Comments on: Angular measure

By: youngjuoh

youngjuoh — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:07:30 +0000

I can’t understand why this design is included in sustainability category.

By: ROBERT OGDEN

ROBERT OGDEN — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:14:57 +0000

ELECTRIC KETTLES:
Has anyone else thought to design thermostats to cut out at 99 degrees C (or less) to save adding the latent heat (of evaporation) to the water? Perfectly good tea and coffee can be made with unboiled water and sterilisation takes place below boiling point. There is a potential ENERGY SAVING of millions of units per day if manufacturers were obliged to either give the consumer the choice of reduced temperature or were forced to reduce the maximum temperature of water in kettles.

By: Gareth Rees

Gareth Rees — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:39:51 +0000

To boil exactly the right amount of water in an electric kettle, there’s no need to make any changes to the kettle; instead, use the cup as the measuring device.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:40:32 +0000

Thanks everyone - some great ideas there. On Silverman's point about microwaves, I think the reason they're not more commonly used for heating water is simply that (at 700-800 W typically) they'll take over twice as long to boil the same quantity of water as a 2 kW electric kettle. They're also slightly less efficient in the sense that a proportion of the power drawn is used to rotate the turntable, and power the fans, even assuming that all the microwave energy is transferred to the water - which it isn't necessarily). But I take your point: dematerialising the specialised device that is the kettle (with all the resources that go into making it and disposing of it) might make more sense. Not all hot drinks actually need boiling water (one of the points of the Tefal Quick Cup which, reading the reviews, seems less than successful!) and having, for example, a plumbed-in tap/faucet for near-boiling water, heated as it's drawn up to the spout, might be useful. See also some interesting work on microwave hot water systems for homes. Going back to the scale issue, I wonder whether it is more useful to be able to see it from directly above (as on the OXO jugs), or from a kind of oblique angle that nevertheless isn't directly side-on (e.g. what Kenwood have tried to do). Or, is it really better to have scales which are viewable and reasonably accurately understandable from any angle - which could be large coloured dots, or numerals, as you note, or, as Nathan says, a digital display, maybe sensing the weight (as Crosbie says) and translating this into cups/mugfuls as well as actual volumes. All we need now is piezoelectric generators to stick in the base of the kettle which can generate enough power just by the weight of the water filling it, to power the display... I do work with an expert in printed strain gauges - I should probably make use of this expertise! Lea - you could suggest the baby bottle idea to OXO!

By: Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:28:50 +0000

Nathan, they could do this with weight sensors for kettles – assuming only water will be placed in them.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:28:46 +0000

Perhaps a future innovation could combine the ease of cleaning with the ease of use. Perhaps a digital display showing the user how much is in the container? Shouldn’t be that hard to implement.

Dunno why I just give out this information for free

By: Lea

Lea — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:46:50 +0000

I wish they would do that with baby bottles.

By: Silverman

Silverman — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:14:24 +0000

A new thought occurs: Isn’t the solution to the electric kettle energy-wastage problem simply the eradication of electric kettles? In the United States, there is no kitchen with an electric kettle that doesn’t also have a microwave oven that is capable of doing the same task with less energy. For tea, the exactly correct amount of water can be heated directly in its final container. For coffee, a measuring cup or empty press pot can be used. In addition to energy not wasted in the use of the electric kettle, the energy in materials and manufacture embodied in the electric kettle and the extra solid waste generated when it reaches its end of life are not wasted.

By: Silverman

Silverman — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:03:52 +0000

Note that to use the ramps in these Oxo cups requires that you hold the cup on the level. That’s easy when you’re pouring that weird brown stuff out of the bottle onto the counter. But when filling the cup from the faucet it takes as much effort for me to hold the cup level as it does to look at the side. In fact, I found myself ignoring the ramps on my cups and then switching back to ordinary glass measuring cups because they’re far easier to wash by hand. What are the energy implications of a cup that can only easily be washed by machine?

Also note that the Kenwood design is quite different from the Oxo design: it makes readings possible when the kettle is upright or inclined; it does not make them possible from above as the Oxo cups do. I also consider the Kenwood graduations pretty hard to read. What about big, colored dots or bold numerals instead of sharp lines? It’s not important to get the amount of water exactly right; it’s more important to get it somewhere near the right level but with high confidence that the kettle hasn’t been underfilled.