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Martyn Gierlicki
BSc (Honours) Design and Prototyping Technology
T: 07870997175
E: nytram6@hotmail.com
BSc (Honours) Design and Prototyping Technology
T: 07870997175
E: nytram6@hotmail.com
Energy-Saving Kettle Base Prototype
"Over the past few decades there has been considerable depletion to the
world's raw material stores (oil, coal and gas) as the planet's population
become more and more dependent on these resources. Technology is
developing all the time, and the majority requires some source of energy.
Energy consumption is a big issue for designers and it is essential that
energy usage be minimized where possible to help preserve the supplies that
are left, simultaneously decreasing the affect of global warming.
It is estimated that over 15% of electricity used per annum in the UK
comes from the domestic cooking sector, with over 32% of this being used
though domestic kettles; it is evident that this is a massive amount of energy
consumption, thought to be responsible for over 4.22TWh per year.
The product I have designed is an energy saving kettle base, which has
the potential to be retrofitted to a domestic kettle. The designed product
offers energy saving properties by ensuring the user only boils the required
amount of water, made possible by a strain gauge situated in the base; it
also offers the option of heating the water to a desired temperature via a
thermocouple probe which monitors the base temperature of the kettle.
The design has been rapid prototyped through means of fused deposition
modelling (FDM), and functionality evaluated. The product aims to achieve a
30% energy saving compared to common kettles available on the domestic
market, by simply showing the amount of water within the kettle and offering
a way of changing the heating temperature.
As the project is only in the research and development stage there are
many potential routes for further study. More extensive research could be
done into other sensors and probes such as infrared thermometers, which
may offer more accuracy and reliability than thermocouples. It may also be
possible to incorporate other technologies which could offer further energy
saving capabilities, such as keep warm functions controlled by proximity sensors."
