On 2007-04-25 09:11:29 +0100, Grunff said:

wrote:
Why aren't kettles highly insulated?

I was distracted by the phone this morning and kettle had cooled a bit
before I poured my cuppa.

Made me think how convenient and energy efficient kettles would be if
they could keep the water in them near boiling for some time.


Worse still is the current fashion for stainless steel kettles - these
take ages to boil. A few years back we were given a stainless kettle
and toaster matching set. The performance of both was awful. We've gone
back to using nice plastic ones, which boil quickly.

But was that the material or the power rating? It seems a bit
surprising that stainless steel can radiate/convect *that* much heat to
make much of a difference with a 2-3kW heat source.