Are Boiling Water Taps Environmentally-Friendly?

As we’ve all become more aware of our impact on the world, a question we often come across is – how environmentally-friendly are boiling water taps? 

Questions around sustainability are highly vaild. A recent report by The Carbon Commitment reveals that 57% of employees believe their employers aren’t doing enough to cut their carbon footprint at work. The workforce wants businesses to commit to environmental challenges. 

With this in mind, it’s now more important to understand how the adoption of new systems and technology can impact an organisation’s environmental footprint. Sustainability is becoming the buzzword in business. 

For those considering a boiling water tap, above all other benefits, environmental credentials is most popular.

To give you an idea of how boiling water taps can help you become more environmentally-friendly in your workplace, we’ve revealed the data that highlights their energy efficiency. 

Boiling Taps vs. The Kettle

According to insights from DEFRA, if everybody in the UK stopped using a kettle, we could save an astonishing 1,270,000,000 kWh of electricity per year. This is enough electricity to run all the street lighting in the UK. 

Without this fact, we’re well aware of how energy-consuming a kettle can be. 

Filling a kettle has become a daily habit that we often do on auto-pilot. Yet, many of us forget about the energy waste related to overfilling and over boiling. We all are all guilty of filling a kettle with more water than we really need. 

Kettles waste energy on a number of levels. Design flaws mean that heat loss occurs through the body of the kettle. Overfilling loses 25pc of energy.

According to a BBC report, our habit of overfilling a kettle leads to an energy cost of £68 million each year. 

Now compare a traditional kettle with a boiling water tap, and there are some clear environmental advantages. 

On average, a boiling water tap holds enough water to produce 25 cups of tea per hour. The water is contained in a heavily insulated tank and uses heat-exchange technology to re-use waste heat. Therefore, you only use the hot water you need, and no energy releases through the system. 

Water Savings 

Water can go to waste using a kettle because people, overfill it, reboil it, and because sometimes, leftover water is even poured down the sink. 

We are wasteful with the water we use, and this habit only increases with the use of a traditional kettle. A survey by the Energy Saving Trust found that 67% of people in the UK admit to overfilling their kettle each time they use it. 

Across the UK, more than nine in ten people boil a kettle every day. 40% of people boil water five times a day or more. Just imagine the tea round at work, and you’ve got an idea of how big this issue is for the environment. 

Compare this with a boiling water tap, and you can save around 100 litres of water a year. 

Energy Cost

Where there’s energy, there’s a cost. For businesses with large premises, these costs can be astonishingly high. In the UK, the average energy bill for a large business is £15,609, for a small business it can reach up to £3,664. 

However, UK companies are now starting to realise that an investment in energy-efficient and green technology will not only improve brand reputation but cut operational costs and contribute to future-proofing their organisation. 

According to Green Investment Group, heating in buildings and industry now makes up 32% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. 

Finding ways to reduce energy costs is not just a cost-cutting exercise, but a stance on climate change. 

While a small change, a boiling water tap can be part of a sustainable office environment. 

The cost of boiling a traditional kettle at full capacity is around 2.5p per boiling, according to Npower. With boiling water taps, costs are significantly lower and can be just one penny per litre. 

Organisations with a vision for sustainability are already making the switch to boiling water taps. 

In 2018, Billi taps were chosen for the new Bloomberg Head office, which was declared London’s most sustainable office building.