The Cost of a Cup of Tea

Some might feel that $1+ for a cup of tea is expensive, but when you consider that you have to heat up the water with energy, the price isn't bad.

The water heater we use for tea uses around 900 watts of power, and takes about 1 to 2 minutes to boil the water. So that would be 1kW / 60 = 0.02 kW hours. And since energy costs about $0.50 / kW (roughly), it costs $0.01 to heat up the tea. OK I guess it isn't that much! :-)

The meter pictured here is the P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. It costs about $25 and in my opinion, well worth it.

Buy one right now!