Kettle-Your thoughts please

macman

wittynamegoeshere said:

LindsayT said:

@Spoonie_Turtle, thanks for that.
I actually have a small travel kettle that we used in the car when driving across Europe. Unfortunately, it only has a cigarette lighter connection.

There's the answer!  Just plug it into the car then start the engine, leave it running on tickover until the kettle boils.  This will use absolutely no mains electricity.  Problem solved, absolutely no downsides to this at all.

Is there at least one kettle thread here every week?  They're all pointless, the kettle will use a tiny fraction of your electricity costs (unless you run a tea shop), there are much bigger gains to be made by looking elsewhere, usually involving insulation.

At last, the voice of sanity!  OP, just turn your CH stat down 1C, you will probably save more in a month than you will save on any combination of kettles in a decade...

LindsayT

wittynamegoeshere said:

LindsayT said:

@Spoonie_Turtle, thanks for that.
I actually have a small travel kettle that we used in the car when driving across Europe. Unfortunately, it only has a cigarette lighter connection.

There's the answer!  Just plug it into the car then start the engine, leave it running on tickover until the kettle boils.  This will use absolutely no mains electricity.  Problem solved, absolutely no downsides to this at all.

Is there at least one kettle thread here every week?  They're all pointless, the kettle will use a tiny fraction of your electricity costs (unless you run a tea shop), there are much bigger gains to be made by looking elsewhere, usually involving insulation.

There is no car now my partner has passed as I don't drive but it did make me laugh.
However, I think maybe you and a few others should go back and read my opening post.
Did I actually say anything about saving a few pence? Don't think I did but thanks for the laugh.

Spies

My 3kw kettle takes about 90 seconds to boil two cups of water, that works out to around 2.4p

Gas takes longer and in my testing recently, actually costs more to boil a similar volume of water than an electric kettle. 

macman

Spies said:

My 3kw kettle takes about 90 seconds to boil two cups of water, that works out to around 2.4p

Gas takes longer and in my testing recently, actually costs more to boil a similar volume of water than an electric kettle. 

Perhaps you could share your calculations for that? 
Taking longer may well be correct, but the discussion was about the relative cost.

Spies

macman said:

Spies said:

My 3kw kettle takes about 90 seconds to boil two cups of water, that works out to around 2.4p

Gas takes longer and in my testing recently, actually costs more to boil a similar volume of water than an electric kettle. 

Perhaps you could share your calculations for that? 
Taking longer may well be correct, but the discussion was about the relative cost.

OK time to eat my words it's not as bad as I thought...

Gas cost was basically taken from the smart meter as no other gas appliances were used in that half hour period, it was around 0.24kWh (10.99p/kwh) so 2.63p

Kettle was worked out by taking 3000w and dividing it by 3600, then I get the Wh per second, times that by 90 to get 75Wh.

Take my unit rate (35p/kWh) and times that by 0.075kWh

So again around 2.62p

Fairly sure that's accurate enough but if you notice any glaring errors let me know!

So this confirms the same as the last time I did testing, basically you use 3x gas as electric to boil the same amount of water, as long as gas is 3x cheaper than electric, its cheaper to use gas. 

Post updated with current data. 

Chrysalis

There has been tests done on this, and every one I have read, the electric kettle always wins.

When on holiday had to use a gas kettle and it seemed to take an age to boil vs electric, so gas is cheaper per kWh, but its not as quick and efficient.

QrizB

wittynamegoeshere said:

Or wood?

One of these?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Kettle

Krakkkers

Or you could just wait for The Suns red giant phase in 2 or 3 billion years and then all water on Earth will be boiling.

davemorton

So........if it is cheaper to heat water by electric than gas, why is it not cheaper to heat the water for your radiators and tapped hot water with electric?

QrizB

davemorton said:

So........if it is cheaper to heat water by electric than gas

It isn't, and I don't think anyone in this thread has claimed that it is.

See also this post:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79455950/#Comment_79455950

why is it not cheaper to heat the water for your radiators and tapped hot water with electric?

A stovetop kettle is perhaps 40% efficient at transferring energy from a gas flame into water, but is still slightly cheaper than heating the same water with a 90%+ efficient electric kettle.

Your gas boiler is at least twice as efficient as a stovetop kettle.