Energy Saving ~ is this too extreme?

[Two_Sheds]

Tea should always be made with BOILING water. It just is not as good any other way.

Agreed. But I drink coffee

[Flummery]

A friend of mine boils a full kettle in the morning and puts an egg in it. (You need to make sure it's not covered in free-range chicken bum-fluff of course!) She makes a flask for the day and by lunchtime has a nicely coddled egg. Sufficiently cooked for egg butties, she says.

[maytreefrannie]

Without getting too scientific- Alison is right on two points I think.

It takes the same amount of energy to boil 6 cups of water whenever you do so. The only wastage is boiling more than needed in your kettle each time (or being left with spare in the thermos ie if you only have 4 cups on some day)

Tea should always be made with BOILING water. It just is not as good any other way.

Absolutely agree about the BOILING water - it's the only way you'll get proper tea.

I think the thermos idea sounds good - I haven't tried it but I might do, though I think my thermos loses heat over a few hours. Any other money saving ideas out there? I'd love to hear - maybe Hey Wayne could pass on some from the book?

[Two_Sheds]

A friend of mine boils a full kettle in the morning and puts an egg in it.

I boiled an egg in the kettle once. I was picking scrambled egg out of the element for weeks.

[Flummery]

Aha! the trick is to pierce the end with a pin - only just, so it doesn't come out in 'egg-thread soup' style!

[lynda66]

A friend of mine boils a full kettle in the morning and puts an egg in it. (You need to make sure it's not covered in free-range chicken bum-fluff of course!) She makes a flask for the day and by lunchtime has a nicely coddled egg. Sufficiently cooked for egg butties, she says.

can do that with rice and pasta too, bring the water back to boil after adding them, then put the lid on ..... takes a bit longer, but it does work.

[Capsid]

An average kettle is 1kw and say it takes 2 minutes to boil then the energy used in kwh is 1 x 2/60= 0.34kwh. If the average tariff is 15p per kwh then the price for a cuppa is 15p x .34 = 5.1p.

An energy saving light bulb is 15w (0.015kw) and if it is switched on for 4 hours then this is 4 x 0.015 = 0.06 kwh. The cost of this is 15p x 0.06 = 0.9p.

[lynda66]

if you're really bothered about how much the kettle costs ........ don't drink tea or coffee ...... tis strange i know, but i'd rather have my 20 cups a day than turn the heating on lol

[Irie Jan]

My electric bill went up by £28 a month yet I am nearly always in credit even after the winter months it is rediculus! My daughter and her partner were recently given £400 credit back into their bank account. Then their next bill was increased by £100 a month only 2 of them and the animals in a 3 bed house so not all rooms are heated. Both kids work shifts, usually while one is at work the other one is sleeping so they cant be high energy users!

I just think these energy companies are over the top with their charges!! especially since oil prices have gone down! I sometimes wish I was back on a key meter! I know every one says it is a bit of a higher charge but at least I felt more in controll of MY MONEY! The only reason I switched back to an ordinary meter and pay monthly DD, was because it was getting harder to find places that charged the key! My local shop that is open till 10.pm stopped key charging! The couple of other shops around are not open so late even if they did the key charging and if the machine was not down!! Averley was the next place 3 miles from home!

Next option years ago in Grays town centre 4 miles away from me, there was a key charging machine you could put your money into. That was taken away years ago! The next place would have been a 20 mile drive into wickford! Every time we got an updated list of key charging places more options had been closed to us and they said that this was to improve services

[smallblueplanet]

The problem is I'm unsure how to boil water for my cuppa with a light bulb?

[HeyWayne]

The problem is I'm unsure how to boil water for my cuppa with a light bulb?

The same way you would to boil an egg - shees Manda, I do worry about you sometimes!

[Tam]

Most energy suppliers give a discount if you pay by direct debit - it is 15% from our
electricity company.

[Hilary B]

Without getting too scientific- Alison is right on two points I think.

It takes the same amount of energy to boil 6 cups of water whenever you do so. The only wastage is boiling more than needed in your kettle each time (or being left with spare in the thermos ie if you only have 4 cups on some day)

Tea should always be made with BOILING water. It just is not as good any other way.

I think it will take a LITTLE more energy to boil one cup at a time, 6 times, than to boil 6 cups at once, but the difference is not going to be great, and however good the thermos, SOME heat will escape, so that each successive cuppa will be just a little cooler than the previous. If you have to wait for it to cool before drinking (as I do) anyway, that may not matter so much.....

[Hilary B]

An average kettle is 1kw and say it takes 2 minutes to boil then the energy used in kwh is 1 x 2/60= 0.34kwh. If the average tariff is 15p per kwh then the price for a cuppa is 15p x .34 = 5.1p.

An energy saving light bulb is 15w (0.015kw) and if it is switched on for 4 hours then this is 4 x 0.015 = 0.06 kwh. The cost of this is 15p x 0.06 = 0.9p.

My kettle is 2kW (checked 5 mins ago), but using your example 2/60 = 0.033333, so the cost would be 0.5 to boil, not 5p. I think it would only take about 1 min at 2kW to boil enough for a couple of cuppas (must time the next one) so the arithmetic is the same.
Energy saving lightbulbs come in several ratings. Ours are 20W in the sitting room.

[Capsid]

My kettle is 2kW (checked 5 mins ago), but using your example 2/60 = 0.033333, so the cost would be 0.5 to boil, not 5p. I think it would only take about 1 min at 2kW to boil enough for a couple of cuppas (must time the next one) so the arithmetic is the same.
Energy saving lightbulbs come in several ratings. Ours are 20W in the sitting room.

Oops sorry, you are right. And I thought I'd checked that.

How come it's £3 for a cup of coffee at starbucks?