Having worked in the retail energy sector for a few years now I am still shocked on a daily basis as to how many people don't know and have no interest in ever knowing how much they spend on fuel. It's horrific!
Its all been dumbed down, comparison sites use ££ per year instead of unit cost, ofgem removed the requirement to show it a few years back and even made it hard to work out what the actual cap is.
In regards to individual device usage is there is a few things to consider.
First I think is the variance from property to property there is things like tapping supplies seemingly common in flats, there is people reporting they move from flat to their own house and suddenly for same usage pattern they have much lower meter readings.
I myself have an issue where my landlord is paying some of my electric bill as I discovered my meter goes up with everything turned off, and instead of getting electricians out to check all the flats he just came to an agreement with me to pay part of the bill. When the switch was flipped on my meter 2 lights went out in a neighbours flat. (this is my complication of moving to smart meter, dont think will ever be resolved so will be resolved when I move)
Smart meters are a step forward, but I feel we should be seeing watt readings on power sockets as a standard thing.
As for kettles they are actually efficient. Heating water in a kettle e.g. to wash up dishes is often more efficient than using a boiler to do the same thing. I found half filling my kettle is optimal as its not heating a full load but also when I drink coffee after coffee, the reboils are fast as the water doesnt fully cool down.
Small ovens are more efficient than larger ones, and microwaves are more efficient than ovens.
I also found using portable heater in my room is more efficient than using my boiler, my boiler is several decades old, and on the rare occasion I need heating, the portable heater has the room up to temp within a few minutes vs needing 1-2 hours on the boiler to do the same thing, plus the boiler is heating rooms I am not using. This is going to be even more paramount given gas is rising faster than electric.
However my boiler is more efficient than using my electric immersion heater for baths.
else I am throwing away the kettle.....
