News reports are that
Boris Johnson has suggested buying new kettles to save
£10 a year but I am not sure I believe them, surely even Boris Johnson isn’t that stupid.
Electricity is commonly converted into light, sound, kinetic (movement) and
heat energy. Pedants might add magnetic and nuclear but they are the main ones and in
the case of kettles we expect them to convert electricity to heat. If it lights
up like a beacon, makes a noise or starts walking across the kitchen you have a
problem but not much of one. You can deafen yourself with a couple of watts of
acoustic energy efficiently converted and vibration would consume a
piddling amount of energy compared to 3,000 watts of heating power.
Walking whistling or glowing kettles probably require attention but the only way a kettle
is likely to really waste energy is if it is furred up. It will take longer to heat up and
during the extra minute or two might lose a tiny bit more to the atmosphere while it comes to the boil.
Basically an old 3,000 watt kettle will boil water at the same cost as a new one. Any differences will be
immeasurable to the point of being non-existent and you will be thirty quid worse off for buying a new one.
When I installed solar panels in 2011 they were not powerful enough for a 3,000 watt kettle so I
thought I would be clever and buy a 1,000 watt kettle which would run entirely off solar energy and therefore boil at no cost.
It naturally took three times as long to boil the water and when it was eight months old
it failed. So it was £20 straight down the plug hole.
For the record my Smart Meter tells me that it costs about one penny to make one cup of
tea or coffee. If you want to save money buy a cheaper brand.
I take the regular pleas to take things off standby with a pinch of salt too. My old
plasma TV was very expensive when switched on but took only 0·4 watts in standby.
Even at next January’s tariff that is under three pence a week.
Knowing my luck, flicking the off switch several times a day will result in its
premature failure and an excessive repair bill.
Besides that, up market TVs go through a screen refresh cycle after you turn them off.
Not every time but quite often. Not allowing them to do that will cause the
screen to deteriorate more quickly. Another unwanted expense.
My sister has a bank of three phone chargers on a single power strip and
permanently powered on. It always annoyed me - and not just because of the small fire risk - and eventually I did some research on how much power she might be wasting.
The answer was under £1 a year so I decided to say nothing rather than risk a sisterly nagging.
There are ways to make economies but listening to Boris Johnson is not one of them.
Note: Some kettles are 2,500 watts or similar. The same logic applies.