What ideas have you had for reducing Electricity consumption

[John Brown]

Just use a 5amp wifi one to control a contactor coil, sky's the limit switching Amps wise then

I wasn't suggesting you couldn't do it. Just making the point that a commonly available WiFi switch, such as the Sonoff, wouldn't be up to the job.

 

[NormanB]

We got one about two months ago, as you say it is so quick, an inch of water will boil within seconds. Simmering is a breeze as well as it is far easier to control.
And all through a 13amp fuse.

I suspect it uses the same amount of energy as anything else (gas/conventional electric) measured in KW/hr. It is physics after all.

In fact if the induction boils the same amount of water faster it could actually be using more energy.

 

[NormanB]

Agreed, if it can go on the line it does, but with kids that's not always practical. The point being though that a "normal" tumble dryer will cost you anything up to 90p per run at the moment, whereas a decent heat pump version is less than 15p

That implies a coefficient of performance of 6.0 - which is rather difficult to believe, whereas 4.0 might be.

 

[Yojevol]

KW/hr

No , it's KW.hr aka a Unit
It's Power times Time, not Power divided by Time

In fact if the induction boils the same amount of water faster it could actually be using more energy.

How come?
The faster the heat transfer the shorter the time for energy to escape the system

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I understood induction hobs were more efficient as the heat only the pan and not the surrounding area.

 

[mikej460]

You still need the same amount of energy but induction heat up time is comparable to gas so the savings are the energy lost whist the electric element reaches the right temperature. Also if you take a pan off part way through cooking an induction hob instantly switches off whereas an electric hob (or gas for that matter) doesn't.

 

[mikej460]

I understood induction hobs were more efficient as the heat only the pan and not the surrounding area.

Correct, but only if the pan is smaller than the electric ring.

 

[Oldman]

I found this interesting re running costs. Is an Induction Hob Expensive to Run? (Average UK Running Costs in 2022) - Chef's Pick

 

[John Brown]

I found this interesting re running costs. Is an Induction Hob Expensive to Run? (Average UK Running Costs in 2022) - Chef's Pick

There's a ton of irrelevant information there, the only interesting bit is the cost to boil a pan of water. Obviously gas is cheaper, but that's because err.. gas is cheaper.
We bought induction because we have grandchildren of various sizes, and I'm getting to the stage where I might set fire to myself(a good friend of ours set her clothing on fire and sustained serious burns, and she's not infirm or a dementia sufferer). Also, when we decided to buy induction, we didn't know that prices were going to shoot up!

 

[Jacob]

There's a ton of irrelevant information there, the only interesting bit is the cost to boil a pan of water. Obviously gas is cheaper, but that's because err.. gas is cheaper.
We bought induction because we have grandchildren of various sizes, and I'm getting to the stage where I might set fire to myself(a good friend of ours set her clothing on fire and sustained serious burns, and she's not infirm or a dementia sufferer). Also, when we decided to buy induction, we didn't know that prices were going to shoot up!

yes a very rambling and inconclusive article!
Anyway- as (or if..) we go greener presumably gas will be priced out and electricity will be the future.
One big plus of electric is no need for ventilation and no condensation. Extractor fan can be recirculating and no heat lost. Have discovered that you don't need to buy new filters - they are washable in sugar soap.

 

[Just4Fun]

We bought induction because ...

Interesting. We switched over to induction around 2006 or 2007 when we refurbished the kitchen, but I really don't remember why. Gas is not an option here, but why we went for induction over more conventional electric I cannot say. I do like induction though and have since bought induction again, but I don't find them reliable. We have had to replace ours 2 or 3 times, so the average life seems less than for a conventional hob. The last time we bought another I did manage to fix the previous model, so now we have a spare ready for the next failure. That is probably a sure fire way of ensuring the current hob continues indefinitely.

The automatic switch off when the pan is removed is a great safety feature I think, especially as I have been guilty of leaving the ring switched on when I remove a pan. The only down side has been having to change my habbits as I was firmly in the "shake, rattle and roll" school of cookery and initially I found the ring would turn itself off as I worked. I can no longer adjust the temperature of the pan by moving it for a few seconds.

 

[Oldman]

Still on boiling or not water, I used to wonder why electric kettles didnt have thermostats fitted to select the cut off point before boiling. A couple of years ago we got one, select your temperature from 60-100deg C. It might not seem a big saving to have the kettle shut off at 90deg or less, but over a year it probably these days would buy you another kettle Example here https://www.currys.co.uk/products/r...et-boil-21040-jug-kettle-silver-10227087.html

 

[Sideways]

There's a ton of irrelevant information there, the only interesting bit is the cost to boil a pan of water. Obviously gas is cheaper, but that's because err.. gas is cheaper.
We bought induction because we have grandchildren of various sizes, and I'm getting to the stage where I might set fire to myself(a good friend of ours set her clothing on fire and sustained serious burns, and she's not infirm or a dementia sufferer). Also, when we decided to buy induction, we didn't know that prices were going to shoot up!

It's easy to measure electricity use, much harder to quantify gas.
Comparing a cheap 2kW portable induction plate with our medium gas rings, the induction was well over twice as fast.
But what's the real consumption of the gas ? We've no way to measure it accurately in small volumes.
I bought the induction to take advantage of free solar energy but even on dull days I SUSPECT the efficiency of the induction vs the lower cost of gas might break even. One cheap portable induction ring for £60 might be a better long term saving than dropping £1000 on a NEF.
One ring for cooking the rice, pasta or steaming veg does a lot. I've only just got an induction wok to find out if it will stir fry.
Cost wise it's hard to compete with a 30 year old gas hob that has never needed a single maintenance visit.

 

[Spectric]

An induction wok, when I think of someone using a wok in the traditional enviroment it seems more like a blacksmiths forge surrounded by water with flames leaping into the air !

 

[Sideways]

The "wok" burner on our hob is 5kW ? A total wimp.

I saw a great rig in China once. Bicycles with those cast iron, tar boiler type burners fastened to the handlebars. Sellers would wheel them to a street food spot under a flyover each evening, park up, hook up the bottle gas and go for it with huge woks and oil squirted in from a squeezy bottle. Flames 3 feet high !
Delicious.

 

[Agent_zed]

I'm just getting all my wood together to make external window shutters. This is for a couple of reasons namely - Keeping heat in in the winter, keeping the heat out in the summer, keeping the light out (have a street lamp over the road so need blackout curtains at the moment), reducing sound (not that important but a potential bonus). I am predicting they will come back into fashion in the coming years.

As for in the house, what a lot of people seem to forget is that as long as the heat isn't leaving the house e.g. a condensing tumble drier then it is pretty much 100% efficient, same with lightbulbs. Also the turning off of a 5w LED bulb is pretty much negligable as you could leave it on for 200hours and it would cost you 1 unit ~35p. Which makes no sense why they keep putting stories about people having to use candles for light. Candles are significantly more epensive than running an LED and likely to burn your house down.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

We changed to an induction hob a couple of years ago. It is far more responsive than the previous ceramic hob. And as far as I know works by heating the (iron) pan through induction - the only reason the hob itself gets hot is conduction from the pan/saucepan.

As induction heats the pan rather than losing some of the heat to the surroundings, they are far more efficient than gas in terms of converting kilowatts to useful food heating. However it all gets a bit complicated as the cost per KW is much higher for electricity than gas.

 

[MikeJhn]

The automatic switch off when the pan is removed is a great safety feature I think, especially as I have been guilty of leaving the ring switched on when I remove a pan. The only down side has been having to change my habbits as I was firmly in the "shake, rattle and roll" school of cookery and initially I found the ring would turn itself off as I worked. I can no longer adjust the temperature of the pan by moving it for a few seconds.

Our new Neff induction hob has two large cooking zones that can be used to adjust the temperature by moving the pan up or down the zone, tech moves on.

 

[Just4Fun]

Our new Neff induction hob has two large cooking zones that can be used to adjust the temperature by moving the pan up or down the zone, tech moves on.

That's good to know. If & when I buy my next one I will look for that feature.

 

[John Brown]

As for in the house, what a lot of people seem to forget is that as long as the heat isn't leaving the house e.g. a condensing tumble drier then it is pretty much 100% efficient,

Yes, but that only makes sense if you heat your house with resistive electric heating. Efficiency and cost are not the same thing.