Is My Kettle A Vampire?

It's a blogger's lot to be inundated with marketing emails from people with products to support. I have to say it has tailed off in the last year from the boom of the "eco-chic" years, but I'm still getting at least one a week.

Most of them are from America, and I ignore. Occasionally, like today, I receive one that dovetails with my own thinking at that particular moment.

The advert is for a new type of boiler that generates electricity at the same time as heats your house, that you can then sell back to the National Grid. But that's not what caught my eye.

They're using a video of the olympic cyclist Nicole Cooke to demonstrate how much energy is needed to power a whole kitchen. Here it is:



So how did that dovetail with my own thinking? I'm always looking for ways to decrease my power consumption, but in the last year or two it has plateaued and my energy use more or less conforms with my shift pattern.

There are only a couple of items in the flat which are plugged in permanently: the fridge, telephone and PVR. Everything else is switched off at the wall when it's not in use, particularly after I discovered that the new TV I bought in 2009 still draws power even when not switched on.

At least, I thought everything else was switched off. Then last week I noticed the kettle. I've got one of those Eco Kettles with a base unit that the kettle sits on to get it's power. The base unit is constantly plugged in, and switched on. Could it still be drawing a charge when plugged in but unused like the TV does?


I have no proof if it does or doesn't. I could go to the library and get a loan of a smart meter, like Susan Guest does in this post. Or I could email EcoKettle and ask them. Which is what I'm going to do now, and I'll let you know what they say.

Either way, the kettle base unit is getting switched off between uses from now on!

UPDATE:

It appears I can rest easy. I received this email from EcoKettle confirming that the base unit does NOT draw power when not in use:

Thanks for your email.
The base of ECO2 models is purely a connector which allows 360 degree rotation, and therefore draws no power whatsoever.
The ECO3 base however, contains the electronic control which draws less than 1W when not in use. This conforms with the limits set by the Energy Saving Trust for passive standby.
I hope this answers your question adequately.