How is electricity measured?
A. Electricity is measured in units of power called watts. It was named to honor James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. One watt is a very small amount of power. It would require nearly 750 watts to equal one horsepower. A kilowatt represents 1,000 watts. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is equal to the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour. The amount of electricity a power plant generates or a customer uses over a period of time is measured in kilowatthours (kWh). Kilowatthours are determined by multiplying the number of kW’s required by the number of hours of use. For example, if you use a 40-watt light bulb 5 hours a day, you have used 200 watts of power, or .2 kilowatthours of electrical energy.
Electric power is a secondary energy source, which means that we get it from the conversion of other primary sources of energy — like coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power and other natural sources. The energy sources we use to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but electricity itself is neither renewable nor non-renewable. Electricity is measured in units of power, called watts. It was named to honor James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. One watt is a small amount of power. It would require nearly 750 watts to equal one horsepower. A kilowatt represents 1,000 watts. A kilowatt hour (kWh) is equal to the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour. The amount of electricity a power plant generates or a customer uses over a period of time is measured in kilowatt hours. Kilowatt hours are determined by multiplying the number of kilowatts required by the number of hours of use. For example: A 40-watt light bulb used 5 hours a day uses 200 watts of power, or 0.2 kil
Electricity is measured in volts, amps and watts. Volts measure the “pressure” under which electricity flows. Amps measure the amount of electric current. Watts, named to honor the inventor of the steam engine, James Watt, measure the amount of work done by a certain amount of current under a certain pressure. One watt is a very small amount of power. On average, a typical household incandescent light bulb uses 40 to 100 watts. A human climbing a flight of stairs is doing work at the rate of about 200 watts. A kilowatt (kW) is 1,000 watts and a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour. Check out the table to the right to find out how larger amounts of watts are measured.
