Are Electric Kettles Energy-Efficient?
Electrical Kettles are a legitimate luxury that comes at an average price. It doesn’t appear like that, but it works in the same way. You can understand this unexplainable emotion associated with an electric kettle if you are a student living in a hostel or an employee living alone, regarding the fact of how handy it has been for you.
Applying a few electronics in a standard kettle makes it an electric kettle which serves as a tremendous mobile cooking tool. You cannot live without having one; once you are aware of utilities, it brings in your life. You can easily take it away with you anywhere, at your workplace, or outdoors. It just needs a socket with an electric supply to add the flavor of taste and convenience in your life.
You can use electric kettles to boil water, make tea, make coffee, make flavored milk, cook chicken pieces for a supplement diet, prepare quick midnight noodles, etc. These things you can do without using any extra utensils or lighting stoves. It adds bits in your comfort, but it is equally important to know how energy efficient it is. In this article, we will talk about all aspects of energy consumption in an electric kettle.
How Electrical Kettles Work?
Well, it is interesting to know about how electric kettles work because it can give you a little knowledge about how electric kettles consume energy. Electric kettles have a metallic coil or plate at the bottom. The coil and plates are made up of high resistance material, and both ends of the coil are connected to the wire; it causes the flow of current through the coil when connected to the socket. If you are interested in physics, then you must know a formula H=I^2R, here H is for heat generated, I is for electrical current, R is for the resistance of the material. It means heating of the coil will depend on the amount of current and electrical resistance of the material.
Electrical Kettles are known for their quick heating properties because of the delicate material of the coil. The formula for heating says heat is proportional to current and resistance, hence as long as you will be supplying current, the temp will keep increasing. It was a challenge for electrical kettle designers, so they came up with the solution by using the bi-metallic strip as the Temperature Sensor. Once the temperature of the kettle reaches a pre-set value, it trips the current supply. Again, when temp decreases supply gets started, by this method, an electric kettle makes cooking possible for you.
Energy Consumption in Electric Kettle
Energy consumption in electric kettles is similar to other electrical appliances. A given power rating calculates the energy consumption of electrical appliances. The standard unit for the energy is Joule, and if energy is written in terms of power, their standard unit is a watt. Every electrical device is rated in watts, where 1 watt = 1 joule/sec. The average power rating for an electric kettle is 1200watts. So, it will consume 1200joule of energy every second.
Generally, boiling water in an electric kettle takes around 2 minutes, hence boiling water in an electrical pot will consume 144 kilojoules of energy. Let’s see the energy consumption of electric kettle in terms of electrical units. In electricity consumption, meter 1 unit means 1 kilowatt/ hour. If a device having a power rating of 1000 watt will be used for 1 hour, then it will consume 1 unit of electricity. If you use your electric kettle for 1 hour in a day, then it will consume 1 unit of electricity daily. Now you can calculate your electricity expenses as per your electricity rate. For exactly getting a clear picture of the energy efficiency of an electric kettle, we have to compare it with the other alternatives.
Energy consumption of Electric Kettle vs. Gas stove
For understanding energy consumption by a gas stove and electric kettle. We have to concentrate on the mechanism of heating by both. Let us take an example of boiling the water by the gas stove and the electric kettle. On a gas stove, you have to put water for boiling in a regular kettle. Hence before heating water, you have to heat the kettle first. Unlike in an electric kettle, you only have to heat the water, because the bottom of the kettle is a heating element in itself. After concentrating on the heating mechanism in both mediums, the picture becomes clear. Heat wastage in an electric kettle is lesser compared to a gas stove, hence electric kettle is much efficient than a gas stove.
But it is one side of the story, the other side of the story says electric kettle may appear efficient in terms of energy consumption, but if in a broader picture when we add energy consumption in production and transmission of that electricity along with energy consumed in boiling, then gas stoves are considered a winner. Still, you cannot ignore the fact that you can’t carry a gas stove with you everywhere. Which one is more efficient in your pocket depends upon the price of electricity and gas in your area?
Energy Consumption of Electric Kettle vs. Induction stove
In previous topics, we did a match between an electric kettle and a gas stove. Electric kettle did well in terms of energy efficiency, but considering the broader picture, the gas stove won. In this topic, both contestants run on the same source that is electricity. For boiling-water on an induction stove, you must repeat steps you did in the case of a gas stove. Like putting water in a utensil first and then on the stove. The only difference is you have to press the switch instead of lighting the stove.
Here also for heating water, you must heat the kettle first, unlike electric kettle. Hence electric kettle is more efficient, and now both operate on electricity so no advantages from a broader perspective, so the electric kettle is a clear winner in terms of efficiency.
Conclusion
The average power rating of a standard electrical kettle is 1200 watt. Comparing efficiency with a gas stove, electric kettle instantly wins, but while considering the broader perspective, where the energy used in the power generation process also calculated gas stove wins. In comparison with an induction stove, an electric kettle is a clear winner.