This should be one of the easiest things that you can do to save energy and water - but I always find it tricky to get it just right. When I'm trying to be good, I normally end up not putting enough water in - so end up having to boil the kettle twice instead!! Might have to get me one of those Ecokettles!

I don't drink hot drinks so use my kettle very little, my boyfriend on the other hand drinks tea like it's going out of fashion!
He always over filled it and wouldn't use the excess water he put in the next time!
This drove me crazy, especially as he moaned that the kettle took so long!
"How can it take so long to make one cup of tea?...." -Grrrr!
So, as I clearly wasn't getting any where moaning at him I bought a travel size kettle that was only big enough to make one cup of tea.

No more waste of water. No more moaning!

We recently bought a Tefal Quick Cup. Not only is it amazingly fast, 3 secs,but it delivers just one cup at a time.No more guessing how much water to boil. An excellent energy saving buy.

The water boils much quicker when there is only one or two cupfuls.

By the time I have assembled cups, teabags and milk, it's ready! No more waiting for the kettle to boil. Yippee!

When there's only one cup of water to be boiled, does anyone know if it's better to boil the kettle - or to heat it in the microwave?
janval

We've got a little measuring jug, total capacity about 330 millilitres, which is the same capacity as one of the mugs that we prefer to use for tea (we're not a raised-pinky bone china sort of family!), so we just fill the kettle from the jug, according tohow many mugs of tea we're making. We waste less water and use less elecricity this way, and it's much quicker making the tea!

HarryK1947 that is a great idea but I would recommend Eco Kettle when your current kettle breaks as not only will it be a lot easier to fill, it will also save energy as it boils so quickly.

By the time I have got the tea bag out of the pot the water is ready for me to add to the cup. Plus they are only about the same price as an ordinary kettle.

At some point everyone's kettle will break and and Eco Kettle is an ideal replacement.

You can fill the kettle each morning, boil it and pour the extra into a thermos flask for using throughout the day.

If you have a woodburner, then keep a small camping kettle on there - you'll be surprised how hot the water can get - certainly warm enough for herbal tea (perhaps not for normal tea), but then you can use that water to pour into your electric kettle and it boils in about 20 seconds.

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Bought one of these a couple of weeks ago.

Excellent bit of kit, makes you think how much water you need, so you save water, electricity and money.

Boils enough for 2 mugs of tea in about a minute.

This is very easy to do. I use a measuring jug to put the water in and pour it in from there.

Fiona Penswick

I do this at home and know the level for a perfect 2 cups! sad I know.

when I am at work tho and first in in the morning- everyone complains because when they come in the kettle has boiled (and is hot) but has hardly any water in . . you cannot win sometimes

We've found our OWL energy monitor very useful for saving electricity - it really brings home, for example, how much electricity is used every time you boil the kettle. When you're watching your electricity costs soar, it's much easier to remember not to overfill the kettle! The Ethical Superstore has a great deal on OWL monitors at the moment:
http://muppet-moolah.blogspot.com/2008/08/save-20-on-owl-energy-meter.html