One cup or two?
This morning I was waiting for the kettle to boil and I started to wonder and you can do a lot of wondering in 3 minutes, I started with wondering how much energy I waste by boiling the kettle with two cups of water instead of 1. No one wants to boil the kettle dry so people tend to overfill the kettle, at least I do, there always about one cup full of water in the kettle so that's 250ml. Just think of all tat wasted energy and money. Ping! I had an idea, voice activated taps that deliver just the right amount of water, the money you save would pay for the tap, I could go on Dragons Den.
After breakfast I did a calculation. To raise the extra cup of water to 100℃ requires 0.25 x 4200 x 80 = 84 kJ. If I do this 6 times a day for 365 days a year that about 200 MJ or 61 kWh. The price of electricity in Norway is around $0.1 so If I installed a voice controlled tap I'd save 6 dollars a year. As for my new invention, it's already been invented an patented. The Kohler tap costs about $1000! Pity it's so expensive, it would also be a great device for people with various disabilities. I for one am finding it more an more difficult to hold the kettle with one hand and turn on the tap with the other.
The mug shot shows two of our Dunoon collection.