Dave Hall Electrical – The Dorchester Electrician – Call Today – Tel : 0777 50 40 093
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A key area where you can think about saving energy is with how you use your kettle.
A classic piece of energy saving advice is to only use as much water as you need when boiling the kettle, remembering to cover the element if you’re using an electric kettle, as over filling a kettle each time you use it wastes energy and money. It can cost you 25p extra a day, £100 a year if you boil a full kettle when you are only making a cup five times a day. Jug-type kettles have smaller elements and so need less water.
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Dave Hall Electrical – The Dorchester Electrician – Call Today – Tel : 0777 50 40 093
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If you do fill the kettle up in the morning, transfer all the hot water over to a vacuum flask. So instead of putting the kettle on up three to four times you can se the water from the flask.
Boiling only as much water as you need is certainly a good tip, but it is sometimes difficult to gauge how much water is enough, often resulting in overfilling. It is estimated that people boil twice-as-much water as they actually need. When using a typical 3KW kettle this wastes the energy of around 50 light bulbs! Pouring the water from the cup you are actually going to use is an easy way to correctly gauge the water needed. Make sure you add a bit to allow for evaporation and be sure to cover the element if you use an electric kettle.
If you buy an energy monitor (see another article) you will spot that the kettle is an absolute shocker. You will see that making a cup of tea will send the low, mid-evening readings shooting up five times or more. This is precisely why the National Grid struggles to cope with the massive surge in demand at the end of popular soaps and during half-time in cup finals!
Lime scale can affect the efficiency of your kettle if you live in a hard water area. Look out for a build-up of lime scale in your kettle which means you use more energy to boil the same amount of water. Treat the scale with vinegar or de-scaling solutions regularly.
When cooking on the hob, rather than wait for the water to heat in the pan, it’s more energy-efficient to boil water in the kettle . A kettle uses a third of the electricity as the saucepan on an electric hob to heat the same amount of water.
You can save both water and electricity by replacing your old kettle with a newer energy-saving one. Unlike the newer jug kettles, older models can’t boil a single cup of water. Change your old inefficient kettle for a new type and only use the necessary amount of water when filling the kettle.
There are a few different types of energy-saving kettle. Some with a flat element have no minimum water level. Others have a reservoir which releases into the kettle just the correct amount of water required. Whichever you use it leads to less wasted boiled water and you save time, energy and money. It is said that if everyone boiled the water they required instead of filling the kettle then as a country we would save enough electricity to power almost all the street-lighting in the UK!
If you would like to discuss any aspect of your electrics call me or drop me a line at The Dorchester Electrician.
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Dave Hall Electrical – The Dorchester Electrician – Call Today – Tel : 0777 50 40 093
