Spurious Response wrote:

If you paid California electric rates, you wouldn't use it very many
times a year.

Apart from the fact that the energy used in a more powerful kettle is
slightly less, the rates in California appear to be about 12-15c/kWhr,
compared with my UK rate of 9p (~18c). The big difference in costs here
is that the climate is such that we don't need (and most of us don't
have) air- conditioning.

Paul Burke