12

According to an article on howstuffworks.com and several other online sources, electric stoves are generally less energy-efficient than gas stoves, since it requires "about three times as much energy" to produce and deliver electricity to a stove.

But the article does not provide any evidence for this claim, and I have found other sources that seem to contradict it, claiming that electric induction stoves are generally more energy-efficient than gas stoves.

Has it ever been proven that electric stoves require "three times as much energy" as gas stoves?

Anderson Green
  • 221
  • 1
  • 5
  • 8
    One thing to note is depending on the energy source and how much pollution it creates something that uses less energy can produce more pollution. – Joe W Jan 18 '23 at 21:19
  • 6
    Using electricity from gas-fired generating stations as a source of heat is very inefficient: the gas burned by the gas stove is 100% converted into heat, while at the station the gas is used to boil water which is used to turn a turbine which is used to turn a generator which provides electricity which is converted to super high transmission voltage, which is carried through wires over long distances to a transformer which converts it to high distribution voltage, which is carried to a transformer which lowers the voltage, which goes into your house, and every single step loses some energy. – Ray Butterworth Jan 18 '23 at 21:57
  • 10
    @RayButterworth it’s not that obvious. With gas stoves, the last step also loses quite a lot of energy (most of the heat generated does not actually heat up your food, although it might heat up your kitchen, which is good in the winter but bad in the summer). See [this video](https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c). – Dan Romik Jan 18 '23 at 22:20
  • 7
    @DanRomik, I'm not going to spend 25 minutes watching something on YouTube that could have been summarized here in a few words. – Ray Butterworth Jan 19 '23 at 03:11
  • 1
    @RayButterworth okay, don’t watch it then… – Dan Romik Jan 19 '23 at 04:42
  • 13
    The howthingswork.com article you linked to compared traditional coil-based (non-induction) electric ranges to gas. The last article to which you linked compared electric induction ranges to gas. There's a huge difference between coil-based electric ranges and electric induction ranges. – David Hammen Jan 19 '23 at 07:15
  • 3
    Is your question about energy efficient confined within the household or from the source. And do you mean old electric stoves or induction? This alters the answer in many ways. A clear and easy answer within households is Induction>Gas>Electric. Answers about how energy is supplied is a moot point IMO, because this is subject to change and also differs from regions. And quite simply, is a different argument, because most people want cost-efficient use of energy within the household. – Timmetje Jan 19 '23 at 09:39
  • @DanRomik That video is about immersion heating, not comparing electric to gas. – barbecue Jan 19 '23 at 17:16
  • Within electric non-induction, there is also a difference between capacitive plate and glass-ceramic. – gerrit Jan 19 '23 at 17:54
  • 1
    @barbecue the video compares different methods of boiling water (electric kettle, gas stove, electric stove) and discusses the relative efficiency of each method. So yes, it contains the information I was referring to (though admittedly it is fairly long to watch). – Dan Romik Jan 20 '23 at 08:01
  • @Timmetje your comment could be expanded into a good answer for the question. – barbecue Jan 20 '23 at 13:39
  • Yeah sorry, rushed an answer and it got deleted because I was lazy :) – Timmetje Jan 24 '23 at 07:15
  • I've had several very different electric stoves in my life, and I'm pretty convinced some of them were much less efficient than gas stoves, and some others were much more efficient than gas stoves. – Stef Jan 25 '23 at 09:11
  • Electric induction stoves are a more recent development. Much more common and still in use are the electric coil ones, so maybe the contradiction is a matter of timing and updating. The howstuffworks article is specifically referring to the coil stovetops. – PoloHoleSet Jan 26 '23 at 20:24
  • How do households we use mainly solar power factor into this? South Africa has an increasing amount of these houses. – Neil Meyer Mar 09 '23 at 18:13

2 Answers2

11

Depends on how you make and distribute your electricity

This paper states that induction, conventional electric, and gas are 90%, 72%, and 40% efficient respectively at point of use.

The efficiency of the grid depends on the efficiency of both generation, which depends on the fuel source and the operating conditions and age of the generator, and transmission/distribution which depends on the network configuration and overall demand.

While it is impossible to pick a number for this as it is dynamic, we can work out what it needs to be to make electricity more efficient than gas. For induction it is 44% and for conventional it is 56%.

Most modern grids will always be better than 44% efficient. In a few decades, smart grids and increasing renewable generation will make them better than 55%.

So, in general, the claim is not true, induction stoves are overall more energy efficient that gas stoves.

If you are considering greenhouse gas emissions, things get more complicated again because while gas stoves always use gas, electric stoves use a range of fuels - coal, gas, renewables - in ever changing proportions.

Dale M
  • 1,325
  • 9
  • 12
  • 1
    TBH that paper is a bit shady. I'm not sure what "infrastructure limitations" they had that all electric appliances were tested indoors at 21C but the gas one was apparently tested outdoors at 10C. Since the goal was to heat some water to the boiling point, the testing conditions obviously have an effect on measured efficiency. – Fizz Jan 21 '23 at 01:06
  • In a wishy-washy demo they even say "It can be reasonably expected that the cooking efficiency of the gas range measured at 50° is somewhat lower than if tested at 70° F. As such, the results of gas efficiency testing should not be directly compared with the electric technologies. However, these results are useful for illustrating the relative efficiency of gas technology." – Fizz Jan 21 '23 at 01:14
  • Even more dubiously they claim "conventional electric coil was found to be 6% more efficient than induction cooking when measured with the large cooking vessel". TBH I suspect their vessel was a rather poor inductor. Induction cookers are fairly sensitive to the alloy/metal that makes the pot. Anyhow, even for conventional electric they report a large variation depending on the diameter of the pot relative to the heating element: "Average cooking efficiency of conventional electric technology lies somewhere between the 42% and 83% measured in this testing." – Fizz Jan 21 '23 at 01:18
  • But the simple fact is, that if the electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels at a generating station, the heat delivered to the cooking pot can't possibly be as efficient as burning the fuel where the pot actually is. – Ray Butterworth Jan 21 '23 at 15:08
  • 3
    There is an additional data point that isn't included in these links. Multiple studies, such as [this](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.2c02581) point out that a significant amount of gas leaks from the stove when it is not turned on. In addition to being a health hazard this needs to be accounted for in overall efficiency. – doneal24 Jan 21 '23 at 15:09
  • 3
    @RayButterworth that’s not true. A gas cooker is about 40% efficient. A gas power station is about 60% efficient. The former is a small naked flame directly heating a pot, the latter is a huge furnace superheating steam to turn a turbine. The energy transfer process is completely different and so is the efficiency. – Dale M Jan 21 '23 at 21:58
  • *"While it is impossible to pick a number for this as it is dynamic, we can work out what it needs to be to make electricity more efficient than gas. For induction it is 44% and for conventional it is 56%."* There are many pronouns in these sentences and I have no idea what they mean. What is "this"? What is "it"? And what are those percentages? – Stef Jan 25 '23 at 09:12
  • @Stef IT are just the efficiency values that a gas power plant would need to reach in order to make make the path gas->powerplant->electric->stove->heat->pot more efficient than the more direct path gas->stove->heat->pot – Carl Berger Feb 22 '23 at 10:22
4

Dale M wrote the answer I would've.

But why are we talking about energy efficiency? Typically it's in the context of reducing carbon emissions, which actually is a topic of climate change. (Let's set aside the question of whether climate change is real, which is way outside the scope of this answer).

If it's about climate change, there's a game-changing wrinkle.

The wrinkle is that *methane leaked into the atmosphere is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. (some sources say 80 times).

So even if a correctly run gas stove warms food with less CO2 emission than using gas at the power plant to make electricity to run a coil or inductor....... the gas leakage in the delivery pipes works against any climate-change benefit. It's common - really. Everyone who looks finds thousands of them.

Like car accidents, these are endemic but invisible, because they are not newsworthy (unlike large pipeline breaks).

The problem is intractable because delivering gas to every home requires countless thousands of miles of piping, very little of which is practically possible to inspect or maintain internally. This contrasts with the piping to natural gas power plants, which is quite large, regularly inspected and serviced, and is easy to run an inspection "pig" down. Gas losses at the fields is another matter, but at least can be regulated.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
  • 985
  • 6
  • 9
  • Just eliminating the stove would hardly reduce methane leakage because most houses and businesses that have gas stoves have gas heat, gas hot water and often gas clothes dryer and gas fireplace. – DavePhD Jan 23 '23 at 14:09
  • Obligatory [Tom Scott](https://youtu.be/u9FVoDiuq6Q) video - turns out that gas leaks are responsible for regular manhole explosions in London. – jaskij Jan 24 '23 at 18:24
  • @DavePhD well then let's address those, too :) – Carl Berger Feb 22 '23 at 10:26
  • Exactly. Some cities have electrification strategies which call for replacing all of it. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 22 '23 at 22:49