What is kilowatt hour?
Watts The rate of electrical use at any moment is measured in watts. For example: • A 100-watt light bulb uses 100 watts. • A typical desktop computer uses 65 watts. • A central air conditioner uses about 3500 watts. If your device lists amps instead of watts, then just multiply the amps times the voltage to get the watts. For example: 2.5 amps x 120 volts = 300 watts Watt-hours To know how much energy you’re using you have to consider how long you run your appliances. When you run a 1-watt appliance for an hour, that’s a watt-hour. It’s abbreviated Wh. For example: • One 100-watt light bulb on for an hour is 100 watt-hours (100 Wh) • One 100-watt light bulb on for five hours is 500 Wh • Five 100-watt light bulbs on for an hour is 500 Wh Kilowatt-hours 1,000 watt-hours is a kilowatt-hour (kWh). For example. • One 100-watt light bulb on for an hour, is 0.1 kWh (100/1000) • One 100-watt light bulb on for ten hours is 1 kWh (1 bulbs x 100W x 10h= 1000Wh = 1 kWh) • Ten 100-watt light bulbs