A hot water jug is far more efficient than a kettle. You can heat the exact amount of water you need, down to half a cupful (which takes seconds to boil). There is a water guage on the side.
Also most are insulated.
And they can be lifted off the stand leaving the flex behind & so are more convenient.
I've got one - a Philips - seems to work fine as Harry describes. Not sure of the added efficiency though, and it does take a long time to switch off (well, 5-10s) once boiling. So I generally see to that manually.
I like it for the 3kW and one-cup fill. The water's boiled by the time I've gathered tea bag and mug.
Indeed. We are on our second cordless jug kettle since moving here 14 years ago. They are 'no name' and less than a tenner at the local ironmonger. At that price, I'm not going to worry!
Our Russell Hobbs failed just after the warranty expired, maybe partly because of the hard water. I had to pay £18 to them for a replacement, it has lasted for some years.
Usually I have to much water in it because I can't easily see a low level.
I bought a new cheaper Russell Hobbs jug for a different property. It is easy to fill it with enough for a cup, but the bottom has bloomed after only maybe a months usage!
I have to admire harry's ability to convince himself that the world is black and white and there is no hint of a shade of grey...
The jug kettle with exposed element, the traditional one that's cordless and concealed, the metal non insulated ones, the ones of all shapes and sizes with water level indicators... apparently all don't exist.
Crap. Very few kettles have significant insulation.
To reduce energy usage, you really want a very effective insulating layer on the inside the kettle. That would reduce the heat going into the fabric of the kettle. Another benefit could be lower surface temperature on the outside of the kettle reducing the chance of skin burns by contact.
Ours stays perfectly cool on the outside when it's boiled. But the big efficiency issue is just being able to see/put in the exact amount of water in it by the transparent slot on the side. There is no traditional element, just a smooth flat base inside, easily cleaned. And you can lift it off its base.
In countries where the mains supply is feeble in both voltage and/or current there are very heavily insulated hot water "elephant" kettles which were basically a thermos flask with a heating element inside. These days I think they use mainly blown polymer insulation:
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(in English - not a recommendation just an example)
They are common in Japan. Although I doubt that they are all that efficient since the heat leak through the filling cap is noticeable and the thing is hot all the time. Displacement mechanism to output hot water much like the coffee/teas dispensers at UK conferences.
Flash boilers that deliver a cup full of instant hot water on demand have become more common too with the advent of exotic coffee machines. They tend to die horribly in hard water areas though.
Thermodynamically it is hard to beat warming up exactly the amount of water you want to exactly the right temperature in one step.
Blown PU foam is about as good as it gets in a tight space. Polystyrene would do at a pinch. Anything that prevents convection developing.
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