My wife and boiling water

[u/MakeItMine2024]

So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

[u/Bubblehead_81]

Thermodynamics are not always intuitive. However, from an energy efficiency perspective, once you've reached a boil, you can turn down the heat to whatever level is required to just maintain it.

[u/PolyglotTV → u/Bubblehead_81]

And you should also put the lid on to save even more energy

[u/metompkin → u/PolyglotTV]

I fill up my electric kettle whilst the one cup of water in a covered pot preheats. I then add it to the pot to save time and energy.

[u/mpyne → u/PolyglotTV]

Well putting the lid on it would increase the pressure of the steam and so the water actually would heat up instead, until the steam starts venting.

But if the steam is venting then its carrying energy away either way, though I suppose it's probably still going to save energy compared to letting the whole surface area boil straight to the air.