Anne Welsh Jackson wrote:
"David Klyne" wrote:
"David" wrote:
Hello,

We live in a very hard water area and the kettle scales up very very
quickly, I have always used de scaler tablets or powder to de scale
the kettle however I was wondering if there was another way of doing
it as the price of de scaler is working out to be quite expensive.

I have Googled it and most people suggest vinegar, bicarbonate of soda
or lemon juice, somehow I don't have any faith in those things.

We always use Waitrose descaler and find that it works perfectly well.
You can also slow the build up of scale if you empty he kettle fully after
each use.

Or, better still, just boil the amount of water you actually need,
in the first place! Saves on the electricity bill...

But not a lot, is it really worth the hassle (and the nuisance when
you miscalculate)? Not to mention that the 'wasted' heat isn't wasted
but warms up your kitchen a bit.

A 3kw kettle (they're mostly only 2.5kw I think) running for five
minutes will consume 3/12 kwh, that'll cost around 5p I think at
current prices. So if I manage to save even 30% of that by careful
filling I've saved 1.5p per boil. Even three times a day for the
whole year that only makes £15 or so, and, as I said it'll heat the
kitchen so you'll save a bit on heating.

Now calculate how much you save turning off the standby on the TV in
the kitchen as well and you'll realise how stupid most of these
'energy saving' ideas are.

Boiling kettles and standby are not big energy consumers so trying to
minimise them is next to pointless.

--
Chris Green