Did a little test. Bring 2 litres of tap water to the boil, same pot, one on a 2kw induction plate from Aldi, one on a 3.1kw gas ring on my kitchen cooker.
Gas: ~12 mins
Induction: ~8 mins
I suspect the 2kw gas ring would have posted similar times as the 3.1kw ring due to heatloss up the sides of the pot.
Induction is a very efficient energy transfer.
Can this technology be scaled up to boil 2500 litres for example :-\
Have beer for that :) and my question still stands :)
I understand that efficiency wise gas hobs operate in the region of 40% and induction operates in the 80%'s but if fairness to the gas you would probably need a bigger diameter pot size to make it a fair race, as you say a lot of heat is wasted if the pot is not correctly sized for the size of gas hob.
On a side topic altogether gas tumble dryers run for half nothing compared to their electric brothers, but the purchase price is a multiple of the cost of the electrical dryers, no doubt due to this saving.