Cheapest way to boil water

[EvilPea]

I drink a lot of hot drinks and am aware the majority of our electric bill is that.

So, anyone who understands this stuff, what’s the cheapest way to boil a kettle?
So far I’ve looked / thought at;
One cup dispenser, had one. It was shit, gave out varying amounts of water at differing temperatures. However, newer fancier ones may be better.

Using a thermos, but your still boiling the same amount of water, just at once - does this work out cheaper?

Insulated kettle, see above!

An urn. Not quick at boiling, uses lower wattage to keep it warm. Would that work out cheaper than boiling the kettle 4/5 times?

Microwave?

Gas hob??

We rent so a hot water tap is probably out due to outlay, instillation and being pissed off at leaving it behind.

Thank you knowledgable people!!

I boil a full kettle and stick it in a thermos for home-working days- for me the saving is from switching the kettle on, getting distracted and then having to boil it again so this way I eliminate that, also if I do it a cup at a time I’m always boiling more than I need.

Boil the kettle in sufficient amounts for one mug at a time, surely.

How much are you drinking for your bill to be so affected though? Have you calculated the cost per boil? How much are you currently filling the kettle?

I highly doubt that your hot drinks are making such a large contribution to your electricity bill!!

One of those hot water taps would definitely not be an efficient solution.

Just boil the amount you need - so don’t fill up the electric kettle.

I'm another wondering just how many hot drinks you have to make that big an impact on your bill. Do you have a smart meter so know for sure it's the kettle?

According to the Sun (yes I know, it was the first recent google result), it costs 0.7p to boil the kettle for a cup of tea. £2.56 a year. Even if fuel costs double, that's still 1.5p per cup.

www.thesun.co.uk/money/15921594/how-much-cost-boil-kettle/

I highly doubt the majority of your electricity bill is from your kettle (unless you have a tiny bill!). Apparently a full kettle costs ~2.5p to boil, so even if you boiled a full kettle ten times a day you'll only be costing yourself ~£7.50/month.

Boil the amount of water you need for your tea rather than a full kettle, a probably looks elsewhere if you want to save a significant amount of energy!

Unless there is something wrong with the kettle it is unlikely to be making a huge difference to your electricity bill.

Was going to post about the cost of boiling the kettle being really low but see other posters have beaten me too it.

Buying any other appliance will cost several thousand cups of tea in your current kettle!

I also question your assertion that the majority of your electricity bill is due to hot drinks.

However, do you drink tea or coffee? It will be hard to store boiled water hot enough for tea, but may work for coffee.

It may disgust the purist, but for tea, I make a teapot full and then when it's no longer hot enough to drink, I microwave it. But this is for speed rather than energy efficiency, and probably saves a bit on teabags because instead of one bag per cup, three teabags probably does 4/5 mugs of tea and it seems quicker to zap it in the microwave rather than boil the kettle and piss about with new teabags in mugs each time.

I think (and am prepared to be proved wrong) that for most people, the costliest use of fuel will be:

Heating the house or large amounts of water, especially if by electricity rather than gas, so central heating, radiators, shower, hot water for bathing, washing etc.

Followed by large 'heating' appliances, so washing machine, tumble dryer, oven/hob. Some lighting or IT equipment, eg servers or gaming PCs.

A few minutes for a few cupfuls of water in a kettle is probably quite small in comparison.

To reduce your bill, I'd look at short showers, using the most efficient programme in the washing machine, possibly a multicooker instead of the oven, tumble dryer as infrequently as possible, don't wash things after only one wear except underwear to reduce the amount of washing you do, turn lights off, careful with the heating, improve insulation and wear clothes before whacking the heating up, that sort of thing.

That’s quite unusual. Do you not light or heat your home, use any other electrical appliances like a tv, hairdryer etc, no hot water, Cooker, washing machine etc?

If the answer is you don’t use electricity for these things, and you have so many hot drinks as you’re cold, then I doubt you can get your cost of heating water down by much to be honest. Just boil what you need each time.

That is definitely not going to be the thing that’s driving up your electricity. Compared to the fridge, freezer, oven, tumble dryer if you have one, a kettle uses barely anything.

Ok. Thank you all
I’m celebrating with a cup of tea.

DD had a lesson at school and came home saying each kettle boil cost 50p. Stupidly didn’t think to question it myself. Just felt mortified that I was costing the family a fiver a day in electric

I’ve avoided the smart meter, i was waiting for the second gen to come out and then covid happened.

Sounds like kettle is still the most efficient, I get the physics aspect so however you do it the same amount of water needs the same amount of energy to heat it. But thought there must be one more cost affective way over another.

@EvilPea I found this which might help to see how much you're spending on your brews.

Oooh that’s good. I like it!
Thank you

I had this conversation with DH over electric Kettle vs Stovetop kettle on an induction hob and we came to the conclusion it was about the same, which was annoying as I really rather liked the Le Creuset kettle 😂

For coffee lovers I recommend the Melitta Look Coffee machine as the coffee jug is thermal. Brilliant little thing, brew a pot full of coffee at 8am and it's still hot, fresh and drinkable by lunchtime.

‘Told at school that it costs 50p to boil the kettle each time’!

I would be checking that the teacher isn’t one of those ghastly extinction rebellion/climate change fools who is indoctrinating and brainwashing children.

According to USwitch it's less than a penny to boil a kettle... i don't think your tea habit is the most of your electric bill!

I've just boiled a full kettle from cold and happy to report my smartmeter only went up by 3p!

A fiver a day on the kettle. That's 150 pounds a month!! 1825 pounds a year! On tea! That's mad!

@Havilland

‘Told at school that it costs 50p to boil the kettle each time’!

I would be checking that the teacher isn’t one of those ghastly extinction rebellion/climate change fools who is indoctrinating and brainwashing children.

Indeed. Approach it from a 'DD has clearly misunderstood something she learned at school so you just want to check what she was actually told' angle.

Maybe the cost is 0.5 p not £0.50?

"Boil the kettle in sufficient amounts for one mug at a time, surely."

Most kettles have a minimum though.

We have a Rayburn for cooking /heating /hotwater, and the cheapest way is boil the kettle on the hotplate when you're also cooking tea.

@Havilland

‘Told at school that it costs 50p to boil the kettle each time’!

I would be checking that the teacher isn’t one of those ghastly extinction rebellion/climate change fools who is indoctrinating and brainwashing children.

Wouldn’t surprise me (and I say that as an environmentalist) we’ve already had the vocal anti vax teacher

@BarbaraofSeville
I think you might have hit the nail on the head with someone’s maths being off. especially after @emmathedilemma kindly checking her smart meter. 3p, I can live with the guilt of that!!
But not the fiver a day I was worried about!!

@Ariela I’d love one, my entire family have them and they are just lovely. Your very lucky!