5 ms·
Speed? In terms of time and energy, a kettle is faster and more efficient. I guess a kettle is a single-purpose tool, and if a microwave oven is available, an
by Jedd 6y ago
Speed?
In terms of time and energy, a kettle is faster and more efficient.
I guess a kettle is a single-purpose tool, and if a microwave oven is available, and you don't mind waiting while large volumes (1+ litres) are boiled, and have suitable receptacles to hold and contain that much water while boiling inside a microwave oven, this makes some sense.
(In contrast, I don't own a microwave oven.)
- therealx 6y agoIt depends where you live. Kettles are faster in the uk, but the us base power isn't fast enough to be fastly powerful.
- m0zg 6y agoIt's the same electricity, given two times the current, at half the voltage your kettle will boil in exactly the same time, because P = V*I
- chihuahua 6y agoBut given that most circuits in a house in the U.S. are limited to 15A or 20A (rare), you can't just double the current. Electric kettles in the U.S. are limited to 15A and therefore a max power of 1800W.
- m0zg 6y agoThanks for the correction, I didn't know that in the UK kettles commonly have a power rating of up to 3KW. Looks like the EU tried to ban such high power appliances in 2014, but I don't think they did. MediaMarkt in Germany has many kettles with power rating of 2400W. This would be doable in the US (barely), but only with 20A wiring and NEMA 5-20 sockets, which are not very popular.
- zrobotics 6y agoIn the US, I've only ever seen 20A circuits in garages/workshops. Kinda wish we had gone for 220v like most European countries, but it's far too late to change that now.
- bluGill 6y agoCode requires 20amp circuits in the kitchen (and garage). However it allows 15amp outlets so long as you can pass the full 20amps through, which all do. Or did you mean. 230 volts?. Every time I accidentally come in contact with mains (only twice in my life, but that is more than enough) I'm glad we are lower, and wish it was less.
- Jedd 6y agoYou didn't mention where you are. In any case, regardless of geographical location, voltage doesn't kill you -- current does. In Australia most household circuits are ~230V AC at 50Hz at 10 Amp, though 15 Amp circuits are not uncommon (the earth pin - we have three pins in a frowny-face configuration, earth being the lower / vertical one) on those are much larger, so you can't accidentally put that into a standard 10A (female) socket. We have three-phase options too, which is ~ 415V AC - not something that's commonly used in residential environments. In any case, 230V @ 10A is less dangerous than 110V at 15A.
- bluGill 6y agoV=ir. That simple equation is why you are wrong. Double the voltage and the current goes up. The human body is high enough resistance that you won't blow a fuse so current depends on voltage.
- Jedd 6y agoI get V=ir, but I'm not seeing any good answers to the question of non-linearity of humans' resistance. I will note that 0.2A is enough to stop your heart, and 2A will almost definitely kill you (with enough damage that you're probably not coming back). Consequently I'm not sure how a 15A (USA) circuit could be considered safe even in the relative sense.
- sdflhasjd 6y ago1800W kettle is still going to boil faster than a microwave, surely.
- core-questions 6y ago> Speed? I just have a big 12L boiler on the counter, it's always hot and usually full, and I never have to wait very long for a hot drink. It's amazing. I couldn't live without it now.
- dhosek 6y agoIt takes 60s to heat a cup of water to boiling. I'm not heating a liter of water.