We’ve all been wasting energy by boiling excess water in our electric jugs, when really all we want is one cup of tea.
“One day of extra energy use [from overfilling electric kettles] is enough to light all the streetlights in England for a night,” said Leyla Acaroglu, a sustainability strategist, in her TED presentation.
Taking heed of this message, Nils Chudy, a designer from The Netherlands, has created the the Miito to ‘Reimagine the Electric Kettle.’
It works by placing a cup on the induction base, while a heating rod immersed in the cup heats the liquid, be it water, milk or soup directly in the vessel it will be drunk from. No excess water is heated.
nils chudy’s MIITO electric kettle heats only the amount you need @DAEnews @dutchdesignweek http://t.co/UZbL2wkIud pic.twitter.com/6sNFljWczf
— designboom (@designboom) October 19, 2014
The Miito has been shortlisted for the James Dyson Award, an international design award that “celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers.”
“My inspiration was the daily use of electric kettles. I wondered why all kettles look so similar,” Chudy writes about his design.
“I quickly noticed that they not only look bad but they are also wastefully designed! The minimum fill line of the majority of kettles is at approximately 500ml. This means that if you want one cup of tea (250ml) you waste 50 per cent of the hot water, which means you waste 50 per cent of the energy. This adds up to be A LOT!”
“I decided that this was going to be the problem I want to solve: how can I change people’s habits of overfilling electric kettles in order to save energy.”
The Miito is one of the top 20 shortlisted finalists and the international winner will be announced on 6 November 2014.
Appliance Retailer spotted a similar product during the Spring edition of the Hong Kong Electronics Fair back in April this year. Called the Quibo Mini Dispenser, made by Egoman Digital Corp, it can heat water from cold to boiling in less than three seconds.
