On Sun, 25 Dec 2016 06:09:43 +1100, "John" wrote:



"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
. 92.222...
dennis@home wrote in
news:585e54ca$0$1285$b1db1813
:

On 24/12/2016 10:07, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are immersion heaters as efficient as they could be? Could the tubular
element be improved upon - or doesn't it matter?


They convert 100% of the electricity to heat.
What efficiency would you like to improve?



I sort of knew all that - but could the dissapation be improved - I
imagine
there is incredibly hot water next to the element

Sort of, that's why you can hear the kettling with the worst of them.

- and the element itself
will be very hot. Spreading the 3kW over a larger area - could this result
in the element running cooler

Yes.

and the heat distributing better.

No. Basically there is nowhere else for the heat to go but into the water.

So, are you saying that a 'kettling' element *will* be transferring
it's energy to the water as effectively as one with say twice the
surface area that wasn't kettling? (straight question).

So we aren't talking directly about a loss of energy here, but a loss
of efficiency (because of kettling and other variables).

Cheers, T i m