Energy - what takes more to heat up a can of soup - microwave or in a saucepan on the gas?

Question

Energy - what takes more to heat up a can of soup - microwave or in a saucepan on the gas?

Answer 1

by the time you get your electricity in your home it probably is only 30% of the initial energy that went in to produce it (unless its hydro).

For natural gas it still has about 95% of the energy it started with (lost some due to cost of pumping it through the pipes.)

The stove may not be as efficient as it could be, but if you use a good conducting  wide saucepan with a lid and a low flame most of the heat ends up in the right place. This would seem a sensible low energy solution.  Big flames under small saucepans let most of the heat escape. Leaving the lid off lets a lot of energy escape as steam.

A microwave is not quite as efficient as people are led to believe. There are considerable losses in producing the microwaves, for the light in the oven, the turntable. All using energy that does not heat your food. True what energy is converted to microwaves that does mostly go into heating your food. But it is a lot less than 100% You would be doing well if it is 70% And 70% 0f 30% is not so good! (21%) (Just checked the specs on our office microwave and it has power input at 1150W but power output as microwave of only 600W. So only 52% efficient. Check yours out. What is the stated cooking output and what is its rated power consumption?

My advice is always do the math! (when you can)

Answer 2

I would avoid putting the can in the microwave.  

The microwave will use less energy in the home.

It might cost more, however. and the energy used at the generating plant will be close or more for the microwave.

Part of the problem in answering this is that the gas burner will heat up the room more, which is good in winter. But are we using A/C? It puts as much extra load on the A/C as the microwave would have used. So, while using the AC, use microwave.

Microwave is more efficient on site and leaves less heat in the room. Electricity is less efficient than gas when we want to heat the room.

Answer 3

You should also take in consideration the wattage of the microwave--the more watts the more energy being used.

Answer 4

Microwave is more efficient because the energy is contained.  On a stovetop much of the energy (heat) is lost to the surrounding environment.

Answer 5

Saucepan.  Microwaves are more efficient because all of the energy is directed into the food, but when you use a conventional stove most of the heat goes into the air.  Even though there is a 60% energy loss at the power station that produced the electricity for the microwave it's still more efficient than a gas stove.