Study Shows Gas Oven Uses More Electricity than Microwave

This just in from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory: A gas oven consumes more electricity to bake a potato than a microwave oven. That’s right, more

electricity. The glow bar ignitor, which draws 350 to 400 watts during oven start-up, continues to draw power the whole time the oven is on. To bake a moderately sized potato, LBL researcher Brian Pon found that a gas oven started cold used 200 watt-hours (Wh), a pre-heated gas oven used 140 Wh, and a microwave oven used 110 Wh. The gas oven, of course, also consumes gas. From

Home Energy Magazine, November/December 1993.