Could hob ketles make a come back? 12 January at 9:38AM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 51 replies 1.7K views

Mutton_Geoff

TELLIT01 said:

I wonder how long a Quooker tap would have to be used for boiling water before it pays for itself.

It's a desirable consumer item, you would never buy one on a cost/benefit analysis alone. In fact, I would have never bought and installed one but my current house came with one. I'm a convert. I don't care how much it costs to run (the CO2 bottles are expensive although I get them refilled by Ebay sellers).

Petriix

I'm pretty happy with my hob kettle, but I have a gas hob. While gas is ~ 30% of the price of electricity I'm happy to use the cheaper fuel even if it means waiting a bit longer. And, yes, it's less efficient, but the excess heat directly heats the house which is useful at this time of year. 

outtatune

When you boil water in a kettle, what else gets hot? Answer: the outside of the kettle, and the surrounding air a tiny bit, and that's it.

When you boil water on a gas or non-induction electric hob, what else gets hot? Answer: the outside of the kettle, and pretty much everything in a radius of about 250mm. That's wasted energy you're paying for with no benefit.

Petriix

outtatune said:

When you boil water in a kettle, what else gets hot? Answer: the outside of the kettle, and the surrounding air a tiny bit, and that's it.

When you boil water on a gas or non-induction electric hob, what else gets hot? Answer: the outside of the kettle, and pretty much everything in a radius of about 250mm. That's wasted energy you're paying for with no benefit.

How much of the energy do you think is wasted? My guess is around 50%. That makes it 60% of the cost of the electric equivalent.

And how can you claim it's of no benefit when it's directly heating my house? 

Silvertabby

My mum would only ever use a hob kettle because "water and electricity don't mix".

Unfortunately, she never used the whistle (couldn't stand the noise)  and then would forget that she had left the kettle on.  Cue steam filled kitchen and a boiled dry kettle with a hole in its bum.

Mistral001

DullGreyGuy said:

Mistral001 said:

I wonder if this is a trend that comes from across the Atlantic.  Americans mostly use hob kettles because their 110Volt system means that only appliances up to about 1500Watts can be plugged into the wall.  Our 240Volt system means that wall sockets can cope with twice that and hence  we can use 3000Watt kettles.  The Americans use the hob kettles simply because a kettle plugged into the wall socket will take ages to boil.  The hobs off course are supplied with cables that can cope with much higher power than the puny 1500Watts that their wall sockets can cope with.

Dont know about the US but in South America which is also 110v 60hz they do tend to have 240v 60hz plugs in their kitchen.. mainly designed for washing machines and other high demand devices but know some family have a kettle plugged into one

Thanks that interesting.  Are the plugs used in the kitchen different from the those elsewhere?  I believe the American plugs are fairly small and there all are limited to 1500W.

FreeBear

Silvertabby said:

My mum would only ever use a hob kettle because "water and electricity don't mix".

Unfortunately, she never used the whistle (couldn't stand the noise)  and then would forget that she had left the kettle on.  Cue steam filled kitchen and a boiled dry kettle with a hole in its bum.

Most (all ?) Induction hobs have a sensor to detect when a pan overheats and should shut the heating zone off before any damage occurs.

alan_d

Mistral001 said:

Thanks that interesting.  Are the plugs used in the kitchen different from the those elsewhere?  I believe the American plugs are fairly small and there all are limited to 1500W.

Their 240v plugs are different to the 120v ones. They usually have a supply that is 120-0-120 so each leg is 120v to ground. But between the two legs is 240v, and these use a special plug which has pins for each leg (hot), neutral (cold) and earth. Also used for washers etc.
Interesting video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmUoZh3Hq4

alan_d

Also this one is interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c

daveyjp

We've had a stove top kettle since our last electric kettle blew up, must be at least ten years ago.

The ability to fill it, use some of the boiled water and keep the rest simmering until needed can be useful at times.