<story><title>Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V? (2014)</title><url>https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/115200/why-does-the-usa-use-110v-and-uk-use-230-240v</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mhandley</author><text>According to Twinings tea:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Always use freshly drawn (filtered if possible) cold water in the kettle. Tea loves oxygen as it helps the flavour develop.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Most of us are guilty of the following... looking at the kettle seeing there is some old, used water in there and simply re-boiling.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;If you keep re-boiling the water in the kettle, it loses all of its oxygen and you’ll be left with a really flat cup of tea.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;If you boil the kettle with fresh water, you’ll have a delicious cup of oxygenated tea that tastes divine.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twinings.co.uk&amp;#x2F;blogs&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;how-to-make-a-cup-of-tea-perfectly&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twinings.co.uk&amp;#x2F;blogs&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;how-to-make-a-cup-of-tea-p...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure how much difference this makes, but when I use the hot water boiler at work, the tea definitely tastes slightly off compared to using a kettle at home.  But it&amp;#x27;s also possible the hot water boiler at work is not producing hot enough water.</text></item><item><author>jedberg</author><text>I have a question for you as a Brit.  I live in an Asian household (my wife is Asian).  We have a hot water boiler, as most Asian households do.  It keeps 4L of water at &amp;quot;tea&amp;quot; temperature at all times (after boiling it).&lt;p&gt;When we want tea, we just fill up the cup with the already boiled and ready water.  It&amp;#x27;s super efficient because it&amp;#x27;s super insulated so it barely takes any energy to keep it hot after it&amp;#x27;s been boiled.&lt;p&gt;Why don&amp;#x27;t Brits (and other tea drinking cultures in Europe) do this?</text></item><item><author>mhandley</author><text>As a Brit, the best thing about 230v is being able to run a 3kW kettle to make my tea.  I took this for granted until I moved to the US.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>benhurmarcel</author><text>Honestly if it’s to put Twinings in it, it doesn’t really matter.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V? (2014)</title><url>https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/115200/why-does-the-usa-use-110v-and-uk-use-230-240v</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mhandley</author><text>According to Twinings tea:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Always use freshly drawn (filtered if possible) cold water in the kettle. Tea loves oxygen as it helps the flavour develop.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Most of us are guilty of the following... looking at the kettle seeing there is some old, used water in there and simply re-boiling.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;If you keep re-boiling the water in the kettle, it loses all of its oxygen and you’ll be left with a really flat cup of tea.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;If you boil the kettle with fresh water, you’ll have a delicious cup of oxygenated tea that tastes divine.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twinings.co.uk&amp;#x2F;blogs&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;how-to-make-a-cup-of-tea-perfectly&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twinings.co.uk&amp;#x2F;blogs&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;how-to-make-a-cup-of-tea-p...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure how much difference this makes, but when I use the hot water boiler at work, the tea definitely tastes slightly off compared to using a kettle at home.  But it&amp;#x27;s also possible the hot water boiler at work is not producing hot enough water.</text></item><item><author>jedberg</author><text>I have a question for you as a Brit.  I live in an Asian household (my wife is Asian).  We have a hot water boiler, as most Asian households do.  It keeps 4L of water at &amp;quot;tea&amp;quot; temperature at all times (after boiling it).&lt;p&gt;When we want tea, we just fill up the cup with the already boiled and ready water.  It&amp;#x27;s super efficient because it&amp;#x27;s super insulated so it barely takes any energy to keep it hot after it&amp;#x27;s been boiled.&lt;p&gt;Why don&amp;#x27;t Brits (and other tea drinking cultures in Europe) do this?</text></item><item><author>mhandley</author><text>As a Brit, the best thing about 230v is being able to run a 3kW kettle to make my tea.  I took this for granted until I moved to the US.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Astronaut3315</author><text>An Asian style water boiler maintains the temp just below boiling, so there isn’t any reboiling throughout the day. Think of it as a water boiling thermos.&lt;p&gt;You’re meant to replace the water daily. Not sure how many follow that guideline.&lt;p&gt;ETA: Only the so-called “hybrid” models have vacuum insulation. It’s worth the extra charge.</text></comment>