A kilowatt hour is not in and of itself a measurement of time. It is power in watts (more specifically kilowatts) multiplied by time in hours. A kilowatt is equal to 1000 watts. If a device uses say 2500 watts for 1 hour, that is equal to 2.5 kilowatt hours. If that same device is used for 2 hours it is equal to 5 kilowatt hours.
Right. And it is power multiplied by time, which is energy and is what you pay for on your inappropriately named "power consumption" energy bills.
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Kilowatt is a unit of power, and it does not directly convert to hours. Kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy. 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the amount of energy consumed by a 1 kilowatt device operating for 1 hour.
It's different in different areas & at different times.
Additional AnswerThere is no such thing as a kilowatt per hour. You are probably thinking of a kilowatt hour (kW.h) -which is a unit of measurement for energy. As the first answer says, it varies according to which company supplies you.
One kiloWatt hour has to do with the amount of energy being supplied or consumed in relation to the amount of time it is being consumed. One kiloWatt is 1000 Watts or 10 - 100 Watt light bulbs burning. One kiloWatt hour of energy would be consumed if those 10 - 100 Watt bulbs were all left on for 1 hour. The meter is reading energy being used and recording the duration of the usage to track kWh of consumption.
Another unit of energy used in science is the the Joule, which is 1 watt for 1 second. A kilowatt-hour is 3.6 million Joules, in other words 1000 watts for 3600 seconds, so 1000x3600 Joules.
Another Answer
First of all, 'electricity' is a subject, rather like 'physics' or 'chemistry'. It's NOT a quantity, so it cannot be measured. So you should be asking, 'How much energy is a kilowatt hour?'
A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy. It is 'the amount of energy consumed, over a period of one hour, at a rate of one kilowatt'. Remember, a kilowatt is a unit of 'power', defined as the rate of energy consumption.
That's like asking "How many miles per hour are in one mile ?"
Kilowatts is a unit of power ... the rate of using energy. Kilowatt-hours is a unit of energy.
You can't convert between units of power and units of energy. If you divide 1 kWh / 1 kW, you get an hour, which is a unit of time.
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1 KWh = 3,600,000 Watts-seconds = 3600 KW-seconds = 3.6 MW-seconds.
Note: KWs=KiloWatts.
Rationale:
Joule = the SI unit of work or energy, equal to the work done by a force of one newton when its point of application moves through a distance of one meter in the direction of the force: equivalent to ... one watt*second.
Watt = the derived SI unit of power, equivalent to one joule per second and equal to the power in a circuit in which a current of one ampere flows across a potential difference of one volt.
KiloWatt = a unit of power equal to 1000 Joules per second.
Power = In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or
transformed. The unit of power is the joule per second (J/s). In electricity the
basic unit of power is the Watt.
Therefore:
1 Joule per second = 1 Watt
1 kiloWatt = 1000 Watts
1 kiloWatt hour = 1000 Watt-hours = 1000 Watts for 3600 seconds = 1000 Watts * 3600 seconds
= 3,600,000 Watt-seconds = 3600 kiloWatt-seconds
Electrical Power is simply expressed Watts or multiples of Watts (Watt-hours, KWhs, MWhrs, etc).
Electrical energy is expressed in Watts*time.
Below are some examples:
1 Watt for one second = 1 Watt-second or 1 Watt*second, etc
1 kiloWatt for one second = 1000 Watt-seconds, etc
1 Watt*hour = 1 Watt for 1 hour = 1 Watt * 3600 seconds = 3600 Watt*seconds.
1 kiloWatt*hour = 1000 Watt*hours
1 megaWatt*hour = 1 million watt*hours
None.
A kilowatt is a measure of power, whereas an hour is a measure of time. The two measure different things and, according to the basic rules of dimensional analysis, conversion from one to the other is not valid.
There are 3.6 million joules in one kilowatt-hour.
A 10-kilowatt heater produces 34,120 BTUs per hour.
1 kilowatt means a continuous power flow of 1000 watts, and in one hour the energy expended is 1 kilowatt-hour, also known as 1 kWh or Unit.
A 40 kilowatt bulb consumes 40 kilowatt-hours of energy in 1 hour. This means it uses 40 kilowatts of power for one hour (40 kW x 1 hour = 40 kWh).
1 kilowatt (kW) is equal to 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) when used continuously for one hour. So, if you use a 1 kW appliance for one hour, it will consume 1 kWh of electricity.