This energy-saving kettle has a large capacity (1.7 litres) and a quick-boiling technology. This allows you to boil 1 cup of water in 45 seconds, saving up to 66 percent on energy. Using the water level monitor, it’s also simple to produce one cup. Its precise pour spout prevents water wastage caused by splashing. It contains a concealed element for simple cleaning and shuts off after boiling.
When compared to other Russell Hoobs kettles, the quiet boil function is 75 percent quieter. When the water rises to a boil, the illuminating feature turns blue. The vibrant yet understated copper ombre will add a bit of class to your environmental kitchen.
During the testing process, we looked at a lot of kettles, but the fact that you can save up to 66 percent on energy by employing its smart boil function when the kettles aren’t boiling at full capacity won us over. The replaceable filter, which prevents silt buildup, also impressed us.
What is the most cost-effective method for boiling a kettle?
Descale your kettle on a regular basis – 11% of Britons have never cleaned their kettle. Limescale causes your kettle to perform inefficiently, causing it to take longer to boil and consume more energy.
Descaling every four to eight weeks in a hard water area and every few months if your water is gentler will keep the inside scale clear. Remove the filter from the kettle on a regular basis (if it has one) and rinse it as well. To descale your kettle, use white vinegar or citric acid.
Don’t overfill a kettle – Using more water than necessary in a kettle wastes both electricity and money. Pay heed to the minimum fill line if you have a kettle with one. Kettles with side-by-side measurements are also quite useful.
You can do the math and figure out how much water to boil based on how many cups of tea you need if you recall that the average mug holds roughly 250 to 350ml.
Use the stove – According to Which?, switching from an electric kettle to a stove-top kettle could save you money. Because gas is less expensive than electricity, you might save money by boiling your water on the stove.
This, however, only works if you’re boiling just the proper amount of water and turning off the stove as soon as the water is boiled.
Do electric kettles consume a lot of power?
Electric kettles are known for their efficiency, and many of them are labeled as such. The water with electric kettles comes into direct contact with the heating element, there is no pot to heat, and most kettles come with an integrated lid. The electric kettle used roughly 1200 watts and boiled the water in 125 seconds, resulting in 0.04 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power used. The theoretical energy necessary to heat 350 ml of water to 83 C in 125 seconds is 972 watts, I determined after clearing the cobwebs from my thermodynamic section of my brain. When we divide this by the actual wattage utilized, we get an overall efficiency of 81 percent for boiling water in an electric kettle.
How can I make my kettle use less energy?
If you’re seeking for energy-efficient kettles, go no further than your own kitchen. When boiling water, a little common sense will save you a lot more energy than attempting to find a more energy efficient kettle.
Take electric kettles for example. Keep in mind that an electric heating element converts electrical energy to heat with a 100 percent efficiency. You won’t be able to locate a kettle with a more efficient heating element than another. Of course, there are a few characteristics that can assist you in making more efficient use of a kettle. Cheaper kettles, for example, may not have an automated shutoff, meaning that if you become distracted, the water will continue to boil until the kettle is empty (and possibly burns itself out). If you frequently leave the kettle boiling and then wander away, an automatic shutdown kettle will save you electricity.
Here are some of the most important things you can do to convert regular kettles into energy-saving kettles without having to go out and buy a new one:
Boil only what you require. This is self-evident: only put four cups of water in the kettle if you’re making a four-cup pot of tea. It’s pointless to boil more water than you require. It will take more time and use more energy. As a result, take your time when measuring.
Of course, if you can’t see inside your kettle, measuring with a measuring cup (or filling the teapot first, then pouring into the kettle) may be your only option; since you’re not likely to keep this up indefinitely, getting a kettle with a clear view of how full it is can assist.
Purchase the appropriate kettle size. This is really a supplement to boiling only what you require. Get a tiny kettle if you only need to boil a cup or two at a time. A minimum fill level is necessary for larger kettles to cover the heating element. If the minimum fill level is greater than the amount of hot water you require, you’re better off upgrading to a smaller kettle rather than boiling too much water all of the time.
With a minimum one cup setting, the Breville kettle seen at right can boil up to eight cups of water. Energy-saving kettles like this one make more sense than a cheap, traditional kettle where you can’t even see how much water you’ve added for those who usually prepare a cup of tea at a time but occasionally want a complete pot. It’s also worth noting that this kettle has five distinct brewing temperatures, allowing you to only heat the water to the degree you require. If you want your coffee to be brewed at a lower temperature, there’s no point in heating water.
If you don’t have to, don’t boil. You don’t need to bring the kettle to a full boil while making tea or coffee. While it’s one of my pet peeves that most restaurants don’t know how to prepare tea they use tepid water, which isn’t hot enough to extract the full flavor of the tea boiling water is too hot for most teas, as well as coffee. There would be some savings if you could configure your kettle to just boil the water to the temperature you require. For example, bringing water from 60F to 200F (the recommended temperature for French press coffee) is 140F, however boiling at 212F is an extra 12F, or 8%. Meanwhile, the suggested temperature for green teas is 175F, which saves around 24% of the energy used to heat water for green tea instead of bringing it to a full boil.
The Cuisinart cordless electric kettle, shown above, is a highly rated and slightly less expensive kettle that does exactly that – it lets you select the type of tea you’re making (there’s also a French Press option), then heats the water to that temperature and beeps when it’s done. The main disadvantage of this kettle which is advertised as a feature but isn’t in terms of energy economy is that it keeps the water at the specified temperature for up to half an hour, so if you start it and get distracted, the water will still be ready when you return. This is convenient, but if you develop a habit of leaving the kettle on unattended, you will waste electricity.
Use only a small amount of water to prewarm the teapot, then reuse the water: If you’re making tea and want to prewarm your teapot (a habit my parents insist on, though they never notice when I don’t), simply pour a half cup of boiling water into the pot, swirl it about for about 10 seconds, and then pour it back into the kettle. Return the kettle to a boil before making your tea. This way, your teapot gets pre-warmed without wasting the hot water that was required to do so.
Use the hot water as soon as possible. Here’s a sin I, like many others, am guilty of: I start the kettle to boil, then go do something else, with the intention of returning to the kettle as soon as it has boiled and brewing my coffee. However, I become distracted. The kettle comes to a boil, then turns off. I return ten minutes later, and the water is no longer hot enough to brew my coffee, so I have to boil it again. If you use electricity to heat your home, this doesn’t matter as much because the heat from the kettle escapes and warms it. However, if you’re heating with a less expensive fuel, such as natural gas, or it’s already hot outside, it’s a waste of energy to bring a kettle to a boil twice when one will suffice.
Another thing you can do is make sure everything else is ready before the water boils so you can utilize the hot water right away. If you’re preparing coffee the way I do (by hand-pouring a thin trickle of hot water through a cloth filter, as taught to me by Costa Rican coffee enthusiasts), have the ground coffee in the filter and the decanter ready to pour. Do not wait for the water to boil before beginning your coffee or tea-making procedure.
Finally, if you frequently forget about the kettle and want to use hot water quickly, seek for energy-saving kettles that let you know when the water has boiled. When it comes to forgetful folks, old whistling stovetop kettles definitely qualify as energy saving kettles: it’s fairly difficult to leave one boiling for very long.
Look for energy-saving kettles that are insulated. Look for energy-saving kettles with an insulated shell if you’re like me and can’t stop yourself from getting distracted after the kettle has boiled especially if you consume a lot of tea or coffee. These kettles will retain more heat inside the kettle, allowing the water to linger longer before needing to be boiled again or requiring less energy to return to a boil.
Consider an insulated electric kettle, such as the Zojirushi range of hybrid water boilers, for the tea connoisseur. These are excellent items that have received a lot of positive feedback from customers; they are energy efficient because the water is kept hot in a vacuum flask, and they have three temperature settings:
If you’re making coffee by hand, the hottest setting can be used. The Zojirushi is a more expensive option, but if you want fast hot water for your tea, you’ll like this range of boilers.
Keep the extra hot water for later. Use what’s left over if you accidentally boil too much boiling water. Keep it in the kettle in case someone else comes along and wants to make a cup of tea. Alternatively, keep the water hot in a thermos. Alternatively, pour it into the sink while cleaning the dishes (you already have the plug in!). Above all, in the winter, don’t pour hot water down the drain you’re wasting perfectly good heat.
Instead of a stovetop kettle, use an electric kettle. Because much of the heat from a stovetop burner escapes around the sides of the kettle, especially with a natural gas or propane stove, an electric kettle will be more efficient than a stovetop kettle. So, on an electric stove, using an electric kettle is better than using a stove-top kettle, and it’s probably also more energy efficient than using a stove-top kettle on a gas burner.
If your electricity comes from coal or natural gas, an electric kettle may be less efficient in terms of both price and greenhouse gas emissions, because only about a third of the heat from burning the fossil fuel at the power plant reaches your house as electricity, whereas over 60% of the heat in natural gas or propane actually heats up the stove-top kettle. Of course, if you switch to a green electricity provider, boiling your electric tea kettle will emit no greenhouse gases.
Make a single pot of tea and keep it warm in the refrigerator. A cold cup of tea or coffee is unpleasant to drink. But what if the pot isn’t hot anymore? The simple solution is to re-boil the kettle and produce a new pot, but this is wasteful. Other possibilities include:
- Microwave the cold cup of tea or coffee to warm it up. Some may consider this heresy, but it does conserve energy! If you don’t mind, go ahead and do it. No one is looking.
- With what’s left, make iced tea or coffee. Put it in the fridge and drink it later when it’s cold. At least in the summer, it works for me!
- For either tea or coffee, use a thermos. Tea can be prepared in a ceramic pot as usual, but immediately pour the tea into a vacuum insulated decanter (without the tea bags or tea leaves). This will keep it warm for several hours without consuming any additional electricity.
If you don’t have to, don’t boil. It makes no sense to boil water and then let it cool down if you need hot water but not boiling water. Similarly, if you boiled the kettle a quarter hour ago and some hot water remained, you may not need to boil it again it may already be hot enough for whatever you want to do with it. Some contemporary energy-saving kettles have temperature settings that allow you to heat the water to a certain degree below boiling, while others have a temperature meter that shows you how hot it is. If the temperature of the hot water in your kettle is 90C, it’s definitely hot enough to make another cup of tea or dissolve an Oxo cube. There’s no need to re-boil the water.
There’s not much more to energy-saving kettles than this: boil only what you need, use it right away, keep it hot in a thermos without wasting electricity, and be ready when the kettle boils. If you make an effort to do so, all of the kettles you encounter will be energy-saving kettles. If you need a new energy-saving kettle, just choose one that’s the proper size, is electric, has an automatic shutdown, and, if you’re easily distracted, reminds you loudly when the water is boiling!
A word about coffee makers
Pouring near-boiling water into a fabric sack packed with ground coffee is how I prepare my coffee. That’s how they prepare coffee in Costa Rica, where I spent a year, and it’s delicious. It’s fairly effective as long as you make care to only boil the necessary amount of water, just like with tea.
However, using a coffee machine, especially one with a thermal flask that keeps the brewed coffee warm without the use of a heating plate, may be more energy efficient. If you only drink a cup or two at a time, another option is to use a compact coffee maker. People frequently brew a large pot of coffee, set it on the warming plate, and then discard the most of it because it has been overcooked.
Is it more cost-effective to use an electric or a gas kettle?
Fill the kettle only halfway with water and bring it to a boil. Kettles that save the most energy have a low minimum fill line and turn off quickly after boiling.
Regularly descale your kettle. You take more energy to boil the same amount of water if it’s full of limescale.
Because gas is less expensive than electricity, boiling water on a gas hob is somewhat less expensive than using an electric kettle, as long as you just boil what you need and turn off the hob as soon as it has boiled.
Boil only as much water as you’ll need and buy an appliance based on the findings of our lab tests.
Is it more cost-effective to boil a kettle with gas or electricity in the year 2022?
‘Because gas is less expensive than electricity (the average cost after the price cap hike is now 0.07p), it would be worth getting back to basics and boiling your water on the stove,’ Jenkins suggests.
‘However, if you do decide to do this, make sure you only boil the exact amount of water you need, in the right size pot, on the right size stove.’ Boiling a small pan of water over a large burner, for example, will not make the water boil faster and will cost more than using a smaller ring.’
Investing in the best stovetop kettle is another choice that checks all the boxes for style and cost savings. The alternatives available are pretty dang cute too, in addition to being purpose-built for making pots of tea and heating water for pasta. Traditional kettles from Le Crueset
Which kettle uses the least amount of energy?
It has a trendy blue glow on the boiling water. Its modern style looks fantastic in the kitchen.
This electric kettle has a 66 percent higher energy efficiency than conventional electric kettles, which means you’ll save money and time. This kettle can hold up to six cups of herbal tea, which is ideal for making herbal tea for the whole family after dinner.
This glowing glass kettle has the advantage of being very simple to use. It has a precise pour spout, so there will be no leaking onto the kitchen slab or onto your hands. When you stop pouring, it doesn’t dribble. You may also easily remove the filter to completely clean it. Above all, the base includes cord storage, which helps to keep your kitchen tidy.
Is it more cost-effective to boil a kettle or run the hot water tap?
The main benefit of these faucets is that they offer hot water considerably faster and more conveniently than a kettle.
They also make it easier to use only as much water as you need because you can fill your mug or pan right from the tap. Boiling-water taps, according to manufacturers, are more efficient than a kettle and thus less expensive to run.
- Worktops that are more streamlined you won’t need a kettle, so you may save space on your worktop.
- A hot water tap may be more convenient for people who have trouble filling, lifting, and pouring a traditional kettle.
Most versions will eliminate harsh-tasting chemicals, as well as soften and aerate the water, if you like filtered water. So, if you don’t like the water in your location, this can help to change your mind.
What is the most energy-intensive appliance?
We’ve compiled a list of the worst offenders, along with some pointers on how to make them perform as efficiently as possible so that your costs don’t spiral out of control.
In most circumstances, your refrigerator will be the most energy-intensive equipment in your home, consuming up to a third of total energy consumption. However, there are a few techniques to keep this to a minimum.
First and foremost, do not leave it open.
Your refrigerator is continuously striving to reach its ideal temperature, so even slightly opening the door makes it work harder and consumes more electricity.
Second, make sure you defrost your refrigerator as needed. Even a quarter-inch of ice can significantly reduce the refrigerator’s performance.
Finally, make sure you buy an energy-efficient refrigerator. A fridge with an A+++ certification uses 80 percent less energy on average than a fridge with a D rating. This could not only save you hundreds of pounds in the long term, but it also means your fridge emits significantly fewer CO2 emissions, so you can eat your meals knowing you’ve helped the environment.
The TV, while not as energy-intensive as the refrigerator, accounts for a sizable portion of your household’s energy consumption. The most obvious approach to save money is to watch television less, but making sure it’s turned off rather than on standby might make a startling impact. The sort of TV you purchase will also have a significant impact, with LED TVs using 25% less electricity on average than LCD TVs and 40% less power than plasma screens.
In a typical English household, the tumble dryer is used 150 times per year on average, and it may be quite costly. However, there are a number of cost-cutting options available.
In the fickle English environment, taking advantage of sunny days by drying clothes on the line can be risky, but it will save you money. Making sure your dryer is full when you use it can help you get the most out of it, and utilizing a spin cycle on your washing machine before starting the tumble dryer will cut down on the time it takes for your garments to dry.
If you have an electric cooktop, you may be startled to learn that it costs far more to run than a gas hob. One of the simplest ways to save energy is to make sure you use a suitably sized pot or pan for the food, as well as the appropriate sized stove, as anything too big or small will waste electricity. Leaving the lids on any pans you use on will also help to retain the heat in, lowering the amount of energy required to cook your food. Keeping your hobs clean will aid you with this, since any dirt on the hobs will absorb some of the heat.
The dishwasher is one of your most energy-efficient appliances, often requiring less electricity than washing dishes in the sink with hot water. This isn’t to say it shouldn’t be considered while looking for ways to enhance efficiency.
One simple technique to keep things efficient is to fill it up completely and correctly so that one rinse will produce the best results and clean the most dishes. Most modern dish washers also have a number of useful settings; the most energy efficient ones will take longer but use less electricity because they will be washing at a lower temperature.
Everyone enjoys a good cup of tea, but you’ll be surprised at how much better it tastes when you’re also saving money. Making sure you just boil the amount of water you need is one of the most important ways to avoid wasting electricity.
People have become so accustomed to lights that they do not even notice when they are turned on. It’s critical to remember to turn off lights when you’re not using them, and to purchase energy-efficient bulbs to ensure that they last as long as possible.
