You can buy fast boil kettles which tend to be noisy.
I am surprised that kettles don't have a think skin of insulation. I sometimes wonder how much energy could be saved by micro-enhancements like that.
But my espresso machine, it's got a pretty big (room temperature) reservoir, and only heats up the water as-needed. I mean, I probably have to fill it every second day, and that's with two people using it, and using the steamer.
Especially when my performance is impaired due to withdrawal, it seems a reasonable optimization to save the 'fill the damn thing up, but not too much' step.
>I am surprised that kettles don't have a think skin of insulation. I sometimes wonder how much energy could be saved by micro-enhancements like that.
All the electric kettles I've seen did have very thick insulation; it looked like they were intended to be left on or in standby all the time.
I remember once I watched a friend's cats while he was on extended vacation back home in China.
You try very hard to be accommodating when someone capable of covering your pager shift asks for a favor, because you know the currency in which that favor is to be repaid. Besides, he was senior to me (in terms of skill) and got me the job in the first place, so I kinda owed him at the outset. But it's almost always worth it to put in a lot of effort to have more than one person who can cover your pager feel like they owe you. But still, I'll totally clean out your cat's liter box if I think I can get you to cover my pager.
Anyhow, the weird thing was that he had like six electric kettles scattered throughout his house; and most of them were in 'sleep mode' - they were still on and plugged in and ready to dispense water fairly quickly. I guess the idea was that they were heavily insulated, so it didn't take a lot to keep the water warm?
Being me, I unplugged them all.
I've considered a kettle for myself, but the kettles I've used, mostly in ersatz office situations, all took a pretty long time to warm up from 'cold' - and all of them were nasty, because some asshole decided to put tea (or something) directly in the kettle.
What I find funny is that I bought one of those fancy super-automatic espresso machines of craigslist; You know, one of those brushed-aluminum deals where you pour whole beans in the top and just press a button? It doesn't take that long to warm up, and it's on a 5-15r (15 amps of 120v) - I know the reservoir on this thing is room-temperature, and it's pretty quick to warm up. Much faster than any kettle I've tried.
It makes pretty good espresso, too. Not as good as, say, chromatic coffee, or even B2 in san jose, but it beats the heck out of starbucks, and I don't have to put on pants. It does require periodic work, which I don't mind. I like working on mechanical things. Just don't make me do it in the morning, you know? As for effort expended to get my coffee? it's gotta be even easier than the aeropress. Expensive, though. I think I paid $300 for mine, and it's about 4x that new.