Update: In a head-to-head test between the electric water heater and the stove-top kettle Holms was able to show where a twice a day habit of boiling water can really add up.

500ml of 10°C water in an electric water boiler (tea-kettle shaped variety) used 1800watts (0.046KWh) for a cost of just over one Euro cent (0.10 Danish Kroner) to bring to a boil.

The same test on the stove-top kettle used 1000
watts for 5 minutes and 30 seconds (0.087KWh)
and a cost of two Euro cents (0.17 DKK) for a full boil.

I boil two liters a day for tea (sounds like a lot when I write it out like that), therefore, I am wasting 58KWh a year and around 13.4 Euros (100 DKK) using the stove-top. Now as it turns out the cost of one of those tea-kettle shaped electric water boilers ranges wildly from 230 Euro (1700 DKK) for the top of the line Dualit model to 27 Euro (200 DKK) for the Philips basic model.

	The high and the low Stock Electric kettles (Dualit left, Philips right)

So do I buy an electric water kettle?

On a cost-for-cost basis buying the Philips polypropylene model (a bit more specific than just saying ‘plastic’) will pay off for itself in energy savings in two years; the designer Dualit, however, is going to take 17 years of use (remember this is a daily use scenario) to come up even. On the face of it this seems like a no-brainer, but really if we are going to concern ourselves with energy savings and efficiency (a foregone conclusion in a world of diminishing available resources) then we need to get serious.

	Stove-top test Author Holmes and Wattson show whats up

Here is where a little regulation could actually be useful to the would be consumer; if I could pick up each model and read on the side the calculated energy inputs (measured in watts, or joules or even Carbon) than it would be a simple comparison.

Short of this level of corporate transparency and intensive auditing I am left to relying on market pressures to determine the quality of goods; price.

Beyond energy inputs for manufacturing it is also important to consider the lifetime of the product (how long it will last, able to perform the function) and waste considerations (is it recyclable, how much energy is needed to recycle the products materials etc.). Things get very complicated fast.

This type of analysis sounds impossible but recently Sweden took the first step by requiring CO2 emissions data on the packaging of food.



I will continue working with Wattson and Holmes to find the limitations of the product and explore home energy monitor technology in general, with future posts.