I've had this dilemma for years: Say I need 1 liter of boiling water. Should I:
- Pour cold water into a pot and put it on the natural gas stove,
- Pour cold water into an electric kettle, boil, pour into pot?
(hehe, I finally learned how to use the numbered list option
)
Level 1. Boiling water on a stove is less efficient, b/c a lot of heat escapes around the sides of the pot before it can heat the water. In an electric kettle, the heating element is inside and surrounded by water, so the only losses are convection through the sides. Electric wins.
Level 2. I haven't checked which would be cheaper, in the form of how much gas/electricity is needed for either and how much it would cost. This level interests me the least.
Level 3. Electricity here comes mostly (90%-95%) from old, coal-fired powerplants. Natural gas burns much cleaner. Gas wins.
Level 4. Gas comes mostly (80%) from Russian wells in Siberia, going thousands of kilometers, transiting Belarus and Ukraine, giving them and Russia the power to blackmail other countries just by closing a valve (which they do quite often recently). Coal comes from Polish coal mines, some of them underground, others are strip mines. Neither wins.
Recently I've developed the habit of boiling water in the electric kettle and pouring it into the pot. In my opinion this is more efficient energywise, reduces the dependence on foreign energy sources, and
potentially more ecological. I stressed
potentially, b/c it is possible to increase the amount of RE in the grid (in fact, Poland is obligated to do so, but isn't doing much about it
).
Any comments, suggestions, advice?