Is there a best way to boil water for tea, ramen or even pasta? Do you usually fill up a tea kettle, fire up the gas burner and wait 10 minutes for the water to boil? There might be a better way to boil water that produces hot water with less time, less energy, less toxic fumes, and fewer greenhouse gases.
Sometimes it seems that wasteful habits are part of American life. Living in a country with abundant natural resources, land, forests, oil, gas – it’s no wonder we’ve been accustomed to not being very concerned about consumption and conservation. We drive around in big trucks, muscle cars, build big houses with giant kitchens. We’ll make coffee with a machine that spits out crummy coffee and a pile of little plastic containers. We’ll grab takeout and end up with a pile of plastic containers.
America is home of Wonderbread, TV dinners, spaghetti in a can and more recently food that arrives in the mail with instructions. We could learn a lot from the Europeans on how to live better and be less wasteful.
If you look towards a European country like Finland with sparse resources, you’ll see a much greater emphasis on saving energy and lower consumption. If you visit a friend in Europe you most likely see a combination washer/dryer in their kitchen that “nearly dries” their clothes which are then finished on a clothesline. The clothes dryer after all is the most energy-hogging appliance in your household.
Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.orga
This brings us to tea making. In Europe and Asia you are much more likely to find an electric tea kettle for boiling water than a stovetop kettle. The advantages of an electric tea kettle over boiling water with a gas stove are as follows:
- Shorter boil time
- More efficient energy use
- No fossil fuels burned
- No toxic chemicals released into the home
- Automatic shut off
Ditch the gas stove for better health and less greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuel use as well as better home environment. Why are regulators considering banning gas stove tops? Because of all the toxic fumes produced by gas stove tops. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-10/why-us-regulators-are-weighing-a-ban-on-gas-stoves-quicktake?leadSource=uverify%20wall
Gas stove leaks can also lead to death and explosions. Just using a gas stove normally releases high levels of nitrogen oxide gases and other pollutants into your home and into your lungs.
Consumer Reports, in October, urged consumers planning to buy a new range to consider going electric after tests conducted by the group found gas stoves emit high levels of nitrogen oxide gases, which can irritate airways.
Gas appliances are also contributing to global warming. It is estimated that nationwide methane emissions from appliances each year have the same global-warming potential as about 500,000 cars. Methane, the main component of natural gas, has more than 80 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide for the first 20 years after it’s released into the atmosphere.
What the Inflation Reduction Act Could Mean for Your Next Appliance Purchase
https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/inflation-reduction-act-and-new-electric-appliance-rebates-a3460144904/
You might be eligible for a rebate when you buy an electric range, cooktop, or wall oven
Make a better cup of tea with an electric kettle
The quickest, most energy-efficient, and cleanest way to boil water is with an electric kettle. Less toxic chemicals are released into the home and the energy used is less damaging to the environment.
Here in New Hampshire when I use electricity, 50% of other power was produced by nuclear energy compared to when I use a gas-burning stove top and 100% of the energy comes from a fossil fuel that was trucked to my house. Now that I’ve added solar panels to the roof, that cup of tea from the electric kettle can be boiled with 100% solar energy.
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