If you use your stove-top to boil water for tea (or coffee), you are using more energy than you need. All the moreso if you are making just one cup at a time.
I’m not a big one for pushing a particular product by a particular manufacturer, but when there’s one that’s good, well…
In this case, what I refer to is the Sunbeam Hot Shot. Ours has lasted a couple of years now, and still going, but that said, it is a bit on the flimsy, made-in-china side of things. On the other hand, it is inexpensive ($14 at time of writing), and more to the point, it is the most energy efficient way to boil a cup of water (short of using a woodstove that is burning anyway).
The Hot Shot can boil up to about 14 ounces at a time. It takes only a little over 1-1/2 minutes for a full 14 ounces, and in that time (according my trusty watts meter) uses only about 40 watts of electricity. That meshes with the label which states 1450 Watts per hour, which at 1.5 minutes, is equal to about 36 Watts.
Compare this to an electric stove-top, which uses about 1250 Watts on high, for a 6″ element, for the five to six minutes that it takes the element to heat up and boil the water. That would be about 125 Watts. Over three times the energy use! If you boil water, say, 4 times a day, and your electricity rate is $0.12 per KWh, this would equate to an annual savings of $15. In other words, you’d pay off your investment in a Hot Shot in less than a year and then you’re saving both money and time.
Now if you need more, like a quart or more, at a single go, electric kettles are the better way to go. They’ll give you similar energy results, per ounce. But if your standard is just one cup at a time, the Hot Shot is the best solution – quick, easy and no wasted energy or excessive wasted hot water.
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