So, you all scoffed. You sneered. You laughed, pointed fingers and snorted with derision about the many failures in my quest to conquer the impossible: microwaving an egg without it exploding like a miniature culinary grenade. “It can’t be done!” you declared, between guffaws. You sneered, “You’ll end up with scrambled egg on the ceiling!” Yes – I had explosions on the path to discovery. If you don’t eat eggs or hate eggs, stop here right now – read no more. You have choice! Also in this article I show how boiling an egg for 7 minutes consumes 10 times more energy on an electric hob, and 18 times more energy on a gas hob. Haters and doubters can check my figures later.
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Well, who’s laughing now?
That’s right, folks. I achieved the seemingly impossible in September 2020 – a perfectly microwaved egg, with no explosions, casualties or collateral damage. And now I’ve gone one better. I’ve refined the process, streamlined it, made it even more… dare I say… perfect. Very energy efficient too!
Yes, I know, readers are impressed with my microwave method for cooking eggs. Some are probably wondering, “How did he do it? What’s the secret? 🤔” Persistence, my dear sneering critics. Sheer, bloody-minded persistence. And a healthy dose of my, “I’ll show them” attitude. Others may be occupied with what I put on my bread! Jeez – is butter and/or Marmite okay? Do I care if you’re not a Marmite person? I couldn’t give a flying flamingo.
But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. In my previous blog, I revealed my initial breakthrough: a sequence of power settings and timings that resulted in a non-exploded egg. I can easily set my microwave to do the sequence automatically. But I wasn’t satisfied. Oh no, I had to push further, to see if I could improve on my initial success.
WARNING: None of this is ‘risk-free’. If you blow up an egg and cause damage to yourself or others, you are responsible. Sue yourself!
And improve I did.
New power sequence
The new and improved microwave power sequence is as follows:
- 440 watts for 50 seconds
- 330 watts for 40 seconds
- 270 watts for 20 seconds
The above works with one egg on a standard microwave-safe plate or a microwave egg-poacher (available on Amazon or local shops). Sometimes I add a drop of oil to plate or poacher and spread it with my (clean) finger but sometimes I just do same with a couple drops of water.
The eggs I have microwaved do not taste like rubber – as some people expect. I do not have a taste for rubber, but some people do – in which case I disappoint some people.
BTW many hotels, restaurants and pubs make their scrambled eggs in a microwave. It’s pretty easy. Google may be your friend (or not).
[Settings double checked at 11:59 2025-01-14 and amended as correct for my microwave.]
Time and energy
Total microwave cooking time? A mere 110 seconds. That’s a whole 40 seconds less than my original method. Now, you planet saving tree-hugging jerks will be wondering, “But what about the energy consumption? Is it more energy-efficient?” Well, no. It seems that in my quest for speed, I’ve sacrificed a little bit of energy efficiency. But hey, we can’t have it all, can we? And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t trade a few extra joules of energy for a quicker egg-cooking experience?
| Method | Sequence | Time(seconds) | Calculations | Energy (Joules) = Power (Watts) x Time (seconds) | Correction for microwave assuming 60% efficiency (Joules) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original (Sept 2020) | 330×70, 270×50, 100×30 | 150 (2.5 min) | (330×70)+(270×50)+(100×30)=36500 | 39600 | 66000 | It worked very well. |
| Refined (Jan 2024) | 440×50, 330×40, 270×20 | 110 (less than 2 min) | (440×50)+(330×40)+(270×20)=40100 | 40600 | 66833 | Still works well – no explosions! |
| Savings | N/A | 40 | N/A | -1000 | -833 | OMG! I’ve contributed to global warming! My bad. |
Besides, when I’m in no rush to save 40 seconds, and I wanna save the planet more (833 joules per egg), I can always stick with my original method. The option is there.
Tree-huggers may wish to think about energy expenditure of frying a single egg on a gas or electric cooker compared with my ‘most energy inefficient’ new method. If so they should stick around and see my deeper analysis below.
Deeper Energy Analysis
This is necessary because many people ‘prefer’ to boil their eggs in water using a gas or electric hob. Factors to be considered would be efficiency of those cookers and the energy expenditure in boiling water. The figures have been massaged down from when I first drafted this part because I made many over-estimates e.g. I assumed it would take 5 min to get 400 ml of water to boiling point. I realised that was probably not correct. It turns out that it would take about 2.5 to 2.7 min. I had assumed that 50 ml of water would be boiled off. But that’s not necessary. Therefore I reduced the water boiled off from 50 ml to 5 ml.
The new assumptions are
- Water: 400ml
- Starting temperature: 18°C
- Boiling point: 100°C
- Electric hob: 1500W element, 65% efficiency
- Gas hob: 2000W burner, 45% efficiency
- Water boiled off: 5ml (This will be used later in the calculation)
- Under 3 min to get water to boiling point.
- Roughly 4 min to keep water just at boiling point. [Not that increasing heat supply only increases rate of boiling – it cannot change the boiling point i.e. The water cannot get hotter than 100°C.]
I do not know the times, power of appliances and how everybody boils their eggs. I’m not terribly interested in accuracy. The point of the calculations is to get to a rough estimates on power consumption.
Get out your calculators – yuh know one of those old Texas TI-30s – and do the sums! 😄
Based on these calculations, my new microwave method is roughly:
- 21.3 times more efficient than frying an egg on a standard electric cooker.
- 37.4 times energy more efficient than frying an egg on a standard gas cooker.
You don’t need to be a physicist to understand all of the following. But you do need a brain of some sort.
Calculations
The following are based n the original assumptions about ‘boiling an egg’. Note this is two-stage process:
A. Getting the water up to 100°C for approx 2.5 min (the water bubbles a bit as boiling point reached)
B. Lowering the heat after roughly 2.5 min for the rest of the 7 min.
There is a third optional phase: leaving eggs to stand after turn off the heat (no additional energy required) for people who like their eggs well-boiled.
1. Energy to heat water to boiling point:
- Temperature rise: 100°C – 18°C = 82°C
- Energy = mass × specific heat × temperature rise
- Energy = 400g × 4.18 J/g°C × 82°C = 136,624 Joules
2. Time to reach boiling point (considering hob efficiency):
- Electric hob:
- Effective power = 1500W × 0.65 = 975W
- Time = Energy / Power = 147,924 J / 975W = 151.7 seconds ≈ 2.5 minutes
- Gas hob:
- Effective power = 2000W × 0.45 = 900W
- Time = Energy / Power = 147,924 J / 900W = 164.4 seconds ≈ 2.7 minutes
3. Energy for vaporisation (5ml):
Energy = 5g × 2260 J/g = 11,300 Joules
4. Energy used during the heating phase:
Energy = mass × latent heat of vaporisation
- Electric hob: (1500W × 151.7 s) + (200W × 268.3s) = 281,310 Joules
- Gas hob: (2000W × 164.4 s) + (300W × 255.6s) = 404,520 Joules
5. Total energy used (considering efficiency):
- Electric hob: (136,624 J + 11,300 J + 281,310 J) / 0.65 = 658,822 Joules
- Gas hob: (136,624 J + 11,300 J + 404,520 J) / 0.45 = 1,212,098 Joules
| Method | Power (Watts) | Time (seconds) | Energy Used (Joules) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microwave – Original | According to sequence of power settings | 150 | 66000 |
| Microwave – Refined | According to sequence of power settings | 110 | 66833 |
| Electric Hob | 1500 | 151.7 + 268.3 = 420s (7 min) | 658,822 (9.9 times energy used with microwave) |
| Gas Hob | 2000 | 164.4 + 255.6s 420s (7 min) | 1,212,098 (18.1 times energy used with microwave). |
Confusion?
The above calculations are startling and ‘unbelievable’.
Here’s what’s going on:
- Energy to reach boiling: Both the electric and gas hobs need to provide enough energy to heat the water from 18°C to 100°C. This is the same amount of energy for both.
- Energy to keep boiling: This is where the latent heat of vaporisation comes in. Even though the water has reached 100°C, energy is still needed to turn some of it into steam (5 mls of it).
- The gas hob, at 2000W, is pumping in more energy per second than the 1500W electric hob.
- This doesn’t mean it’s faster at getting to boiling point, but it does mean that more energy is being used to convert water to steaming point.
Think of it like this: Imagine two hoses filling a pool. One hose is slightly wider (like the gas hob). Both hoses will take roughly the same time to get the pool to the point of overflowing. But once it’s overflowing, the wider hose will be pushing out more water (more steam in our case) even though the pool’s level isn’t changing. Slow down and think about it! Chyrsst!
Why this matters: The calculations suggest that the gas hob uses much more energy overall. But a significant chunk of that is going into making steam, which might not be strictly necessary for cooking the egg. In reality, a user of the gas hob might turn down the flame once boiling is reached, making it more comparable to the electric hob.
It’s a good reminder that raw energy figures don’t always tell the whole story of how we use appliances in practice!
Conclusion
Tree huggers and climate activists may wish to take away, that boiling an egg in 400 ml of water for 7 mins consumes 10 times more energy on an electric hob, and 18 times more energy on a gas hob. Most of the energy is used boiling the water. Those who insist on boiling vegetables e.g. carrots, potatoes, rice, sprouts etc may (or not) wish to consider whether and how a microwave can be used as an energy saving alternative.
Will logic dictate? Nope. Cultures, attitudes and personal choice will dictate.
For those of you who value speed and energy efficiency above all else, I present to you my refined method. Go forth and microwave eggs to your heart’s content. And remember, when you’re tucking into your perfectly cooked, non-exploded microwaved eggs, who’ll be having the last laugh? That’s right… me. 🤣😂
