How efficiently are you using your kettle?

What is it about?

The kettle is one of the most used appliances in United Kingdom (UK) households. This paper provides data processing tools for analysing kettle usage patterns from electrical load measurements. First, mathematical modelling is developed to relate energy usage, water temperature and volume, which enables studying kettle overfilling patterns using power measurements only. Then, a method for forecasting kettle load demand is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated using data from a longitudinal study across a sample of 14 UK households for a two-year period.

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Why is it important?

The kettle is one of the most used appliances in the United Kingdom (UK) as well as the appliance with the highest rates of ownership. However, it is also one of the most inefficiently used appliances, since many households regularly overfill their kettle. In order to meet energy targets, it is imperative to quantify inefficient usage and predict future demand. For the purposes of scalability, the paper proposes analytical tools that depend only on load measurement data for quantifying and visualizing kettle usage and energy consumption, assessing energy wastage through overfilling via the proposed electric kettle model, and predicting kettle-specific demand, from which potential energy savings in a household can be estimated. The tools presented are not only applicable to the kettle, they can also be used for other appliances.

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