Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, I'm doing an engineering project for my district science fair and i needed some help.
My idea is to create a portable electric kettle. I was thinking by converting it to battery powered and testing if it works as well as it does with an outlet.
I was first of all wondering if this is possible, and if it's a good idea. Secondly, ive been trying to do research on how electric kettles work and i havent gotten any information on it. I'm not sure exactly how to do that. Should i buy a kettle and just take it apart to see how it works? would that work as research?
If anyone has any advice or answers, i would definitely appreciate them.
thank you, Sally

Hi Sally,

I apologize for the delay. I don't see how converting it to battery power would be a problem. The only thing is that the kettle basically has an electrical short to heat up. So, you would be using quite a bit of electricity and would drain your battery very quickly (there's also an increase in an accident with the battery when it is discharged quickly).

I wasn't able to find any information on electric kettles either, but I googled "how electric heaters work" and found this website- http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker2.htm
It's not exactly the same, but the heating principles are similar. I would recommend just using information as your research, but it wouldn't hurt to take it apart and see how it works in detail (be careful not to have it plugged in then).

Your project sounds really good. What size battery are you considering using? Thanks and please keep us updated,

Philip

Typical 110 VAC electric crock pots, coffee pots, etc. have a resistance heating element and some crude thermostatic on/off control. Look up Ohms law and the related equation for electric power to understand what happens if you use a different voltage. Look up the power ratings (Wattage) of some of these devices online. Even if you redesign the heating element to work on a different voltage, the amount of power required to perform the heating isn't going to change significantly.

You might want to look up the difference between direct current and alternating current as well.