The Kenyan kitchen needs an electric revolution

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

27 March 2022

The results from the last two weeks that cooking with gas is more expensive than with electricity has caused some excitement and confusion in equal measure. Several people have asked me to repeat the calculations in detail because they missed the 2017 and 2006 articles. Well, these articles are available in this website!

A few others were confused about the meaning of the Sh1,200 monthly saving that I can make in my house by switching to electric cooking: The question being how this figure compares with my electricity bill. Now that’s the wrong comparison!

The Sh1,200 saving is only on the cost of cooking energy. It is not a saving on the cost of electricity! Obviously, when I switch from gas to electricity, my electricity bill will increase. But the increment is less than the what I pay for gas.

Another reader asked if I could do similar calculations on electric induction cookers instead of the hot-coils and hot-plates. First, a quick explanation: induction cookers work by electromagnetic waves heating up the cooking pot/pan directly. Thus, not heat is generated until the pan is placed on the cooker.

This is a more efficient way of heating than the contact method of a hot-coil. Induction cookers achieve about 84 per cent efficiency compared to the 70 per cent of hot-coils. However, there are two major drawbacks.

First; induction cookers are about double the price of hot-coils. This means the payback period also doubles. But that’s not major issue since we are talking about a duration of few months. The biggest challenge is that these cookers only work with pots and pans made of magnetic materials.

Most people cook in aluminium sufurias. These are not magnetic so they won’t work on an induction cooker. The only magnetic material common in cookware is cast iron and a few types of stainless steel.

Thus, if you switch to an induction cooker, you will need to change your pots and pans as well. Apart from the additional cost, this might also prove to be a cumbersome exercise – you have to carry a small magnet when buying the new cookware and also figure out what to do with the old ones.

All told, I think it is high time the Kenya kitchen underwent an electric revolution; and the fact that over 90 per cent of our electricity comes from clean, non-polluting sources is just the icing on the cake!