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A quote for an induction range always opens with the same promise: less energy wasted, a cooler kitchen, less fire risk. What it rarely mentions is the question your electrician asks first — and it has nothing to do with the price of the range.
Swapping six gas burners for six induction zones sounds like a simple like-for-like: same spot, same pans, different socket. The problem is that "different socket" understates it badly. A gas burner draws from a pipe that was already there; an induction zone draws from the same electrical supply as your walk-in, your dishwasher, your extraction and your water heater. That supply has a limit, and almost nobody checks it before ordering the new range.
That is the first number in this article, and it decides whether the rest of the conversation even matters: how many kilowatts does your supply still have free, once everything already on it has taken its share? Only after that does the second number matter — what an hour of cooking actually costs you, induction against gas, at the energy prices you pay, not an average brochure price. And only with those two answered does the third number, the payback period, mean anything at all.
At the bottom of this guide is a calculator that works out all three for your own supply, your own kitchen and your own energy prices. The worked numbers above come from a mid-size kitchen on a 45 kW supply — if that isn't you, just overwrite the fields.
Everything runs in your own browser: nothing is sent, nothing is stored. The energy prices and supply figures below are EU-average illustrations — your own bill and your own electrician are the final word, not this article.
Why the brochure's arithmetic isn't your arithmetic
Every manufacturer quotes the same figure, and it's correct: induction puts 85–90% of its energy into the pan, cooking on gas 40–55% — the rest heats the kitchen, not the food. What the brochure leaves out is what a kilowatt-hour costs. Across most of Europe, a commercial kitchen pays roughly three to four times as much per kWh for electricity as for gas. "More efficient" and "cheaper to run" are two separate claims, and the second does not automatically follow from the first.
Run the numbers and the picture flips: at typical European commercial prices, an hour of cooking on induction often costs roughly double an hour on gas — not because induction uses more energy, but because what it does use costs more per unit. That is not an argument against induction; it's an argument against the arithmetic that stops at "more efficient, therefore cheaper".
And before any of that, there's the number no brochure mentions at all: can your supply actually carry it? A kitchen is never sized for the sum of everything in it — that would demand an absurdly large, expensive supply for equipment that never all runs flat-out at once. Electricians instead size a supply using a diversity factor: the share of total connected power that realistically runs at the same time, usually 65 to 75% in a busy kitchen. Six new induction zones count towards that in full, which is exactly where "we'll just swap it over the weekend" runs into a supply that was never designed to carry it.
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They come in the order a real switch actually meets them. The first decides whether it can happen at all. The second whether it costs or saves you money. The third only means something once the first two are answered.
1. Your connected load: the number that has nothing to do with money
Take a mid-size kitchen on a 45 kW supply. The walk-in, dishwasher, extraction, water heater and whatever electrical equipment is already there claim an average of 32 kW of that between them — a figure your electrician can give you, or that a simple meter reading over one busy service will show.
Replacing six gas burners with six 3.5 kW induction zones sounds like "6 × 3.5 = 21 kW added", but that isn't how a kitchen actually runs: not all six sit at full power at once. Applying the usual 70% diversity factor for a busy line, that comes to 14.7 kW genuinely added in practice.
32 kW already claimed, plus 14.7 kW more, is 46.7 kW — against a 45 kW supply. That's 1.7 kW short, and it's exactly the scenario that stops a "simple" switch in practice: not because the induction hob doesn't fit on the counter, but because the fuse board has no room for it. It's also why upgrading your supply — an application to your grid operator, sometimes with a wait — is a real cost line no manufacturer's brochure mentions.
The rule is simple enough to check yourself before you request a quote: add up what's already on your supply, add what the new equipment asks for at the same time, and compare that against what your supply allows. If there's room, the rest of this article is a spreadsheet exercise. If there isn't, the rest of this article is a spreadsheet exercise with a supply upgrade added to it.
What's already claimed on your supply, what six induction zones — at a 70% diversity factor — ask for at the same time, and what's left over. Or isn't.
1.7 kW short
32 kW is already claimed on average, 14.7 kW is added at the same time — 46.7 kW together against a 45 kW supply. That's 1.7 kW short, and that shortfall usually only becomes visible when the fitter's meter is already on site, not when you place the order.
2. What an hour of cooking costs, induction against gas
Take that same 3.5 kW zone and run it three ways: a gentle simmer, sautéing, and a wok at full power. The same pattern holds at all three, and it isn't the pattern the brochure suggests.
At typical European commercial prices — say €0.095 per kWh for gas and €0.335 per kWh for electricity, and that ratio can swing hard by country and by contract — simmering on induction costs around €0.38 an hour against €0.20 on gas. At full power that becomes €1.34 against €0.69. Despite wasting far less energy, induction here costs roughly double per hour, because electricity is the pricier unit.
That ratio isn't fixed — it's a relationship between two prices, and it isn't the same everywhere. Anyone with their own solar panels, an off-peak tariff, or no gas connection at all and cooking on expensive bottled gas will see the picture shift, sometimes reversing entirely. That's exactly why the calculator below asks for your own two prices instead of repeating the ones above as gospel.
Keep the distinction straight: efficiency tells you how much of the energy reaches the food. Cost per hour tells you what that energy costs you. They are not the same claim, and a range can win one and lose the other.
The same 3.5 kW zone, run three ways: simmering, sautéing, and full power. At every level induction costs roughly double gas here — not because it uses more, but because electricity costs more per kWh.
Uses €0.095 per kWh for gas and €0.335 per kWh for electricity — EU averages, for illustration. On your own bill that ratio can look completely different: enter your own figures in the calculator below.
3. Payback: only meaningful once the first two numbers are answered
A payback period is: what the switch costs, divided by what it saves you per year. What it costs is the premium of induction equipment over an equivalent gas range, plus — if the first number above came out negative — the cost of a heavier supply.
But "what it saves you" assumes there is something to save, and that's exactly where the second number above can flip the story. If an hour of cooking on induction costs more than on gas, there's nothing to recoup on the energy bill — only a higher annual cost to add on top. In that case, the reason to switch has to be something other than money: a ban on new gas connections in your area, a fire-insurance discount for removing an open flame, or simply a range that was due for replacement anyway.
If there IS a saving — because your own energy prices differ from the EU average, or because you buy electricity more cheaply than gas — that saving genuinely counts against the upfront cost, and a payback of a few years is realistic. The point is not that induction never pays off; it's that you won't know until you've run the first two numbers above with your own supply and your own bill.
Run the numbers for your own kitchen
Fill in what your supply carries, what's already using it, how many burners you're replacing and what you pay per kWh. The fields start with the mid-size kitchen's numbers from above so you can see how it reads — overwrite them with your own.
The calculator gives you three answers: whether your supply can take the switch or needs an upgrade, how much more or less a year of cooking will cost, and — only where there's something to save — in how many years the investment pays for itself.
Induction scan
Your supply, your energy prices, and whether the switch pays for itself.
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The energy prices above are EU averages for illustration and don't account for your own contract, region or any off-peak tariff. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Two things to keep in mind when reading your own result. A supply shortfall isn't a dead end — it's an extra cost you now know about in advance instead of discovering when the fitter's meter is already on site. And a negative saving doesn't mean induction is a bad idea; it means the reason to switch has to sit somewhere other than your energy bill.
If in doubt, check two things before signing a quote: a real measurement of what your supply already carries (a load logger over one busy service is cheap and definitive), and whether your fire insurer offers a discount for a kitchen with no open flame. Both change the calculator's answer above more than the price of the range itself.
What to do this week, this month and this quarter
Getting this wrong costs thousands — either on an upgrade that turned out unnecessary, or on a range that never got connected. This order prevents both.
This week — check what you already have
- Look up your connected load: it's on your fuse board or your last bill from your grid operator.
- Ask your electrician for an estimate of what's already claimed on that supply on average, or get one busy service measured.
- Pull your gas and electricity price per kWh from your last bills — not the EU average above.
- Enter all three into the calculator above and read which of the four scenarios applies to you.
This month — ask the two numbers no brochure gives you
- Get a quote for the specific induction equipment you want, not an average premium.
- If your supply is short: ask your grid operator for a real price and wait time for an upgrade.
- Ask your fire insurer explicitly whether a kitchen with no open flame lowers your premium.
- Recalculate the payback with these real figures instead of the defaults.
This quarter — decide and plan, don't improvise
- If it pays off on paper: schedule the switch in your quietest weeks, so the fitter can test the new circuit before a busy service.
- If it doesn't pay off on paper: redo the sums next year — energy prices move every year, and this answer can flip without your kitchen changing at all.
- Put the equipment premium and any supply upgrade into your own renovation budget, not as a standalone line.
- Keep the measurement of your supply on file: you'll need it again the moment another piece of equipment goes electric.
The question is never just "induction or gas" — it's "can it, and does it pay off"
Almost every induction-kitchen quote starts with the price of the range and ends with an efficiency figure from the brochure. Both numbers are correct, and both still miss the question that decides a real switch: is there room on your supply, and is electricity cheap enough per kWh where you are for that extra efficiency to show up in euros.
That's not a reason to avoid switching — it's a reason to reverse the order. Check your supply first, then your own energy prices, and only then the payback period. For some kitchens the arithmetic flips completely once their own numbers go in; for others it stays exactly as negative as the EU average above, and that's a valid answer too.
Run the same exercise afterwards on the rest of your energy bill: your kitchen's energy costs run through exactly the same fuse board, and your maintenance schedule decides when a range is due for replacement anyway — which is the moment this whole calculation comes free.