h a l f b a k e r yIt might be better to just get another gerbil.
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Electric kettles are great. Really great. If you need
boiling
water, they've pretty much got the market cornered.
Here
in the US however, they're not so good. The Fisher-Price
my-first-electricity-system that they've got means you
can't get the full-bore 3000W that you can from the 230V
system in the UK. Even if you could, boiling water in a
kettle still takes precious time... attempts to solve this
by
plugging into multiple outlets have been made (tip of the
cap to Loris).
I propose a seriously over-engineered
solution.
1. A large transformer-rectifier is plugged
into the wall
socket. Drawing a fairly constant current.
2. This is fed
into a HUGE capacitor I'm thinking
about 800 Farads, which should give 100kW for 40s at
100V.
3. An unfeasibly robust relay should dump this
charge into a very chunky electric element.
4. Et voila! boiling water, fast! and perhaps wiped credit
cards from
the huge current.
As far as the grid is concerned this
will
smooth out power use. As far as the user is concerned
an
irresponsibly large amount of power will be stored in
their
kitchen, and then dumped into some water periodically.
I
literally can't see a single down side. Apart from the
danger, and cost.
Brown's gas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen
[normzone, Feb 09 2012]
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Annotation:
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Why not simply discharge the capacitor through the
water itself? |
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Wouldn't that just make bucket loads of Brown's gas?
I mean I'm for large-scale gung-ho home-brew
electrolysis as much as the next guy. But will it boil
the water as effectively? |
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Will it be able to generate paragraph breaks? (link) |
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There is no such thing as Brown's gas. In case that wasn't clear, there is no such thing as Brown's gas. |
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Ah, I thought that Brown's gas was just the name for
a Stoich mix of H2 and O2.... |
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In case anyone thinks [normzone]'s link contradicts my statement: "Brown's gas is a mythical 2:1 mixture of oxyhydrogen that could be used as car fuel.". Note the word "mythical". Brown's gas is a scam based on a lie. For those familiar with "Corner Gas", the term should only ever be uttered in the same manner as "Wullerton". |
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My point was, that dumping 100's of Volts and much
much current through water directly, may result in
hydrolysis... I think that point's valid. |
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//Stoich mix of H2 and O2// No; if that's all it meant, it would be fine. |
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Discharging electric current through water is a valid way of heating it; if the voltage is fairly high, most of the energy goes into heating rather than electrolysis. There exist kettles that operate on that principle; they simply apply mains voltage to a pair of parallel metal plates immersed in the water. |
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The proportion of the applied electric power that is used for electrolysis is approximately 1.7V divided by the applied voltage; 1.7V / 230V = 0.007. So some oxyhydrogen is released, but not very much. |
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Then direct discharge into water it is! (although now
I wonder why they go to all the trouble with
elements in normal kettles...). |
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I guess there is a (percieved, if not real) risk of electric shock. Similarly, the old uninsulated, replaceable elements that used to be standard seem to have disappeared. Both types had a physical interlock, such that you couldn't open the top without unplugging the cord; the newer types don't, as the element is insulated. |
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You now have to work out how much power you can dump into a kettle of water without an explosion. It's probably more than 3000W, but it is limited. |
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I believe the main reason for the modern design of kettle elements is to reduce the build up of limescale. Eh... what a dull world we live in. |
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Instead of a capacitor bank, the 'practical' option is to store your energy in the water to begin with, i.e. have an instant-hot-water tap with an inline, constantly heated tank to act as a buffer. These are commercially available. |
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Arcflash-activated home kettle. I like it. |
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I was thinking what mitxela was thinking, but mitxela beat me to saying it. |
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When I worked at a local fast food factory we called it Bunn water, because it was boiling hot water poured out of a spout on a machine from a company called Bunn. But anyway, it was basically a small hot water heater that was set far hotter than standard home water heaters. 2nd degree burn setting. |
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There should be some sort of X-Prize competition to make
the fastest cup of tea. |
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I'd love to see the size of this capacitor. |
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