Which is most eco -friendly: to boil the kettle on bottled gas or with electricity?
2006-11-22 02:36:10 · 7 answers · asked by kaspasha 1 in Environment
It depends on where your electricity comes from and what you mean by eco-friendly. Because electricity is produced form a thermodynamic cycle (except for the very small amount from wind and hydropower) it takes about 3 times as much fuel to make the same heat. That's right, 2/3 of the energy used in an electric power plant is thrown away as waste heat. That is the nature of converting heat to electricity.
Almost all electricity is produced from either natural gas, coal, or nuclear power.
If your electricity is from natural gas, is it much better to burn the gas at home and use only 1/3 as much fuel. And 1/3 as much greeenhouse gas as well. Natural gas (CH4) does produce less greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) than bottle gas (C3H8) since there is a higher proportion of carbon. The hydrogens produce water vapor which does not accumulate in the atmosphere. This benefit of natural gas is offset by the inefficiency of producing electricity.
If your power is from a coal fired plant, consider that coal is more abundant than oil and gas. However, for the same amount of energy, it produces even more greenhouse gas since the product of burning coal is all carbon dioxide.
If your power is from nuclear, there are no greenhouse gases associated with producing the power. The 3 to 1 rule still holds as far as energy to make electricity. The ecological effects of nuclear power are entirely different involving safety issues of working with nuclear materials and long term storage of nuclear waste.
2006-11-22 02:54:21 · answer #1 · answered by Pretzels 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Using natural gas is mush more eco-friendly.
Electricity is more eco-friendly when it is used but not a production time where lots of toxic gases are released. Also, the production of electricity is much less efficient. Normally a coal fired station is 50% efficient.
2006-11-22 02:56:36 · answer #2 · answered by kooshal 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on how your electricity is generated. If your electric utility grid is wind or solar powered, than you are greener using electricity. If your grid is fed from an old out of compliance coal fired power plant than the bottle gas is more Eco-friendly.
2006-11-22 02:51:00 · answer #3 · answered by Dave Z 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gas is usually more economical. Anything that uses electrical power to heat uses a lot of kilowatts.
2006-11-22 02:48:53 · answer #4 · answered by Max 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Boil the kettle!
2006-11-22 04:16:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any appliance that is run by gas is cheaper than electricity. an example would be stoves and washer and dryers.
2006-11-22 02:40:07 · answer #6 · answered by stella 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bottled or natural gas, by far.
2006-11-22 02:39:22 · answer #7 · answered by charly 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋