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I usually fill the kettle with enough water and while that's getting up to temp I stick half an inch of water in the pan and put that on to heat. So when I pour the boiling water in the temperature doesn't drop. A pinch of bicarb, a bit of salt and in go the home-grown runner beans.
Isnt it shared on the grid?
Yeah, but we export to the grid to England. Well, that’s what my mum told me when I was a kid so it must be true. 🤣 it wasn’t hydro electric for nothing y’know
On my bikepacking travels I’ve passed more than a few (SSE) hydro schemes (and seen a fair few wind farms).
I look forward to finding it, I know I have it in a book but a quick skim isn’t showing it up. Anyway, in the meantime I found this:
Which kettle to choose: Gas or Electric?
Which confirms electricity is by far the most efficient at source. What that doesn’t take into account is that, compared to the USA, we have far more efficient generation with more renewables and higher effiency of thermal generation (CCGT, nuclear etc.) per capita meaning the overall efficiency will be higher so I would expect electricity to be further ahead of gas on his chart.
Even with half of our electricity supply from nuclear and renewable sources, the UK electricity carbon factor is roughly twice that of gas. With the US, you have significant variations from state to state, with some more than 60% renewables, and others heavily reliant on coal.
In fact there's no definitve answer to this question: the experiment is highly sensitve to many factors, including the size and shape of the boiling vessels, time of day, time of year (waste heat contributing to household heating), and fuel mix for the electricity supply. A far bigger influence is being precise with the quantity of water required.
Isnt it shared on the grid?
Whilst it's true that electrons don't care which country they came from, it's not unreasonable to point out that Scotland generates most of its electricity consumption from renewable sources
Scotland generates most of its electricity consumption
We'll worded Sir!
The other thing to note is that if you are cooking when the central heating is on then the heat lost from the pan goes into the room meani g the central heating has to work less hard to keep the house warm. This might exactly net out, in theory..
I'm super stoked in anticipation for the what kettle for boiling ??? water threads.
The other thing to note is that if you are cooking when the central heating is on then the heat lost from the pan goes into the room meani g the central heating has to work less hard to keep the house warm. This might exactly net out, in theory..
If only I'd pointed that out three posts earlier...
All well and good except you’ve just put on the extractor fan to remove the steam/cooking smells and it’s all gone out the window...
and does nobody eat pasta in the summer?
oh came across latest figures for carbon emissions. Elec was 0.519 in 2012, proposed is 0.233 (gas is 0.210 for ref).
elec still 3-4 x more expensive though.
oh, and Al, yer a pedant.
I'm sure most of us boil a kettle then transfer the water to the less efficient pan
Hang on a minute, shouldn't there be a thing called an electric pan?
Whilst it’s true that electrons don’t care which country they came from
The electrons came from the country where they mined the metal ore to make the cables.
Hang on a minute, shouldn’t there be a thing called an electric pan?
Induction hob innit.
oh, and Al, yer a pedant.
I was trying to find a hole in what you said, I gave up.
i always use hot water from the cylinder that is heated overnight on cheaper economy7 electricity to fill the saucepan.
its a new cylinder and very well insulated so its piping hot even though it was heated 12 hours before.
got to be cheaper than using the kettle with electricity thats over twice the price
got to be cheaper than using the kettle with electricity thats over twice the price
Not necessarily. You have to run the cold water out of the pipes first. Then you end up with pipes full of hot water which then gets cold, thereby wasting energy. Our kitchen is two floors below the tank and you have to run out loads of water to get it hot. However if your tank was next door to the kitchen it might still work out. You could figure it out if you wanted. Time how long it takes to fill a litre bottle to get the flow rate, then time how long it takes to run the water hot - you can then find out how much heat you've wasted.
In our house it'd be about 6-7l of water you'd have to run out to get hot water, so if you only needed 0.5l of water for a pan your economy 7 would have to be 12 times cheaper than the kettle.
Hang on a minute, shouldn’t there be a thing called an electric pan?
There is such a thing. Used to be very popular too.
Not necessarily. You have to run the cold water out of the pipes first. Then you end up with pipes full of hot water which then gets cold, thereby wasting energy
its not wasting energy unless i decide i want a bath not shower and turn the daytime immersion on (i can in theory have a late bath and not turn the day immersion on and let the tank heat back-up overnight) because i have used enough hot water during the day to limit the amount of hot water available for a bath. tank is about 2.5m away from tap. all i'm doing is cooling the 120ltr tank down by adding 1-2 litres of cold which will mean it will cost more to heat overnight as the temp will drop by a fraction but the amount will be tiny.
my yearly energy bill is £480 so i must be doing something right.
my yearly energy bill is £480 so i must be doing something right.
How much ENERGY are you saving? We have already covered the bit about gas costing less than electricity.
Also, using tanked water for cooking. Gadz...
Kettle is way quicker and more convenient for boiling water for family pasta, you lot can argue over fractions of pennies while it's boiling.