But It's Only A Kettle

We recently got one of those little computer things that tells you how much electricity you are using. Well I say recently, we've had it a while but only just got round to setting up.

Anyway when I go out to work in the morning this thing usually says we are churning out between 100 and 300 watts... per whatever... I don't pretend to really understand it. The closest I knowingly get to physics these days is watching The Big Bang Theory.

So anyway it's a pretty low reading in the morning. Then later on it averages at about 700 to 900 watts when we have the TV or lights on or whatever.

It goes up a fair bit when we switch the cooker on... but the cooker is a pretty big appliance.

But what I don't understand is how it can shoot up from around 750 to 3,500 when we switch the kettle on.

THE KETTLE.

It goes up by nearly 3,000 watts because we are boiling water.

Now like I said I don't really understand much about physics... it's a while since I last studied it (like 12 years)... but how can such a small appliance churn out more than a couple of TVs, a cable box and a DVD player combined (and it's not even a little bit more - it's a lot).

Answers on a postcard... or in the comments box.