after I pour my first cup of coffee in the morning, thus causing me to microwave all subsequent cups, or is it more energy-efficient to keep the coffee pot on, and thus not use the microwave?
2006-09-20 09:44:44 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
Option #1, but only by a hair's breadth. More efficient than either would be to use only the microwave to heat the water. The inefficiency of the pot comes from the fact that about half the energy used to get the water hot goes right around the container into the air.
In keeping with your screen name, I predict a Pandora's box of comments on this.......!
2006-09-20 09:53:33 · answer #1 · answered by Steve 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I say turn it off. Hot coffee looses heat faster than cool coffee and cold coffee looses no heat at all. Consider the extreme case of not drinking the coffee until 10 years later. If you left the heat on for 10 years, you would clearly use more energy than just reheating it once. The savings of reheating get less and less as the time gets shorter and shorter, but it seems to me they never go to zero. Of course I am assuming the microwave is no more or less efficient that the coffee maker at heating the cup.
2006-09-20 17:13:32 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Keep the pot on. The microwave will use more energy than the coffee pot.
When you have had your share of coffee, I suggest you unplug the pot because keep items plugged still uses a lot of energy. Do this to all your appliances that aren't used all the time!
2006-09-20 16:53:59 · answer #3 · answered by Rx 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
clearly to turn it off. Microwaving a cup is about the most efficient way to heat it. Whereas keeping coffee hot for hours with all the heat losses from air circulation, etc, is going to waste a lot of energy.
And all this for what? For coffee that will stand for hours and taste horrible (to me at least ;-)?
An espresso machine would make a cup when you want one, and the taste would be uncomparable!
2006-09-20 18:37:48 · answer #4 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
keeping the coffee warm with the coffee pot will use less over-all energy; however, you should not be drinking coffee that is more than 45 minutes to an hour after brewing. Certain tannins in the coffee will decompose and produce aromatic and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons that are highly carcinogenic. In fact that is where that "old" coffee taste comes from - a chemical change in the molecules that make up the coffee.
2006-09-20 16:55:20 · answer #5 · answered by ohmneo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would say keep the coffee pot on. It is better for the environment because the warming plate doesn't take much power to stay hot. Also the coffee will taste better so everybody wins.
2006-09-20 16:47:26 · answer #6 · answered by whuggie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Turn it off.
Heat flow increases as the temperature between hot and cold increases. So, as your coffee cools down it steadily loses less energy. If it's at maximum temperature, the heat flow is also at maximum, and you have to put more energy in to keep it hot.
It's why thermostats that lower the temperature of your home at night (when you're under the covers and don't need it so warm) work. The cooler your house, the less the rate of heat flow to the outside.
2006-09-20 19:44:44 · answer #7 · answered by Bob 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I say keep the coffee pot on. When making your coffee, don't make it strong. By the time you have your 3rd cup it will be just right.
2006-09-20 16:53:12 · answer #8 · answered by Blue Eyes 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why are you even drinking coffee if you care about the Eco system? Don't you know that when they harvest the coffee bean they yadayadayadayad lol
2006-09-20 16:55:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
eeeeuuuw stewed coffee. Turn it off!
2006-09-20 16:47:02 · answer #10 · answered by Tertia 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋