The thing is though, I'm only talking about the electricity to heat those 2 - 6 cups of water. I don't care about all the other water in the water heater. Remember, we're only talking about lets say 6 cups of water though. First, lets say that water comes in to my house at 55°F, the water heater is set to 140°F Okay, so if I get 6 cups from the cold faucet: stove has to heat the water from 55° to 140° (to match the water heater) THEN the stove has to heat to 212° (boiling) water heater has to keep 6 cups at 140° for the time it takes the water in the pot to go from 55°F to boiling (since we didn't use the already heated water) Water comes from the water heater stove starts with 6 cups of water at 140° then heats to 212°F water heater has to heat 6 cups from 55° to 140° Not really.. only because they talk about energy. No matter what the heating element, the water will always have to absorb the same amount of energy. The question here is, which heating element delivers the energy most effectively. (using the least amount of electricity) My thinking here is that the heating element on the stove is surrounded by air, and connected to a big ass stove (great conductor of heat). So while the stove is heating my water, its heating the air & the entire stove for that matter. That is lost heat, that isn't heating my water. Now the water heater, on the other hand, is insulated like crazy.