[codeulike]

Incidentally I was reading the other day that in Europe kettles are much faster than USA ones (due to 240v domestic mains as opposed to 120v) and theres a small subculture of USA electricians fitting 240v supplies into their kitchen and then importing European kettles.

[bryanlarsen]

A lot of American kitchens have 20A sockets in them so you'd think that there'd be a market for kettles with 20A plugs that'd boil 33% faster than your standard 1500W kettle, but nobody will sell me one.

[lardosaurusrex]

It's not even difficult; the power comes to our houses in NA and Japan and some other places /as/ 240v and ws just drop it down. Your stove/oven and (many but not all) dryers and heatpumps/central air systems likely are using them as we speak.

I've always been more than a little confused as to why we don't utilise this more and I know the answer but... I'd really like some instant hot water, y'know?

i mean i could... i technically own a house now but the two electricians i've spoken to thus far vehemently insisted it was impossible and then proceeded to get crabby at me when i provided evidence to the contrary and kept saying "ok but who wants that???" as if i had offended them and their ancestors.

Cultural. The reason is cultural and it's ridiculous. At this point I'm going to just do it myself and get someone to drop by and give my insurance company a thumbs up to assure them I'm not about to burn down the house I guess.