I'm a pretty impatient person so having to boil a pot of water can seem like an eternity to me. To compound this issue I would never use a lid! What I realized is that water will boil faster with the lid on because there is a reduction in heat loss (and all kinds of other nerdy thermodynamics stuff going on). How much faster? Let's do a little experiment shall we.
Materials
2 pots (same size)
1 lid
1 cup of water in each pot
1 stove (pots put on same sized burner)
1 BlackBerry acting as a timer
1 adult who acts like a kid
Results
Pot with the lid - 2 minutes 5 seconds
Pot without the lid - 2 minutes 30 seconds
So not a huge difference but keep in mind that I boiled only 1 cup of water. The difference in time when boiling a full pot of water will be more significant. And in the world of boiling water 25 seconds is a lifetime when you are standing there watching it.
How does this relate to the environment? If you are boiling water quicker you are using less energy to heat that water.
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I love your scientific experiment! I too am an impatient water boiler and have learned to use a lid. I never thought to experiment and find out the true difference though. Fun!
ReplyDeleteI 'rediscovered' the lid fairly recently as well. I often boil water (especially for tea and other things that call for small quantities) in my electric kettle, which I believe is more efficient than the stove. It is certainly faster! I'm impatient, too. :-)
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