Which is more wasteful - letting water run until it gets warm, or heating the water in a pan?

Question

I wasn't clear enough. I'm going to boil potatoes. Should I begin with water hot from the tap (waiting for it to get hot) or should I put cool water in the pan and wait for it to heat up? Which wastes more energy?

Answer 1

Sabareesh R has a really good idea, never let your water run. i know 70 percent of earth is water, but mostly salt and therefore un-usble water to us. save water. always always save water. think about the people in africa. they don't even have clean water to drink. so for the love of god, don't waste water.

Answer 2

That is a complicated question.  If you run the water, basically you're displacing the amount of the water in the pipes between the heater and the faucet when you do this so in essence the heater has to reheat that same amount of water.  If you heat it on the stove you only have to heat the amount of water in the pan.  If you have a gas stove, heating the water in the pan is more efficient.  If you have an electric stove, I'm not so sure because electricity is a very inefficient way to heat water.  It's a bit of a tossup but if you have an electric stove, I suspect running the water is less wasteful.

Answer 3

i think it doesnt really matter, and even if one used more energy, heating it in a pan would waste YOUR time/life, and not be worth it.

Let it run, and use the time you saved to go plant a tree, problem solved

Answer 4

use solar energy to heat the waater than fuel.please. it saves alot of energy

Answer 5

Heating the water in the pan or pot wastes less energy, and a lot less water, then letting the tap run until the water is hot.  Use only the amount of water necessary to get the job done.

Answer 6

i would think letting it run...

Answer 7

Running the water until it gets warm is certainly more wasteful of water.

It is less of your time being wasted.

It would also be wasting more energy simply because the pipework from your hot water boiler has to be heated up before you actually start feeling it at the tap, and the longer the  pipework, the longer it takes. Hence much more water which has to be reheated.

Since I have a very limited source of water available, I always boil my potatoes from cold water.

If the kettle has recently been boiled, and I want to speed things up, I will use what is left in the kettle first.

I never use any more water than what is required, and never pour the excess hot water down the drain.

I will let it stay in the sink or put in in another bowl or pot to let it cool to room temperature before it is discarded.(Especially in the winter time.)

h**l, I paid dear for that energy! It means a few less BTU's are spent on my heating costs.

This does drive my wife a bit crazy at times, but she understands why I do it, and puts up with it.

I've been doing this for many years,(long before it was fashionable to be green) not to 'save the planet', but because I detest waste of any kind and now I can't even afford to keep my house warm in the winter!

My house is seldom warmer than 60F.

Right now it's, (57F, 14 C) and that's because it's a mild day!

I'm dreading the cold weather being predicted for the weekend!

The only reason I am mentioning this is that I hope someone may actually realize that I am not the only one suffering like this and I am sure there are many more worse off than me.

It is hard enough being 'ripped off' by the big oils companies and extortionate government taxation, but any so-called 'Green Taxes' will only make it worse for people like me and would have no impact on the natural process of global climate cycles.

Answer 8

I asked almost an identical question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

I really do wonder!

Answer 9

First you must find which is more precious.  It depends on your source of water and your source of heat.  If I assume you are like most people.............Your water is the result of miles of pipes, pumps and filters.  So a lot of energy has already been used to get it to your house.  Assuming a normal heat source, your water heater and your stove; the least wasteful would be to use cold water.  Now if you lived in the mountains and your water came from a creek, and was heated on a wood stove and there was excess wood available in the forest.......it would still be better to use cold water.

Answer 10

I,SittingMoose,Shaman,do so advise: Use cold water..... .

Using hot tap water won't shorten the cooking time...

Azzamaddauhfact...the heating time needed to bring the water to a boil, between using hot water as opposed to cold water are nearly equal. The potatoes are cold, relative to the hot water and will cool off the water to a point between the waters original temperature and the potatoes temperature.

Kitchen physics.....before I got dis-abled, my Craft was that

of Sous-Chef Siciliano.......My Illness nosedived just as the day came of me promotion to Executive Chef!!!!! Talk about

waste!...I'm an Old-Man Emeritus Waste Land......take life as it comes......I'm an 'Official' authentic Shaman now....... .

So,start out 'em taters in cold water....same with all veggies,

keeps 'em vitamins an' minerals in better.....simmer those

taters when the water comes to a full boil,that way they won't turn to polenta...moosh...Good luck.Ciao,SittingMoose,Shaman.

Answer 11

Wow this is kinda like a chicken and egg question.

Which is more precious: water or energy?  

Or time (as another person suggested.)

I don't have an easy answer to this, and others are more knowledgeable than me.

My only suggestions are:

Is there something you can do to the potatoes to make them cook quicker.  For example, soak them in water first, cut into smaller pieces - perhaps microwave them briefly first to make them softer, especially if you are going to mash them?

Or perhaps next time you are making a cup of tea, pour the left over hot kettle water into a pot and soak your potato pieces in that - then cover the pot with the lid or a plate to keep warm.  And boil them when you are ready to, which may be later that day.

Anyway, just my thoughts....   : )