[thrwy_ywrht]

Hot water bottles are very popular in the UK for three main reasons that don't really translate to the US:

* Every household has an electric kettle

* Kettles boil very quickly (due to power differences)

* Most households have radiator-style heating, which takes much, much longer to heat up a room than US-style forced-air heating

[frankus]

I'm semi-seriously considering installing a few 240V outlets in my kitchen when I redo it and smuggling in a European kettle (any recommendations on a nice temperature-controlled one? I use and like this 120V now: https://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-BV382510V-Variable-Temperatu...)

The US secretly has 240V power almost everywhere, but we use center-tapped transformers upstream of the service connection that provide two 120V legs (180 degrees out of phase). So lighting and appliances all get 120V (typically 15A), with the exception of high-power items like cooktops, ovens, and these machines we have for drying our laundry indoors.

[Karrot_Kream]

My partner and I use hot water bottles extensively (we both grew up in immigrant households that used them). We have a hot water boiler that we schedule to run in the early hours of the morning before any of us are up to use cheaper energy and have the water ready for us. We use the boiler for hot water bottles, for brewing tea, for brewing coffee (well I'm picky with coffee so I reheat the water to exact temp on an old-fashioned stove kettle), for boiling noodles or pasta, for cleaning caked on grime, etc etc.

I'd suggest that over redoing your outlet, though you will have to periodically descale your water boiler, because of sheer utility and portability (you can move and you'll still be able to just plug it into a standard 1-phase 120V outlet.)

[maccard]

What you want is an instant water tap like a quooker.

[99_00]

I live somewhere cold and damp. I need this. Thermal clothes and turning up the heat doesn’t help.

Recently we had a bought of dry cold weather. In -10 C and dry I was wearing less insulation and feeling warmer than +5 C with high humidity. Real eye opener to understanding the impact of humidity and how I can adapt to my winter climate better.

[aulin]

Not sure, they were very popular in Italy when I was young. No electric kettle, we used gas stove ones. Heating was either radiators (slow) or wooden fireplace (only heats nearby), so maybe that's the main reason for its popularity, inefficient heating.

[rootusrootus]

I thought hot water bottles were supposed to have water around 100F (38C) or below? I imagine most hot water heaters put out water hotter than that, no kettle needed.