modern, efficient electric kettle
Ask around for information on saving money/energy, there seem to be loads of councils, quangos, or even your electricity and gas suppliers just waiting to bombard you with leaflets

[Bigmallly]

I often wonder if boiling mugs of water in the microwave is cheaper than a kettle but unsure of the safety side. Don't want to drop/spill boiling water.

[Alison]

I often wonder if boiling mugs of water in the microwave is cheaper than a kettle but unsure of the safety side. Don't want to drop/spill boiling water.

Don't know about the energy side of it but mircowaved water doesn't make good tea.

[Jillyreeves]

If you are thinking of getting an Eco Kettle its a bit cheaper here

Eco Kettle - Kettles - Small kitchen appliances - Home electrical - Home & garden - Sainsbury’s

Looking at it on another site and it claims a 100 pound saving on electric in 3 years of use, so in theory it would pay for its self in a year. Yet another site says it save seven pounds a year ????

[RedThorn]

As stated, the same amount of energy to heat irrelevant on the type (gas or electric). Based on that, gas would be cheaper. However there is another factor to this and that is how effectively is the energy used? so unfortunately, I'm not so sure that gas is as efficient as an electric kettle in energy transfer.

[Nicos]

I always seemed to scorch t-towels when I used my one on the gas hob!

[Eco-Chic]

It takes so much longer to boil water on gas than by electricity that I know I would wander off to do something and totally forget that the kettle was boiling its head off for ages.

I boil enough water for one cup then refill the kettle so the hot element warms the cold water ready for the next brew.

[Glutton4...]

I can only compare the two when we are caravanning. Gas is quicker, but we use the electric one when we have mains hook-up as we've already paid for it and it saves our gas for when we don't have mains.

My sister had a lovely stainless steel Gas kettle for her old hob, it had a lovely old-fashioned spiral handle. I have a strange and unexplainable loathing of plastic kettles!

[northepaul]

Thanks for all the very wise opinions guys, I shall definately give it some more thought.
Other than stopping everyone using the electric shower I cant see how we are getting through so much electricity...

[BFG]

Gas is usually around 1/3 of the price of electricity per unit. That gives it a big advantage.

A stove isn't as efficient in getting the heat into the water, as there are losses from the sides, but the losses are heat to the room, so really if your heatings on, it's not actually a loss.

So, if your heatings on anyway, gas is effectively 100% efficient and 1/3 the price.

Having said all that, kettles are relatively inexpensive and probably won't be contributing significantly to your high bills. Assuming a 2KW kettle takes 3 minutes to boil and electricity is 10p KW/H, it would cost 1p to boil.

Do you have an immersion heater on? tumble drier? Any very old fridges or freezers? What rates are you paying for your electricity?