Hi could someone answer this question so that i can print it off and show her?
I went to boil the kettle and in she came like a wailing banshee shrieking "Don't do it!" as if the place was filled with gas and i was about to press an ignition button. I shouted "What? and she said "it's full, pour half away as it'll be cheaper" I laughed and said "It doesn't use up more then 240v at a time so it doesn't matter whether there's a thimble full or whether it's filled to the brim as the kettle can't suck out more electricity from the national grid as the wires are only built to be able to take 240v at a time and unfortunately we don't have a magical device that can do otherwise" She then started harpng on about some advert which she'd seen which honestly put a bee in her bonnet about all of these rubbish "Energy saving" tips which seem to cost quadruple more then the current methods!
Does anyone know whether this really does save money and if so how much money does it cost to have a full kettle boiling 2 times a day every day of the year and how much does it cost to have a half filled kettle 2 times a day every day in a year and exactly what the saving is so i can show the dozy mare when she comes home.
We have a gizmo which plugs in and shows how much electricity is being used at any time and how much it costs. The really frightening display is a green, amber and red display to show how much is being used. Even my O.H. is now convinced that overfilling a kettle is costing real money.
The 3 litre kettle on the (free) wood burner sings away full to the brim.
boil kettle and use surplus water for washing dishes or your mouth, for calling her a dozy mare. She could pour surplus boiled water over you to learn ya
This is all a bit of a storm in a half full kettle. In the winter the only advantage of putting less water in the kettle is the saving of time because the 'wasted' heat from the kettle ends up heating your house thus saving a corresponding heating cost. (although if you have a cheaper form of central heating it will cost you the difference). In the summer (if you have one)when you aren't heating the house the heat will be wasted but not so much as the tap water is warmer. So if you can tell us how many cups of tea you make on average from each kettle boiling and how many cups you have per day, what you pay for your electricity, what the cost per kwh is for your central heating and how much of the tea is brewed with the central heating on and if you let the milk warm up from the fridge before adding the brew, then an answer can be provided. :-)
Put simply - why boil four times more water than you need, let most of it cool, top it up, re-boil etc. Apart from costing more, hot drinks should be made with freshly-drawn, freshly-boiled water.
Well, you'd better work out what your fuel bills would be without the insulation, double glazing etc. The cost of fuel has risen enormously in recent years. Granted, that if you put all the insulation in and left next week you wouldn't see the benefit in that house but you might, in a way. The house may not be as saleable without double glazing and insulation to modern standards.
Instead of thinking about how much money you are saving why not think of it as your little bit towards saving the planet. If everyone did it, just think how much less power would be used and how much less fossil fuels burned to produce that energy. It's not all about you you know ;-)
The "dozy mare" is obviously significantly brighter than her other half. However, Mr Cruncher is not as dumb as my friend's OH. She tidied the kitchen and moved the kettle across the other side of the room. Dear Kevin, bless him, swore that the kettle took longer to boil that side because it took the electricity longer to get round there.
This is the same chap who when they had Sky fitted and the chap hadn't got enough cable, helpfully volunteered that there was some spare cable in the loft. He went and cut a chunk and then no-one could work out why the TV wouldn't get a signal when Sky wasn't on - yes he had taken a lump out of the co-ax.