Simple way to save energy and $$ using your kettle
Kettle using 2400 watts of power
Ok, so I was talking to my Dad about how much energy our kettle uses, and how over the course of a year this would amount to a fair bit of energy and $$$.
We have an energy monitor that shows our house’s energy usage, and when you put the kettle on, the wattage goes up 2,400 watts or so. Electric kettles use a heap of energy, even if it is for a short time period, but still.
The average full kettle will use around 2400 watts for around 4 minutes, to boil the water. Multiply that by the number of times the kettle gets boiled per day, per week, per mth, per year, and you have a LOT of energy use there, and a fair chunk of $$$ being spent too. I probably boil the kettle around 5 times a day, for various cups of tea and coffee.
So this comes to around 1800 times per year, that the kettle gets boiled. So that’s using around (1800 x 4 minutes) or 120 hours @ 2400 watts. That’s a LOT of power being used, and depending on what you’re being charged for power, that’s a fair chunk of $$$ going out of your pocket.
So as I’m having this little whinge and wise old Dad then says something so simple, “don’t fill the kettle right up when you boil the water”. Gosh, so darn simple. Such a simple solution.
I had this habit of filling the kettle right to the top, and then this would take much longer to boil and thus use much more energy. I would boil the full kettle even if it was just me having a cup of coffee, so what a waste that was. Now I add just enough water to the kettle that’s needed, if I’m making a cuppa for myself or for myself and my wife.
So by filling the kettle up to only what we need, for the one 1 or 2 cups of tea or coffee, it takes around 1 minute for the kettle to boil, as compared to 4 minutes with the full kettle. So based on yearly usage, instead of using 2400 watts for 120 hours, I’m only using 2400 watts for 30 hours – a nice saving of 90 hours @ 2400 watts over the year. That’s money in my pocket, rather than going to the electric company.
So save a heap of energy and $$$ by only filling up your kettle for what you need, rather than filling it up to the top. Such a simple solution, as most solutions are. Thanks Dad. 
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