Now we're cooking with gas ...

Natural gas is the most popular choice for cooking on a hob. But natural gas is a dwindling natural resource and won't be around in the same quantities and at the same cheap prices for too much longer.

We're all familiar with cooking on a conventional electric hob, but they tend to be rather frustrating to use.

Is there a better way?

Using electricity to cook is a good idea in Edinburgh as Scotland has a rapidly growing renewable electricity generating capacity and electricity can be generated from a wide range of sources including wind, wave and tide.

But if we use electricity, we should always try to be as efficient as possible.

There's a new type of hob appearing in shops around town - the induction hob.

While the induction hob is relatively new in our shops, the technology has been around for a long time.

The top of the hob is a flat, dark glass plate. Interestingly the hob top isn't heated directly. A magnetic field is used to induce heat in the cooking pot placed on the hob top. The magnetic field is very easy to control, so an induction hob is as responsive as a conventional gas hob. Induction hobs bring pans to the boil much more quickly than gas hobs. Because a magnetic field is used to induce heat in a pan, the hob will not produce heat without a pan in place. Therefore if you were to place your bare hand on the induction hob while switched on, but with no pan present, your hand would not get hot. This makes induction hobs safer to use - heat is only generated where the pan is positioned. Because the hob surface is not heated directly, spills from pans are less likely to burn onto the hob top and this, along with the flat glass surface of the hob, makes induction hobs easy to clean with a cloth.

Induction hobs are very efficient. Comparing the energy consumed when heating 2 litres of water from 20 degrees Celsius to boiling point, a gas hob uses 1700 kJ, a conventional electric hob 1220 kJ and an induction hob a mere 745 kJ. Another source claims that induction hobs use 30% less electricity.

So, in terms of energy used, induction hobs are much more energy efficient - however be aware that the energy you use cooking is likely to be a very small amount of your overall energy use.

There's a very nice video of a Siemens induction hob here, but of course there are numerous manufacturers of this technology.

Please note that not all cooking vessels are suitable for use on an induction hob and that those with a pacemaker fitted are advised not to use an induction hob.