"Tim S Kemp" wrote in message

Arny Krueger wrote:

Most kettles are relatively low-powered compared to the
appliances that are heavy-hitters.

In the US self-heated kettles are far from the largest
single users of power. Electric space heaters are near
or at the top.

Have you ever been to the UK?

Several times, but pulling the plumbing apart was not on my
agenda for the visit. ;-)

My kettle is 3.2kw.

That would be *lots* in my book.

We do have electric kettles, but the common domestic ones
are limited to 1600 watts or so. Most are far smaller than
that - used to heat enough water for a cup of soup, tea,
coffee or cocoa.

My shower is 10.5 Kw.

Electric showers are not exactly common over here. Most
people *learned* about electric water heaters and use
natural gas powered water heaters in the 50,000 BTU range.

Heating here is
done mostly with gas (as in natural gas, not petrol) or
oil (kerosene / diesel)

I lived in Germany for about a year and things were like
that. I lived in eastern Bavaria on an Army base and then in
an apartment in a nearby small town. Oil was widely used,
often still moved around in open buckets by hand.

Natural gas delivered via pipelines is the overwhelming
favorite in the US, with compressed Propane delivered and
stored in pressurized tanks being the favorite in areas that
lack pipeline connections. I understand that quite a bit of
oil is still used in the northeast.

The house I live in was built in 1933,. When I bought it in
the 70s is used mostly oil heat, three rooms used electric
heat, and there was an electric water heater.

It didn't take too many huge energy bills to find things
changed over to natural gas - my house now has two 90+%
efficient central forced-air furnaces. There are two
separate hybrid forced-air heating/cooling systems in my
house, one for the central living area (kitchen/family
room/bath), and one for the sleeping suites and their baths.
They are controlled by 2 separate microcomputer-based
thermostats with their own heating/cooling schedules and
rules.

We also have a highly-efficient wood-burning fireplace. We
mostly have it for romance, and because firewood has been
very cheap around here for much of the past 30 years due to
two separate plagues on common trees - elms and ash. Use it
mostly in the early fall and late spring.

If the US wasted less power in electric space heaters
maybe the world would be a better place?

Electric space heaters are mostly just convenience items in
the Great Lakes region - electric space heaters are used for
chilly corners in buildings that are mainly heated by
natural gas. They are usually limited to about 1600 watts.

There was a time when electric power was very cheap in the
sun belt and pacific coast. Some whole-house electric heat
was used in temperate climates. It is still used in the sun
belt portions of the US where the climate is very mild, and
air conditioning is the dominant energy load.

Most electric-powered climate control in the US is now based
on "heat pumps" - bi-directional air conditioners based on a
Freon cycle, or air conditioner/natural gas hybrid systems.
The freon-cycle equipment is fairly efficient, in the
climates where it is widely used. Its thermal efficiency is
200-300%. IOW one BTU equivalent of electricity moves 2-3
BTUs of heat either into or out of the house, as needed.