Energy Efficiency Comparison in Heating Water Using Gas, Electric, and Induction Cooktops and Determination of Container Emissivity Coefficient

A 1.315 kg stewpan is used to boil 1 kg water using three different type of cooktops, that is, gas, electric, and induction. The power of the electric cooktop is 600 W, a gas cooktop uses the maximum setting (large burner in control knob), and the induction cooktop has maximum power of 1200 W. We have observed two different settings of power: 600 W and 1200 W. In the first setting, we compared induction and electric cooktops, while in the second induction and gas cooktops were compared. We obtained energy efficiency about 67.24% and 56.2% for the first setting and 74.03% and 38.55% for the second, which shows that induction cooktop always gives better performance compared to the other cooktops. Besides this, we also investigated the energy leak from the stewpan to the environment through radiation, which should be the same, since all four observations were using the same container to heat the water. Keywords: energy efficiency, heating water, induction cooktops, container emissivity coefficient