urn or kettle which is better....theres only one way to find out..... 4 February at 10:36PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 3 replies 145 views

boohoo2022

hi all, so i dont have a functional large water heater at the mo, but was hoping to instead get an undersink water heater for smaller quantities being a single person household. Which of course will need plumbing in.

But i am looking at the good old fashioned tea urns- i know they would need manually filling with water but as a method of getting hot water over the day rather than boiling several kettle loads are tea urns more energy efficient option than a kettle, or even an under sink heater?

I can get one and not have to wait for plumber is what im thinking as i need a large quantity of hot water for only a short space of time for my craft business. Looks like its the obvious answer, any advice?

casper_gutman

I don't really see how a tea urn could be more efficient. If I have six mugs of tea from a kettle, I will boil six mugs of water. I will boil the water when I need it, then use it immediately.

If I use a tea urn to make six mugs of tea, then I'll still need to boil six mugs of water. But in this case I'll have to boil it all in the morning, then keep using energy to compensate for heat losses all through the day. In fact I'd probably have to boil more than six mugs' worth, to make up for the amount that would boil off during the day and to ensure the urn wouldn't  boil dry.

ThisIsWeird

Hi B-H.

What do you mean by 'large quant of hot water...short time'? How large? And what for?

As for boiling mug-quants for a cuppa, time how long it takes to put this amount in your kettle with tap full on. For us, it's 'onethousand'. (Saying it, I mean...)

Perhaps also worth considering the electronic kettles mentioned on another recent thread - these can seemingly be set to shur off pretty much exactly on the boil, or lower if you like. It's the 4 seconds of full-on boiling that annoys me with a normal kettle, as it's often partially pushed under a wall unit and is starting to affect the door lamination.

Like Casp, I can't see an urn being energy efficient. It could be more convenient, tho', if what you mean is that 20-odd folk turn up at the same time for a crafty drink?

GDB2222

We actually have an urn that we use one day a week instead of a kettle. It is a large plastic thing that is not insulated, so it is obviously losing heat all the time, and that’s over a much larger surface area than a kettle. 

On the plus side, we keep it at a temperature that is about right for making hot drinks, probably 70-80C, so we’re not wasting energy boiling water away as steam. And, of course, it’s very convenient not having to fill the kettle and wait for it to warm up.  If it saves us say 10 minutes on the days we use it, that’s worth a couple of pounds.