On 05 May 2006, wrote:

Since the energy required to sterilise the gunky water from your hot
tap is way more than that required to boil the purer water from the
cold tap why don't you anticipate your future requirement for a coffee
and boil potable cold water in the first place?


Yes, this is a good comparison. And would add the extra wait to boil
the hot water to be safe seems such that I could have boiled half a
litre of fresh water in the kettle!

However there are some who say that 1 minute of boing is enough.

This makes a reference to 5 minutes and 1 minute.
http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/water.html

This seesm to back it up
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/dw/boil_...dures_cons.asp

But others disagree
http://www.oas.org/dsd/publications/...ea59e/ch23.htm