Got all my gear, but can't even boil water -- help?

I've spent the last 10 weeks reading and researching everything possible; my wife spent a lot of money buying me a complete starter kit, and I even spent big and bought a 28 quart aluminum pot. I even tracked down and spent $40 on a canning element, just in case I needed it.

And I still can't boil water.

I've tried everything short of adding an additional element -- wrapped the pot in aluminum foil, split it across two burners, preboiled all the water in other pots -- and I simply cannot keep water at a temperature more than 90 degree Celsius with the lid off. Lid on I can just get a rolling boil, but the second the lid is off, the boil is gone.

I live in an apartment with no balcony and no usable outdoor space, so a propane burner is out (don't even have a friend or relative within 50 miles I could borrow a garage from) I rent, so I can't make major changes to my apartment. I've already spent every cent available on the equipment and supplies up to this point. I squirreled away about $40 more to try and build a heatstick, but I can't get the supplies from Home Depot or Rona for less than $70+ (in Canada.) I will admit this feels very hopeless. Does anyone have any advice at all?

EDIT: Am I crazy to think I could buy a 1500/2000W heating element, install it directly in the side of my kettle (a la the Electric Brewery) and plug that directly into a GFCI'd outlet with no additional controls to add some oomph to stovetop boiling? Would I realistically be able to "use" the hole again later to install a larger 240V controlled element in the future?

EDIT 2: Tonight I wrapped the entire pot in about 30' of heavy duty aluminum foil, put more foil under the element to direct it straight up around the pot, and preboiled 3 gallons of water using my three other elements and smaller pots. Tossed the boiled water in, put the lid on and kept a rolling boil, but once again fell back to 90-95 almost instantly without the lid. I can keep it at around 95 by fashioning a "cowl" around the top of the pot with aluminum foil to shrink the opening, but I still can't get it above more than a very lazy bubble. I've read about using Reflectix to wrap the kettle, but I can't see how it will help that much more than the aluminum foil, and I don't have $30+ to spend on a solution that doesn't end up working.