Featured Potentially really fast charging

I know we have 240V to nearly all houses. That's what I'm saying, there's no technological barrier to 240V outlets for small appliances in kitchens and garages. It would hardly even cost anything to add to a new house. The only reason we don't do it is because outlets for consumer products always have been 120V. The only 240V devices in most US houses are hard-wired or things that might as well be hard-wired because they get moved so rarely. Ranges, dryers, water heaters, air conditioners, etc. Very rare exceptions are things like table saws, welders, air compressors, EVs, where people might actually wire their garage for 240V.

 

Having used the simple water kettles in Europe and US repeatedly, I can confirm the European versions heat water about twice as fast, because we always have to get used to the delays when we return to the US and use the 120-volt versions. However, I must say that it is really the total wattage that makes the difference in creating heat and boiling the eater. If you had a 20-amp circuit and special plug for 120 volts in a US house, you would have 2,400 max watts available. The typical German 220-volt circuit does not have a 15-amp maximum, IIRC when resetting circuit breakers it was 10-12 amps but not 15 like typical US household circuit, so total wattage available is 2,200-2,840 watts.

All modern appliance power bricks that we have purchased in the last 5 years have been built to accommodate both 120 and 220 volt circuits cycling at 60 or 50 cycles per second. So all our electronic stuff functions flawlessly in Europe with the simple addition of the 2-prong plug adapter that fits onto a normal US 2-prong plug. So I think we could easily shift our current gear to the European 2-prong 220-volt system if we wished to install those systems in the US. It may be my imagination, but it seems that some of our computers and other rechargeable gear like cameras, will charge more quickly when plugged into the 220-volt system.

 

The top selling kettles on Amazon.co.uk are 3KW. I guess people in the UK want their tea really fast! 120V 20A would be fine, but like I said I've literally never seen a device with a 20A plug, even though I've seen plenty of 20A outlets. I know they theoretically exist, they are just extremely rare.

 

rare, due to high cost .... our electric oven w/inductive cooktop was $1,000's. But the largest cooktop ring on the surface will boil water faster than you can believe. It should, at a blazing 3.7kW's. Then u have to buy inductive pots, pans, & yes, inductive kettle.

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Oh the horror!
I guess I've been missing out my whole life...I don't drink tea.
But if I did I think I would just heat the water in my microwave.

It seems that this is totally wrong

Americans Don't Use Electric Tea Kettles. But Maybe They Should.

Mike