Cost analysis of induction vs gas cooktops
How much money does an induction cooktop save when compared to a gas cooktop, I looked at the prices and time needed to cook to figure out how much money would really be saved.
Sam Bendat
Updated: August 20, 2024
Cooking with fire this week.
I'm comparing the cost savings of a gas cooktop vs an electric induction cooktop.
Two key points, is installing induction going to save money, and how much will it save over gas?
Bottom line of the calculations
Switching to an induction cooktop will unlock very modest financial gains unless it is the last gas device in your home to be switched over. At that point, getting rid of the gas daily supply charge is the real big win. We could save $316 a year if that was the case.
If you still have other gas-burning devices in your home and saving money is the goal, then it's best to focus on replacing other gas-hungry devices in the home first.
That being said, there are other benefits of cooking with induction, like cooking faster and more efficiently, and you'll have better air quality in your kitchen.
But let's chop and dice the numbers and examine how the final costs are plated.
Our chef setup and gas prices
For context, in our home we have a gas cooktop in our kitchen. For the actual burners we have a hybrid wok/western burner which we use all the time, then 3 other smaller to medium sized burners.
Our gas costs 3.2¢ for the first 5700 megajoules (MJ) of energy, 3.1¢ for the next 5700 MJ and then everything thereafter is 2.69¢ per MJ. Our supply charge is 79.75¢ a day.
Our electricity costs 22.678¢ for each kilowatt hour and the supply charge is 91.050¢ per day.
How many MJ does a gas burner use
A factory pamphlet on gas burners tells me a small sized gas burner uses about 3.5 MJ an hour, and a larger wok style burner can go as high as 13.5 MJ per hour. In our house, we generally use a mix of different sizes but mostly lean towards the big wok style burner.
Considering our burner usage I am averaging our gas usage to around 11 MJ an hour.
It's hard to say how much we cook in a day, but given our eating habits of cooking dinner almost every night and the occasional hot lunch, I will say it's around 50 minutes of stovetop cooking a day. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more. This works out to 9.2 MJ of gas used daily, which is 29.44¢ a day or $107.46 a year.
How much using induction costs per hour
Depending on the size of the cooktop in use, the energy rating can vary. Usually, a single induction cooktop is going to use around 1.5 to 3 Kw per hour.
An added bonus of induction cooktops is they are more energy efficient, water boils faster, a pan heats up quicker, and life is easier. Because of the direct transfer of energy into the pan or pot, induction is around 85% efficient, whereas gas is around 36% to 43% efficient.
If we take a general rule of thumb that our water will boil faster and our food will cook quicker than we need less time using energy. The efficiency is about double that of gas but we will be a bit conservative. Let's say on average, we now spend 30 minutes of cooking a day with the induction.
Taking into account our electricity price from before, let's say we use a 2Kw cooktop. This works out to 22.678¢ spent on cooking a day, or $82.77 spent a year. A modest savings of around $25 a year.
If you cook more than me, or like to slow-cook meals on the stove top then you might be able to unlock larger savings here. But swapping out gas for induction will always be a modest gain relative to your usage.
The real benefit of going with an induction cooktop
The real savings in removing an induction cooktop is if you are able to remove gas from your home completely, with the gas burner being the last gas device in your home.
Replacing a gas water heater, or gas central heating system will save you far more money than replacing a gas cooktop. If financial gain is the only motivator then logically replacing the cooktop will be the last device to go as it brings the least financial gain.
So at that point, the home no longer needs to pay the daily supply charge for the gas to the home, no gas no supply charge. So if we factor that into our induction savings we now save a whopping $291.09 per year, add that with the $25 saved and now we're.... cooking.
A total of $316 saved with no supply charges
In short, if cost savings are the goal when getting off gas, then first replace any other larger, more energy-hungry devices before replacing the cooktop. Once the cooktop is replaced, getting rid of the gas supply charge is the real financial win.
That is unless you really want the induction cooktop for its other benefits, in that case live your best life!
More analysis to be done
There is of course the upfront cost of installing the induction cooktop in the home. There are also fees for terminating gas lines to a home. Also, if you choose a large power-hungry cooktop, you might need a three-phase power supply instead of the usual single-phase most older houses have. This would increase the cost of swapping substantially.