Selfsufficientish.com

There was some discussion a while back about the electricity consumption of the humble jug and how one cane make hot drinks sustainably. We bought an envirobilly, but it is a bit of a pain to have to go out into the backyard and light the thing up to get hot water. Although it does work in any conditions (although rain can be a bit trying and I have recieved some abuse from Mrs Wombat for smoking the washing.)

Well we are trying another idea - a 12 volt car jug plugged in to the 12volt system. The jug is small at about 500mls and not exactly lightening fast, taking about an hour to boil. But it does use about 7.5 amps and can be used to use power excess to our charging needs or run off the batteries at night.

Is anyone else investigating this possibility?

Nev

Jug = Kettle for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!

Thank you Bonnie! Quite why Nev wanted to plug in his milk jug was beyond me.

Millymollymandy wrote:Thank you Bonnie! Quite why Nev wanted to plug in his milk jug was beyond me.

Hot cocoa?

log burner plonk a saucepan on top.

Bonniegirl wrote:Jug = Kettle for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!

Sorry guys, I forget about the language barrier......

Nev

Jug = Kettle for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!


Arrha.

I'm afraid I must have a very low mind as I thought 'jug' was the singular of 'boobies'.

Nev, I guess that at such low energy input, insulation is gonna make a big difference. It would be fairly easy to lose heat at the same rate that it is added, with the result that a watched jug takes a loooong time to boil.

The back of my favourite envelope shows that, in a perfectly insulated system, 90 W will take a little over 27 minutes to raise 500 grams of water through (say) 70 C, so the extra time that yours takes to boil is a reflection of how much heat you are losing - on the face of it you are losing half of what you put in.

QuakerBear wrote:Jug = Kettle for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!


Arrha.

I'm afraid I must have a very low mind as I thought 'jug' was the singular of 'boobies'.

But the topic title does say The Jug! The Jug! so we could have a matching pair!

Wombat wrote:I have recieved some abuse from Mrs Wombat for smoking the washing.

Nev

I'd recommend nicotine patches, Nev.

Zoe

I knew Australians had strange ways but smoking washing lines take the biscuit

Everyone's a comedian!

Thanks Stew, good point, although I suspected as much without the math. I am trying to talk Mrs Wombat into knitting a jug cover. (No smart bums, not a bra!)

Nev

QuakerBear wrote:Jug = Kettle for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!


Arrha.

I'm afraid I must have a very low mind as I thought 'jug' was the singular of 'boobies'.

so glad Im not the only one.

Wombat wrote:Is anyone else investigating this possibility?

Why? It seems to me the solution is rather obvious - as it takes less input energy to make things cold (using the pot in pot system) than it does to make things hot (using leccy or a fire), forget the tea. Instead, drink more beer. Some Aussie, you are!

Sorry mate!

Never been able to stomach the stuff!

Nev