Efficient Kettle in use concept drawing (via Red Dot)
Two Hubei University Technology’s School of Art and Design professors, Shi Yuanwu and Wu Chongxiang, have set out to show that even the smallest wasted energy is worth capturing. More specifically, the China based team of professors has invented a teakettle that captures the wasted energy lost during the boiling water for tea.
Yuanwu and Chongxiang's teakettle capture the energy that is usually wasted from the sides of a conventional fire top stove. Dubbed the "Efficient Kettle," the capabilities come from an unconventional shape. The kettle is a rectangular base with a hole for the stove burner in the middle. As one cooks something else on top of the stove, the Efficient Kettle being underneath collects the side heat for heating the tea.
It includes a removable handle and a whistling spout to know when the water is boiling. The kettle then is more of a base, which other pots can be put on top while the water boils inside. While you are making other food on your stove, the kettle simply uses the extra heat that would be lost horizontally to boil water: 2 jobs for the price of one. However, you always have to be cooking something else to benefit from the efficiency boost.
The research team won the Red Dot award (given to those showing "best in design and business"). They have shown that not every age-old designs are finished.
Efficient Kettle renders (via Red Dot)
Eavesdropper
