Economic kettle

ballisticbrian

Even 300Watt?

Verdigris

ballisticbrian said:

Even 300Watt?

Oops! Should have gone to Barnard Castle.

It looks like one of those panels that you use to trickle charge you car battery. A 300W panel is the sort you have on your house roof. I think the ad is wrong.

QrizB

Verdigris said:

ballisticbrian said:

Even 300Watt?

Oops! Should have gone to Barnard Castle.

It looks like one of those panels that you use to trickle charge you car battery. A 300W panel is the sort you have on your house roof. I think the ad is wrong.

Those panels are about 10W but their advertised at a huge range of outputs.

If you bought a real 300W panel like this (or better, two of them) you could make tea and cook meals with one of these. For free while the sun shines. I'm not sure many people are really wanting to spend £380 to save ~1p half-a-dozen times a day.

hubb

I have a pan of water sitting on top of the multi fuel stove which gets very hot, although not boiling.Then I flask it until we brew up again. That must count for something. 

tux900

KennyScout said:

Nearly no kettle use a steam switch, it's not a safe solution, but a common misconception. Your switch nearly certainly is a kind of bimetallic switch where one metal contracts and breaks the circuit, this takes a little bit of time hence the 'overshoot', it's alo why you can't put your kettle straight back on after it's boiled (try it), even if there's no steam. 

Common misconception @KennyScout? Practically every kettle uses a steam switch (I've never seen one that doesn't but that's not to say they don't exist). It is by far and away the easiest and cheapest method of detecting that the water has boiled as it doesn't require contact with the water itself (which presents a whole host of problems for a purely mechanical switch). Added bonus is that it automatically accommodates variation in boiling point at different altitudes! Invented by Strix - a real British success story - and who now provide the control gear for the majority of kettles around the world.

I've repaired many kettles and every single one has used a Strix steam switch hence the commonality means that spares are readily available regardless of who makes the kettle itself. I'd put money on your kettle using one of their control gear sets, *all* of which are shut off via steam travelling via a 'steam path' (generally a chamber with an entry point inside the top of the kettle below the lid that channels steam down to the control gear and element power feed (if integrated) or via a remote switch (if separate). It's still based on a bimetallic function as you say, but steam triggered. Many kettles do also have a directly-connected bimetallic cutoff switch but that's for 'boil dry' protection in case you turn the kettle on without any water in it (and hence no chance of steam being generated).

hubb

Has anyone got a 

cssd Mirror Energy-saving gas kettle ?

QrizB

Just for novelty value, I'm currently boiling a kettle of water on my gas hob so I can make a pot of tea.

I'm sure it uses more energy than an electric kettle would (less sure about the economics) but all the wasted heat ends up in my kitchen and it's a little bit cool in there anyway.

Verdigris

QrizB said:

Just for novelty value, I'm currently boiling a kettle of water on my gas hob so I can make a pot of tea.

I'm sure it uses more energy than an electric kettle would (less sure about the economics) but all the wasted heat ends up in my kitchen and it's a little bit cool in there anyway.

As I said, above somewhere, if you are spilling a lot of heat you are using too big a burner and/or have the flame too high. I still reckon that gas is cheaper than leccy, although having just received my new quote from Zog, with a near 50% increase per kWh (TCR), my cuppa has become a bit more of a luxury item!

On the other hand the leccy's going up even more...

Astria

mellyflewus said:

i also wouldn't consume water that's been through the heating system because i have worries about dirt, contamination and listeria etc.

i know that modern heating systems have dirt magnets applied and that listeria is rare but still.

Do you also know that most heating systems simply pass the heating system water through a coil in the hot water tank to heat it - the tank water is never actually contaminated with the heating system water.

Also, most header tanks and cold water tanks now have a lid on so you rarely finds pigeons and rats in them these days.

That said, I still wouldn't run the hot water tap for the duration required just to make a cup of tea, but if I've just done the dishes and the hot water tap is hot anyway, then I would.

ballisticbrian

My conclusion is that you are better off saving money on appliances in the kitchen by spending £100 of an air fryer, which takes 5 -10 mins off the pre heat time, consumes less power during cooking and saves 5 - 10 minutes on the cooking time. Ok it might need a new element every 5 - 10 years but how many kettles do you get through in that time?