How Much Electricity Does a Coffee Machine Use to Make Filter or Espresso Coffee?

While the judges are still out on the health debate about whether on not coffee is good for us we can still worry about the question “how much electricity does a coffee machine use”! We know a kettle uses up loads of electricity, but how does this compare with a coffee machine. What about the difference between Espresso coffee and Filter coffee; is one cheaper than the other? To answer these and many other related questions the MeanyGoat has just carried out a series of tests using an Energy Meter so that we have the real facts to examine. Read on to find out the intriguing answer!

Ways to Make Coffee:

There are quite a few ways to make coffee but the standard ones are as follows:

• Kettle: Boil water and either pour into a cafetiere or use to make instant coffee
• Espresso Machine: Forces nearly boiling water through ground coffee under pressure
• Filter Coffee Machine: Heats water up to nearly boiling point and squirts it over the ground coffee held in the conical filter paper….gravity does the rest
• Coffee Percolator: Similar to the filter method but without the filter. Water is recirculated through the grounds until it nearly reaches boiling point. This method has fallen out of fashoin in recent years since it runs at a higher temperatures and can over-brew the coffee

In our tests we will check out boiling water with a kettle, using a filter machine and using an espresso machine. Once we have run the tests we will be able to determine how much electricity does a coffee machine use. Those horrible capsule things were not tested since they are just a waste of money and work out way more expensive than making coffee by another method.

Boiling Water With a Kettle:

In the MeanyGoat tests 1.25 liters of water took around 3 minutes to boil and consumed 0.12 KWH of electricity. 1 KWH of electricity is equal to “1 unit of electricity” as shown on your electricity bill. Check the cost per unit and then you can do a simple calculation. So for this example my electricity costs 0.09€ a unit and so the cost of boiling the kettle is 0.01€. So boiling water does not actually cost very much. The next step is to run the tests to see how much electricity does a coffee machine use.

Filter Coffee Machine:

How much electricity does a coffee machine use – 10 cups of filter coffee on the way to find out!

The same 1.25 liters volume of water was poured into the filter coffee machine and the cycle ran to completion after around 5 minutes. The coffee machine used 0.11 KWH of electricity during the filter cycle but because it also has a hot plate to keep the coffee warm the total amount of electricity used was a higher in the end than using a kettle…0.13 KWH. Why did the filter cycle use less electricity than the kettle? Almost certainly because the overall temperature is slightly lower for the filter machine and the amount of water heated up in the heating chamber is quite small so the process is more efficient.

Espresso Coffee Machine:

How much electricity does a coffee machine use – Two cups of Espresso on the way to find out!

While you can find individual espresso makers the MeanyGoat one sits on the side of the standard filter machine and dispenses two cups at a time. The overall volume of water used in the process is of course much less at only 200 Ml …..ie over 6 times less water than in the other methods. However, the Espresso machine only used 0.05 KWH of electricity in total to make the two cups of coffee!

What do the Results Show?

Ok, so we have done the tests and we have the results..;what do they show and what do they mean? How much electricity does a coffee machine use??

Well, we can see that on a annual basis the espresso method uses least electricity and so costs less. However, it is the least efficient since part of the electricity is used to heat the water and part to run the pump. If we made the same volume of coffee (1.25 Liters) as the other methods then it would actually cost over €10 a year! So if you like coffee then espresso definitely works out the cheapest in terms of energy costs. Otherwise it is around 8% cheaper to make coffee using a kettle rather than a filter machine. This is mainly due to the heating time for the hotplate to keep the coffee warm. If you make filter coffee and then immediately turn off the machine and either drink all the coffee or store it in a thermos flask then kettle and filter machine running costs are pretty much the same with the filter machine coming in just slightly cheaper.

So, How Much Electricity Does a Coffee Machine Use?

And the answer is not a lot…just a cent or a centime a brew which adds up to just 3 or 4 Dollars or Euros a year. Even so, there are energy saving choices to be made so that you can minimize the costs. Switching to espresso and at the same time cutting back on coffee could save a few dollars a year….it all adds up!

WANF Electricity Energy Watt Usage Meter for US Power Socket

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Take a Frugal Tip from the MeanyGoat and start monitoring the energy your different appliances use…do a few calculations to work out the annual cost and then soo how you can reduce this by making smarter choices.

Useful Links:

Now you have answered the question “how much electricity does a coffee machine use” how about moving onto other kitchen appliances?

Find out How much electricity does a Bread Machine Use

Find out The Best Way to Boil Water

Find out How to Make Coffee

Frugal Lighting Ideas to Reduce your Electricity Bill!

Time was when the term “Frugal Lighting” would mean using candles or maybe even an oil lamp in your house once it got dark. Well luckily for us technology has advanced a lot and in reality the electric light bulb in all it’s forms is the most widely used electric device in the world. In a typical US or European home lighting can still contribute between 25% and 40% of the electricity bill. Read on to learn how to reduce this dramatically using frugal lighting techniques without living in the dark!

Types of Electric Light Bulb:

The standard incandescent light bulb was invented by Edison in 1879 and that first bulb lasted around 17 hours! Later in 1896 Edison also invented an industrial fluorescent tube, although a lot of research work had been carried out by Faraday and Maxwell in the 1840′s. Neon lights became available in the 1920′s following the commercialization by Georges Claude of the “Moore Discharge Tube”. More recently the first practical LED device was developed in 1962 by Nick Holonyak, although Russian scientists had been experimenting with the technique as early as the 1920′s. There are also other technologies with special applications, and there probably plenty of new inventions to come as well!! however, you are now armed with enough trivia to win the local Pub Quiz….but how does all this information help us to reduce our electricity bills? Quite simply the different kinds of technology all have different characteristics in terms of how much electricity they use verses how much heat they generate and how much they cost.

Choices for Domestic Lighting:

In reality at the moment we end up with three main choices for standard lighting in our homes and the table below summarizes the implications….

This is a very primitive analysis based on French electricity prices and average prices for the products. However, just look at the differences in the annual running costs for just one bulb! And look at the difference in how long they should last….and LED light should last nearly 50 times as long as a standard light bulb…wow! So it is clearly a no-brainer to swap all your incandescent bulbs for either low energy fluorescent or ideally LED lights as soon as you can. For sure you will recover your investment within the first year by having a lower electricity bill by switching on your frugal lighting! In most countries there are already plans in place to phase out domestic incandescent lights completely over the coming years….and already you will notice that the prices have gone up and they are getting more sparse on the supermarket shelves. So now is really the time to grasp the nettle and investigate frugal lighting.

	A normal old fashioned light bulb
	A Low Energy fluorescent light
	A 50 Watt halogen spotlight
	A 2.5 Watt LED spotlight….your best Frugal Lighting option!

Heat verses Light with Frugal Lighting:

Conventional light bulbs give off a lot of heat and this is generally considered to be a bad thing. However, replacing all your standard bulbs with LEDs will certainly make your house colder in the winter which could use more energy for heating. But, the light bulb is far less efficient at producing heat than a modern boiler, so your overall savings will remain. If your house is very well insulated then there are even modern designs that get rid of conventional heating and just use the heat from solar gain, lights & electronic devices plus body heat to keep the house comfortable. However, most of us live in standard houses with average levels of insulation. I once knew a student who built a polystyrene work booth over his desk that kept at a nice cosey 20C just from his body heat and the electric light…..so there are always alternatives…but that one was also pretty smelly!

Sensible Frugal Lighting:

Here is your Frugal Lighting checklist to help you reduce your electricity bill:

• Always turn off lights when you are not in a room…even if they are low energy lights!
• Fit timers to any security lights so that they are not left on all the time
• Replace as many standard light bulbs as you can with LED bulbs…replace the ones you use most first
• Where an LED bulb will not fit try to find a low energy fluorescent alternative
• Use a Lower rating where you can find no alternative and have to keep a standard bulb

Other points to Consider:

Not all lights give off the same spectrum and LED lights in particular can give quite a “cold” light…try out several types before you make your final choice. With a ten year life span you want to make the right choice!! Keep all the old bubs so that you have spares in case one fails…and keep the receipts for the new low energy bulbs. The more expensive brands of LED and Fluorescent lights often have a three year guarantee…keep it in a safe place since they do fail sometimes! And one final point…make sure that you dispose of all old bulbs of whatever type safely at your local depot. Many bulbs contain toxic coatings etc and so should not be put out with the standard trash.

So, take a Frugal Tip from the MeanyGoat and start replacing your old light bulbs. Make a plan and buy a few at a time to spread the cost and of course look out for special offers that will make your frugal lighting even more cost effective.

Frugal Lighting Links:

Check out the statistics in this post at eartheasy.com

Here is another post on lighting LED Spotlights

And finally, here is how to cut your electricity bill Reduce Electricity Consumption