AIUI the "ECO" programs on washing machines use more agitation (hence more time) to make up for lower water use and/or lower temperatures (IIRC sometimes on ECO programs the actual temperature may be lower than the nominal temperatures)
Saving electricity.
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Indeed. The first (and maybe last!) time we tried the "ECO" programme after we got our machine we thought that the machine had gone wrong, since the cycle appeared to go on for ever!
Similar for our dishwasher.
Kind Regards, John
They are protected against being switched on dry, but best not to test it. My own trick to avoid that, is that if I empty it, rather than putting the kettle back on the stand empty - when empty I leave it alongside its base. That forces me to pick it up and it is very noticeable it is empty.
Yes, if don't mind opening them next morning to a puddle on the floor
For most people, EV's and storage heaters excepted, they are the only large energy consumers which operate during the night hours.
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That shouldn't really happen, but I think one would have to do some careful experiments to determine how much energy (hence) cost) savings resulted from turning off a refrigeration device overnight - since I presume it would use a fair amount of 'catch-up' energy when switch back on after a few hours of being off.Yes, if don't mind opening them next morning to a puddle on the floor
It's a bit like the decades-long arguments/debates about switching immersion heaters (or anything else thermostatically-controlled) off during some of the day (or night). Other than for those who can get cheaper energy at certain times of day, given a reasonable degree of insulation it makes much less difference than one might expect.
Anyway, what's so special about 'overnight' (other than the door is not likley to be opened at such a time)?
Kind Regards, John
It was meant to be a funny suggestion - note the smiley at the end. Not a serious suggestion that anyone should do that.
There was a gadget sold which delayed the start of a fridge or freezer, so limiting the number of starts it did and increasing the run time as a result. Likely the net effect would be higher average temperatures inside.
Nothing at all special, just that they will in most homes devoid of EV's and storage heaters, the major source of night time consumption.
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-18°C is freezing point of brine, so we aim not to allow a freezer to raise above that point. But the further it goes below that point the more it costs.
There are two methods to regulate the heat removed, either an inverter driving a 3 phase motor with adjustable speed, or on/off with a mark/space ratio as to which uses the least energy I don't know?
But it is not like the immersion heater, where if it exceeds 60°C once a week is enough to stop legionnaires.
However we could shop every day for fresh food, and wash in a bucket of warm water. What we have decide how much we are prepared to do to save money.
We debate if to shop local, or pay for fuel to use supermarkets, as to using train or bus, carrying food up from the station or bus stop is not really an option at my age.
But it is back to what I said before, we have to decide what to spend our money on.
There are two methods to regulate the heat removed, either an inverter driving a 3 phase motor with adjustable speed, or on/off with a mark/space ratio as to which uses the least energy I don't know?
But it is not like the immersion heater, where if it exceeds 60°C once a week is enough to stop legionnaires.
However we could shop every day for fresh food, and wash in a bucket of warm water. What we have decide how much we are prepared to do to save money.
We debate if to shop local, or pay for fuel to use supermarkets, as to using train or bus, carrying food up from the station or bus stop is not really an option at my age.
But it is back to what I said before, we have to decide what to spend our money on.
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I'm not sure what that refers to, but if it relates to the temp of an "ECO" cycle, I'm not sure what my machine would do about that today (given that they contain no refrigeration functionality), since the temp of my 'cold' water supply seems to be about 20.2°C
Kind Regards, John
I realised that, so perhaps I should also have included some sort of emoticon
[there you go!)However, my comment that followed still stands - that for any thermostatically-controlled heating or cooling appliance/whatever, switching it off for periods will usually have much less effect on energy consumption than one might think/hope, because of the 'catch-up' consumption when it is turned back on.
Probably true - but night-time energy consumptions costs the same (or less for some people, like me) than does daytime consumption.
Kind Regards, John
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You shouldn't boil on an induction hob, just gas. And don't use a pan, use a kettle. A good hob kettle with whistle will easily boil water in an ad break. But, i bet rarely watch channels with adverts. The Last Leg is the only thing i regulatory watch that has adverts.
That's seemingly roughly what Mr Fahrenheit thought, since 0 °F (said to be the coldest he could get by mixing ice and salt) is about -17.78 °C. However, he can't have been using a fully-saturated 'brine', since the freezing point of that is about -21 °C (about -6 °F).
In terms of maintaining food quality (and killing parasites etc. - as in sushi) it's the actual temp that matters, regardless of the freezing point of brine (or anything else). In terms of 'quality', it's really a case of 'the colder the better' and the now more-or-less universally-accepted recommendation of -18 °C is really a compromise between food quality and energy usage.
I say 'food quality', because this hasn't really got anything much to do with food 'safety', since very very few bacteria can multiply appreciably until the temp is well above 0C. The main difference between, say -5 °C and -18 °C is that at the former (higher) temp, chemical processes (which can make food taste less pleasant, albeit still 'safe', or which can drastically reduce the vitamin etc. content of foods) occur much more rapidly - so that food becomes less pleasant, and less 'good for you' (but still 'safe') much more rapidly if the storage temp is appreciably above -18 °C.
As above, freezer temperature is not really significantly about 'safety' issues.
Kind Regards, John
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I've long thought that kettles should be properly insulated to stop them wasting heat, and you should be able to set the temperature, 90 degrees is plenty for tea and coffee.
So I had a look and I've had a Hubimex for a couple of years, which works really well...
So I had a look and I've had a Hubimex for a couple of years, which works really well...
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I seem to remember the plumbed in water boiler did control temperature rather than point at which it makes steam, with baffles to stop the water mixing too fast, so cold water can replace the hot drawn without cooling the hot remaining.
But it is down to quantity required, to cater for a work force coming into a canteen at tea break one requires pints of boiling water, but for my wife and I only need to cups of boiling water, she does fill a stainless steel flask/cup so her coffee stays hot for hours, I think they taint the flavour and prefer a cup even if coffee cold when I drink it.
And I think the removing of air and minerals also alters taste. Theory with instant coffee if you want to drink it at 60°C nothing stopping you making it at 60°C, and if you make it with water pre-boiled it tastes the same, but if the water has not been boiled, then the taste changes. I often drink coffee cold, but making it with cold water it does not taste right.
Real coffee and instant coffee are not the same drink, same applies to instant tea. The way coffee is made also changes the taste, same beans used in a peculator, and filter machine, produces a different taste. Even a mug and a china cup seem to alter it.
I have not got the skill to make and pour tea, my son-in-law will mix the boiling water and the brewed tea as he pours, giving each person the concentration they like, but the tea pot which fits on the water jug to keep it warm without re-boiling the tea is not so common in the UK, we seem to go for the tea cosy.
As for insulated pans, and kettles, seems a good idea, I would assume they are not made in case some one tries using them on a halogen or gas hob, with the induction hob the pan does not really get hot enough to stop the use of a cosy like used on the tea pot.
But different methods of cooking does alter how food tastes, I use the pressure cooker in the microwave, special plastic one of course, but it works well for boil in the bag veg. One it stops the veg bags flopping off the turntable, two it allows removal without burning fingers, three it is faster, and four the carrots are cooked. But wife does not seem to like them.
The pressure cooker seems to so variable, the original models were nearly all 14 pounds per square inch, but now we have a lot which use lower pressures, and control is also a problem, getting the setting so just steaming without filling kitchen with steam is not so easy. The stand alone types do seem to have better control, and often do come with insulation, however you can't really put them in a bowl of cold water to cool them down quick.
The super processed food problem causing weight gain seems to show we should not use them too much, it is OK radio 4 doing a program on super processed food, but what is super processed food?
But the problem is what can we do with cooking or heating food to save energy without altering food taste or texture? To me the answer is I don't know, so the oven may have a selectable fan, can be heated from top, sides, or back, has closed door grilling, but without instructions to say cook this food this way, rather pointless. Yes I know the solid fuel cookers have always had dampers so you can control how the oven is heated, but I am over weight now, without experimenting on how to cook food with the modern appliance.
The main thing to me is to keep the kitchen cool, specially in this weather, so solid fuel is out, yes mother used solid fuel, she also had louvered windows, all single glazed, and a large extractor fan, same with gas, it simply get the kitchen too hot, and means extractor fans of some sort, so in a small kitchen no real option, has to be electric.
So with electric cooking, we have the induction hob, well insulated oven, the microwave oven, the integral device be it pressure cooker, soup maker, bread maker, or other, and non of this was used when I went to school, and I only did two lessons of domestic science as when I went to school, cooking was considered to be a girls thing.
Boys did wood work and metal work, even sports boys were not allowed loose with a lacrosse stick the girls could cause enough damage with them, were allowed to use a javelin, do remember one accident with one in a lads foot.
Ours is the same. We do an eco cycle unless plates are not too dirty/greasy in which case we use the rapid cycle. It’s not just electricity but water usage too.
Worst of all for me, was tea made and kept hot in a flask, followed by coffee. Both become quite bitter. Before I retired, doing a lot of driving with uncertain breaks, I would take a flask of coffee, rather than made with water, I would make it with milk which to my taste, tasted quite passable.
At home, I use ready ground coffee in a filter machine, poured into china mugs. It the best compromise I could find on cost, convenience and taste. The ready ground coffee from Lidl is in vacuum pack cubes and is probably their cheapest. Not the best coffee I have ever tasted, but a fair compromise. The best coffee I ever tasted was served in a restaurant in France, followed a close second by a coffee they used to serve long ago in Leeds University refectory, called Blue Danube. I tracked some of that down, but could never reproduce that taste.
The electric filter coffee machine, is of the usual type which does the gluck, gluck, gluck, then a pause as the thermal switch opens, then more gluck, gluck, gluck. I have in mind to try putting a diode in parallel with the thermal switch, to prevent it cycling so much and speed up the coffee making - half or full power to the element, instead of complete on off.
My last contact with pressure cookers, was long ago when I still lived with my parents, it was the newfangled device back then and I never liked the food cooked in it, so much as the more conventional cooking methods. I do think people often over cook vegetables, unnecessarily. There is generally no need for furious boiling to cook anything - a very gentle simmer, with a lid works much better and I would guess helps keep the vitamins in the food. I stop simmering potatoes for mashed, at a point slightly before they fall off the fork.
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