The Hidden Cost of the Office Cuppa
Forgotten cups of tea and unnecessary kettle re-boils could be adding more than £1.4 million a day to UK business electricity bills, according to new research from Uswitch Business Energy.
A survey of UK workers found that employees re-boil the kettle on almost half—43.5%—of the occasions on which they use one at work. Distractions such as emails, meetings and conversations can leave freshly boiled kettles forgotten, prompting workers to start the process again when they return.
Although the cost of re-boiling a single kettle is relatively small, Uswitch’s analysis suggests that the collective impact across the UK workforce is significant. Employees could be carrying out nearly 27 million unnecessary kettle boils every working day, generating an estimated £1.4 million in additional electricity costs.
Across a typical year of 260 working days, that could leave British businesses collectively paying more than £360 million for water that did not need to be boiled again.
The costs can also become substantial at an individual company level. Uswitch estimates that a workplace employing 500 people could spend approximately £23.45 a day on repeat boils alone. Over the course of a working year, that would amount to more than £6,000 in avoidable electricity costs.
The findings illustrate how small, everyday habits can contribute to a company’s overall energy expenditure. While businesses may focus their cost-cutting efforts on areas such as machinery, heating, lighting and building efficiency, routine activities in workplace kitchens can also have a cumulative financial impact.
Commercial boiling-water taps could provide a more efficient alternative for larger workplaces where employees make hundreds of hot drinks each day. These systems dispense the required amount of hot water without staff repeatedly filling and boiling a kettle.
With the average employee making around two hot drinks during each working day, Uswitch’s model estimates that dispensing the necessary water from a commercial boiling-water tap could cost about 7p per day for a 49-person business. By comparison, conventional kettle use could cost approximately £5.28.
For a company with 249 employees, the estimated daily cost is 29p for a boiling-water tap, compared with £26.83 for kettles. At a 500-person workplace, the model puts the respective costs at 56p and £53.87 per day.
Based on those estimates, a 500-person business could potentially reduce its running costs by around £53.31 a day—or almost £13,900 over 260 working days—by using a commercial boiling-water tap. Businesses would, however, also need to consider the purchase, installation and maintenance costs associated with such a system.
Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch Business Energy, said the findings demonstrate how easily minor costs can accumulate across an entire workforce.
“The cost of a single re-boil may be easy to overlook, but repeated across an entire workforce, every working day, it could be adding up,” he said.
Gallizzi encouraged employees to boil only the water they need and suggested that boiling-water taps may offer an efficient long-term option for larger offices. He also advised companies to review their business energy tariffs regularly.
Alongside encouraging more energy-conscious habits, comparing available business energy deals could help companies ensure they are not paying more than necessary for their electricity.
