Most efficient way to boil water on a boat

[Striker37]

I boil water at room temp in a plastic bottle using the suction of a vacuum pump or the suction(intake) side of my air compressor.No need for heat or fire of any kind to boil water.

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by Panope

Same can be said about that freak who spent all that time videoing anchors

Steve

But then (unlike yr videos) watching a video of kettles boiling never made me more confident about my anchor holding when the wind, as opposed to the kettle, was whistling.......

TwT

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Title of the thread is?

Indeed, but the question was not answered. In fact several people asked to define what was meant by efficiency.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Striker37

I boil water at room temp in a plastic bottle using the suction of a vacuum pump or the suction(intake) side of my air compressor.No need for heat or fire of any kind to boil water.

Cool, and can you make tea with it?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Diesel does offer more BTU's per gallon or liter then propane. Roughly 31% more. In the US, propane, in California anyway, is $3.50 a gallon and diesel is somewhere between $2.70 to $3.60 a gallon depending on where you buy it. So, propane is not that bad here.

Yes, it depends on where you are.

Over here diesel for non-propulsion purposes is 0.59 GBP per liter (about $2.70 per gallon).

Butane (we don't use propane much on boats) is 19 GBP for 4.5 kg.

It works out to about 5x more expensive per unit of energy.

Also it's an immense hassle obtaining it while cruising -- every country has its own bottles, and you can't refill anything, only exchange.

My gas cost is not actually trivial, unlike A64's. I guess I spend $50 a month on it in the summer time if not more, and that doesn't include the cost of taxis to get to obscure gas depots, buying extra regulators and fittings in order to use the next new type of bottle .


I'm sick of the whole thing and am dreaming about the all-electric galley on my next boat


If only you could get small outboard which ran on diesel, I could get the boat down to one single fuel . . . one can dream

[jkindredpdx]

I recently got the 1 liter electric kettle that you pictured. It is wonderful and I use much less propane than I did before. Just last night I was cooking pasta... boiled water in the kettle then poured that into my pan on the stove-top.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yes, it depends on where you are.


I'm sick of the whole thing and am dreaming about the all-electric galley on my next boat


If only you could get small outboard which ran on diesel, I could get the boat down to one single fuel . . . one can dream

Here ya go
Klaxon Group Holdings

[offpist]

Did an test on the induction plate in my boat.
Using 3550W it takes 1 minute and 53 seconds to boil 1L of water. Cant beat that

We do most of the cooking using electricity but we keep the gas as backup and when we are underway.

[valhalla360]

So if solar power is free, how much extra fuel do you use do to windage when motoring into the wind? Does that make up the difference?

Also what about space efficiency? Most cruisers have limited storage space. If they already have a sauce pan or a microwave, now they need to find space for a kettle.

And has others have mentioned, you have to account for the source of that power.

In the end, it doesn't make a lot of difference to anything.

[Sea Dreaming]

Oh I am just laughing at this thread!
I started reading, very curious about the energy efficiency. I was taking it very seriously. Somewhere around page 4 (on my phone) I realized I had burned up more energy thinking about it that just picking any old method and boiling water in the first place.

There is so much more going on in the world than boiling water "efficiently" and making two nickles bleed.

Just have your tea or coffee and enjoy the heck out of it. If you find you dont have the power for a second cup, if you enjoyed the first cup it wont seem wasteful.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Oh I am just laughing at this thread!
I started reading, very curious about the energy efficiency. I was taking it very seriously. Somewhere around page 4 (on my phone) I realized I had burned up more energy thinking about it that just picking any old method and boiling water in the first place.

There is so much more going on in the world than boiling water "efficiently" and making two nickles bleed.

Just have your tea or coffee and enjoy the heck out of it. If you find you dont have the power for a second cup, if you enjoyed the first cup it wont seem wasteful.

If the thread is not interesting to you, then why do you choose to post in it? Surely you'd be better off spending your time in one of the 243,000 other threads on here?

Sent from my D6633 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[StuM]

Originally Posted by fatherchronica

We are trying to sail as close to the sun as possible so that we will never want to boil water.

The Sun passes almost straight overhead today (within about 4° - we're 7 days away solar zenith) and I boiled water for my morning coffee a couple of hours ago.

[rwidman]

While an electrical immersion heater is arguably the most efficient way to heat water with electricity, you have to account for the energy required to make that electricity in the first place.
1) Mine coal
2) Transport the coal to the power plant
3) burn the coal to heat water to make steam to turn a turbine to turn a generator to generate the electricity
4) Move the electricity to the customer.
5) Pass the electricity through the immersion coil to generate heat (remember, we already did this once at the power plant by burning coal)


And in some cases, we have to convert the 120 AV volts to 12 volts DC to charge a battery and then use an inverter to convert it back to 120 volts to power the heater.


What, you say you are getting free electricity from the alternator when running your boat's engine? Well, generating electricity puts an extra load on the engine so you are burning gasoline or diesel fuel to generate electricity to charge a battery and then using an inverter to convert it to 120 volts to run the immersion heater,


Solar? You're doing better but you had to buy the solar collectors and associated equipment. And of course, a lot of energy was used to produce and transport your solar equipment.


If you're looking for heat, the most efficient way is to burn fuel and use the heat generated directly.

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

If the thread is not interesting to you, then why do you choose to post in it? Surely you'd be better off spending your time in one of the 243,000 other threads on here?

Sent from my D6633 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

I like to laugh! Nothing personal at all. Perhaps because my last day of corporate slavedom is 3 weeks away and I am feeling giddy.
Do you know what I saw today? "Box of water". It was right on the label. Talk about inefficient!
And truly the thread IS interesting but it's worth noting that even if one boils water inefficiently, one can still have a good time cruising

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by rwidman

While an electrical immersion heater is arguably the most efficient way to heat water with electricity, you have to account for the energy required to make that electricity in the first place.
1) Mine coal
2) Transport the coal to the power plant
3) burn the coal to heat water to make steam to turn a turbine to turn a generator to generate the electricity
4) Move the electricity to the customer.
5) Pass the electricity through the immersion coil to generate heat (remember, we already did this once at the power plant by burning coal)


And in some cases, we have to convert the 120 AV volts to 12 volts DC to charge a battery and then use an inverter to convert it back to 120 volts to power the heater.


What, you say you are getting free electricity from the alternator when running your boat's engine? Well, generating electricity puts an extra load on the engine so you are burning gasoline or diesel fuel to generate electricity to charge a battery and then using an inverter to convert it to 120 volts to run the immersion heater,


Solar? You're doing better but you had to buy the solar collectors and associated equipment. And of course, a lot of energy was used to produce and transport your solar equipment.


If you're looking for heat, the most efficient way is to burn fuel and use the heat generated directly.

I paid 125 for my solar panel and 5 bucks for my pwm controller to charge the batteries that I got free . The wire to install the panels and controller were also free off a demo job last year. Being totally off of the electric power grid saves me about ten bucks a month so the install paid for its self in just over a year and now any power it produces for me I consider free. ( I consider that the manufacturer of the solar panels has figured the cost of manufacture in my cost so I don't need to even think about it).
But that analogy would also apply to using power off the grid the company has factored all the costs of bringing the electric to point of use into the cost ( again not my problem)