I wonder which one is cheaper?
Is it cheaper to boil water in the kettle or in the gas stove with a covered pan?
Is it cheaper to use gas heater or electric?
Is it cheaper to use gas water heater for shower or electric?
Is it always cheaper to use gas, or sometimes not?
All electric. For a start you are not paying a gas connection fee each bill. Also being all electric you will get a better rate from your provider. Gas works out to be very expensive.
Heat / Cool.. R/C aircon.
Boiling water.. elec jug. Shower.. depends on how many in your household and how long they spend under the shower. For 2.. instantaneous. For family, storage hws on offpeak 2.
I already have gas stove though.
I thought usually gas is cheaper than electric.
Not when you look at the whole scenario.
The main purpose for the push for consumers to use gas is to reduce the load on electricity generation. It benefits the govt and not the consumer.
I don't know that any of the above is correct, but I mean no disrepect.
For a start you are not paying a gas connection fee each bill
I assume you mean a monthly service charge; if so, you do pay this for gas, as well as electricity (unless you get your gas in bottles)
Gas works out to be very expensive
Heating is an incredibly inefficient use of electricity. Gas heating is significantly cheaper than electric (less so for cooking/boiling, but for space heating and hot water, your power bill will be MUCH higher vs the same heat being provided by gas.)
"if so, you do pay this for gas, as well as electricity"
Yes you do pay a service fee for gas and it takes the edge off gas having any economical benefit.
Why pay two service fees for energy sources?
"Gas heating is significantly cheaper than electric"
I thing you are using an electric bar heater as your comparison?
RC aircon would beat gas especially if you consider the connection fee wasted for gas. It is also a healthier alternative to gas and has the dual purpose of heating and cooling thus less appliances to purchase and maintain.
Gas heating also introduces a flame into your household.. something I prefer not to do.
I didn't actually consider RC, my apologies; I've never had the luxury of living in a house with RC so that might be a different story.
You make a valid point regarding paying two service charges.
Hot water would still pay a significant, expensive part however. Cooking and kettle would be negligible.
In terms of straight energy provided, gas is cheaper than electricity.
My electricity account in NSW is around 25c per kWh.
My gas cost is approx 0.02141 per MJ.
1kWh = 3.6MJ so gas costs 7.7c per kWh, considerably less than electricity.
Note figures are ex-GST.
But is isn't as simple as that. An electric kettle with an immersion element will convert 100% or very close to heat energy in the water. Same if you used a microwave to heat the water.
A kettle on a gas stove sees a large portion of the heat disappear around the kettle into just heating up the air.
My guess is the gas would be slightly cheaper still, but I haven't measured it. In any case, the energy involved would be a fraction of a cent.
For heating, gas is much better than electricity if you are using an electric column/fan/radiant heater. In this case, gas is about 3 times cheaper for the heat produced. Similarly the advantage is the same for hot water storage systems, and probably instantaneous.
There are three very important caveats, however.
1) if you heat with a reverse cycle aircon and do hot water with a heat pump you can get efficiencies as high as 5 or 6 times (Coefficient of Performance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_performance) so that you can use 1kWh of electricity to produce 6kWh of heat. This makes electricity the winner.
2) If you can install solar panels or hot water you can substantially reduce your electricity use getting the power for 'free'
3) If you can eliminate all gas use you can save the connection fee. For me this is 55c a day.
If I was building a new house, I would super insulate it, position it for winter sun/summer shading, install solar PV and hotwater, install RC aircon, and use all electrical appliances. This would have the lowest lifetime cost.
If you are retrofitting, it becomes a little trickier.
Just the asnwer I'm looking for, perfect reply, thanks!
The other big benefit of Gas is when there's a blackout you can still cook!
I agree with mskeggs… If I was building, I'd do similar.
As I live in a house with existing Gas Hot Water, Cooking and Heating, I still have Gas connected.
My Hot Water Service has to be on its last legs and I honestly don't know what I'll replace it with. If I go electric, then the Service charge is really going to bite, it's already half my bill and hot water likely makes up the bulk of our Gas usage, but it's be tough to cough up for a new Range and Heating just to dump Gas!
The other big benefit of Gas is when there's a blackout you can still cook!
We had a 3 day blackout in the middle of winter a few years ago. Gas heating and cooking was a huge bonus.
But yeah, I wouldn't pay the extra for the redundancy except it was already there.
Mskeggs is spot on, Assuming it's not bottle gas/LPG.
go make sure all your gas appliances are turned off, go check your meter is not turning, take note of the meter reading, boil water on the stove, take the meter reading
do the same for electricity meter and boiling kettle
calculate the cost for your gas/elec usage, maybe take into account daily service charge
let us know the result ;)