Grossly oversimplified but most American kitchens built in the past 40 years will only be wired with 20 amp circuits (= rated for 80% continuous load or about 1

Grossly oversimplified but most American kitchens built in the past 40 years will only be wired with 20 amp circuits (= rated for 80% continuous load or about 1900 W). However, I've never seen a 20 amp receptacle in a kitchen (until my idiot GC insisted on it because he doesn't understand the NEC), and pretty much any US spec kettle will only have a 15 amp (NEMA 5-15) plug. But… there will almost certainly be a few different circuits in your kitchen so pulling 3000 W (a.k.a. 15 amp * 0.80 * 2) isn't so crazy. Whatever. My kettle is rated at 1500 watts and it's still quite a bit faster than the shitty gas range. And it'll keep water at temp for half an hour. And it's adjustable so I can boil water or heat it up for whatever tea or coffee. There's a pretty strong convenience factor here. A 240 V kettle is probably not worth the hassle though, especially not if you want your local building inspector to sign off on anything.