Cooking With Magnets! A Look Inside an Induction Stovetop -- The Electronics Inside 75

Stating that using electrical energy (inductance cooker) being 3 times as efficient as gas is not entirely correct. This depends on how the electricity was produced. If the electricity was produced using gas and assuming that cooking the water with gas was done here in the most efficient way of extracting energy from gas, then arguably the efficiency of cooking water with that electricity would have to be 21% at max or less.

Ah ha! Now this is an interesting question, with a genuine real life answer! Absolutely, the national grid in the UK is said to be about 30% efficient at distributing energy, and the "energy mix" of what generates that electricity varies minute to minute. As such you are absolutely correct to say this it isn't the whole picutre.

Of course, the efficiency I was refering to is from the "point of use" as it is what most people are concerned about, how their utillity bills will affect them, in which case this will still stand.

For those that do care about the whole districution efficiency too there is one key thing to consider. If I cook on gas, I can only cook on gas. It will always have the same efficiency and carbon emmissions regardless of any external factors. However, if I move to electrical cooking, then I can then look to decarbonsie and increase the efficiency of the electricity (In home PV, No fossil fuel power, wind, grid renewables, BESS etc). But until the demand is eletrical, that switch never changes.

This is also true of heating homes, getting rid of gas boilers for air source heat pumps. Also for transport, once cars go electric, you can improve eletrical generation to suit. But pertrol is petrol always!

Ah ha! Now this is an interesting question, with a genuine real life answer! Absolutely, the national grid in the UK is said to be about 30% efficient at distributing energy, and the "energy mix" of what generates that electricity varies minute to minute. As such you are absolutely correct to say this it isn't the whole picutre.

Of course, the efficiency I was refering to is from the "point of use" as it is what most people are concerned about, how their utillity bills will affect them, in which case this will still stand.

For those that do care about the whole districution efficiency too there is one key thing to consider. If I cook on gas, I can only cook on gas. It will always have the same efficiency and carbon emmissions regardless of any external factors. However, if I move to electrical cooking, then I can then look to decarbonsie and increase the efficiency of the electricity (In home PV, No fossil fuel power, wind, grid renewables, BESS etc). But until the demand is eletrical, that switch never changes.

This is also true of heating homes, getting rid of gas boilers for air source heat pumps. Also for transport, once cars go electric, you can improve eletrical generation to suit. But pertrol is petrol always!

Thanks for your reply! The fact that you had 'point of use' in mind was clear to me from the beginning. But a casual viewer might take from the video that in general electricity is 3 times as efficient as gas and take current pricing of gas and electricity (in the UK) as supporting evidence. The former is not true as you agreed with me and the latter is a logical fallacy. I'm not sure how it came about that electricity is cheaper than gas in the UK at the moment, but if e.g. the price of electricity is subsidized to get people to use less gas (which is happening in the Netherlands where I am at) and this motivates people to switch over then they might feel 'cheated' once the prices get back to 'normal'.

Electricity isn't cheaper than gas, it is nearly 3 times as expensive, but still more cost effective at heating water in a kettle and electric hob than gas and a saucepan!

FYI:

Elec Cost  0.2808 £/KWh

Gas Cost  0.09804 £/KWh

"...If I cook on gas, I can only cook on gas. It will always have the same efficiency and carbon emmissions regardless of any external factors..."

Not sure that is strictly true. Before 'natural gas' became the norm, mains gas tended to be 'coal gas'' ('town gas') and produced by heating coal to release the gas. So external factors can still come into play. You also have the choice of off-grid cooking using bottled LPG gas.

"...However, if I move to electrical cooking, then I can then look to decarbonsie and increase the efficiency of the electricity..."

Not sure that is strictly true either. If you are relying on mains supply then you generally have to take what your energy supply company provides in your region along with any distribution inefficiencies. 

At a national level then there is a choice of what sources supply the grid. At an individual level then you probably need to go off-grid to get some of that level of control (limited options for generating electricity with a lot of homes though). But you could apply the same to bottled gas whether you use choose to use propane, butane, methane, mixture etc.

"...But pertrol is petrol always..."

Unless it is synthetic 'e-fuel'...

With hydrogen you may find that gas ends up being produced using electricity, so perhaps one day the inverse of what we are seeing with the current gas-fired electricity generation.

Perhaps one thing to consider about distribution efficiency is that there could be a 'rude awakening' for the existing distribution network if there is a rapid shift from mains gas to mains electricity simultaneously with a rapid shift from petrol/diesel to electric, which appears to be the plan in the UK due to its recent policies on the sale of internal combustion engines and gas boilers in coming years. I suspect that there is a rather large infrastructure upgrade cost about to be passed onto the consumer as part of this transition.

Good response, however a slightly flawed comparison. The blending of hydrogen with natrual gas is pretty similar to the blending of petrol with synthetic fuels, where not all legacy equipment can support it. Most cars will say how much of a blend they can support in the same way modern boilers are certified to work with maximum hydrogen blend (say up to 10%). This is not the same as the change over from town gas where they went road by road upgrading burners and boilers to make the change!



But at a certain point, the fuel mix will get to a point where the legacy equipment won't work, and will need an upgrade or replacement.

The point with electricity, is that the change in fuel mix is transparent and independant of the user? If I run on 100% electricity, and the mix changes from 100% fossil fuel to 100% renewable in a week, I don't even have to know, let alone take any action?

Absolutely, being able to blend grid energy with locally generated has great advantages too since it avoids distribution losses, but not always practical for my not so sunny small plot in the UK!