Energy Efficent Coffee Makers?
How Energy Efficient is Your Coffee Maker?
When it comes to coffee makers, the amount of energy one uses may surprise you. While EnergyStar and Consumer Reports do not show the energy consumption of coffee makers, there is another way to know their consumption of electricity. Look at their wattage use before you buy. Energy consumption is based on the amount of watts it uses per hour.
Low wattage drip coffee makers use between 650 watts 975 watts per hour. This equates to 20 watts and 32.5 watts per two-minute brewing time. Many of these are one cup size makers that brew into a mug or thermal container.
Medium wattage coffee makers include programmable ones that use between 1,000 and 1,200 watts per hour. This equates to 34 watts and 40 watts per two-minute brewing time. The programmable clock itself uses an additional 10 watts per hour continuously; this adds an extra 240 watts of usage per day. Some of these coffee makers also have warmers to keep the coffee warm for up to two hours when it shuts off automatically. These warmers whether a plate or a self-contained coffee warmer use between 20 and 25 watts per hour. At 25 watts per hour, the utilization is 50 watts of energy each time the warmers are used for a two hour period.
An electric super automatic grind espresso machine that maintains a stable brew temperature uses up to 5,850 watts per hour. A two minute espresso made on this machine uses 195 watts in two minutes time. From a simple 800 watt pump machine to the super automatic grind espresso there are great differences in the amount of watts used per hour. These differences in energy consumption are not necessarily different because of the type of espresso machine. French presses use boiling water with ground coffee to make a darker and more intense brew. A
French press may seem energy-efficient, but an electric tea kettle when used to boil water utilizes from 1000 to 1800 watts. This is far more wattage use than most regular coffee makers. At 1800 watts it may be fast, but for the two minutes of run time it will use 60 watts while an 800 watts simple coffee maker uses about 27 watts for the same length of time. When using an electric stove top tea kettle the energy utilization is greater than the coffee maker, but less than the electric tea kettle. A modern electric stove top burner utilizes 1400 watts per hour and takes about two minutes for fully boiling water. This means the burner utilizes about 47 watts in two-minutes.