Electric Egg Poacher

With so much emphasis these days on reducing our carbon footprint and adopting a green lifestyle, I became curious about the most efficient way to poach eggs. Since one can poach eggs on a cook top, in a microwave, or using a dedicated electric egg poacher, I did a little research to find out which would be the most energy efficient.

It turns out that my instincts were wrong. I suspected that heating water on a gas stove would be most efficient. In studies performed by Home Energy Magazine, they found that heating water with microwave was slightly more efficient than with gas on a stove top. This is because all of the microwave energy is directed at heating the food or water and not the surrounding air. Given this you might conclude that heating water on an electric stove would be less efficient than the microwave as well. Surprisingly, they found the heating water with an electric burner uses 25% less energy than a microwave.

While these results will vary depending on the local relative costs of gas and electricity as well as the energy of the specific appliances involved, it is apparent that poaching eggs with an electric egg poacher is a choice and will save energy over the life of the appliance.

It should also be noted that the microwave excels in cooking small food portions and can save as much as 80% in energy costs over conventional ovens.