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By Thad Warren
There are 1,000 watts in 1 kilowatt.
A watt is a unit used to measure the transfer of energy. Electric companies use kilowatts to measure how much electricity you used.
Since a watt is a relatively small unit of electricity, it is common for it to be measured in multiples, like a kilowatt. A kilowatt, as we mentioned, is just 1,000 watts.
Electric companies use kilowatt-hours to determine your bill every month.
Just like other metric units of measurement, as the numbers get larger different prefixes are used. Think about a millimeter, centimeter, meter, and kilometer. In energy terms, watts and kilowatts and the most often used household terms. But there's always something bigger. In electricity terms it's megawatts. A megawatt is equal to 1,000 kilowatts.
Here is a table that shows a comparison of watts, kilowatts, and megawatts.
| Watts | Kilowatts | Megawatts |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0.1 | 0.0001 |
| 1000 | 1 | 0.001 |
| 10000 | 10 | 0.01 |
| 100000 | 100 | 0.1 |
| 1000000 | 1000 | 1 |
A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy equal to one kilowatt (kW) of power sustained for one hour. One kilowatt-hour is equal to 1,000 watts for one hour.
For instance, a 40-watt light bulb uses 40 watts of energy every hour. This translates to .04kWh by dividing 40 watts by 1,000. If you use the bulb 40-watt bulb for 4 hours every day (.16 kWh per day) for 30 days, you will be charged for 4.8 kilowatt-hours of energy for the month.
Electric companies use your total kilowatt-hour usage and multiply it by your energy rate to determine how much to charge you on your bill.
Instead of doing everything by hand, there are energy bill calculators that do all the work for you.
Using the EnergyBot electricity bill calculator allowing you to plug in numbers, such as:
To get an energy price, consider the standard rates by state. You can also pull the latest rates from your electric company’s website or call them for more information.
From there, you’re able to calculate how much your electric company may bill you ahead of time and how to save money in the future.
For example, if you use a 40-watt bulb every day for 3 hours and your electric company charges 8 cents per kWh, it will look like this in the calculator:
Use the calculator for more significant devices, such as the air conditioning or refrigerator, which are the largest energy consumption appliances to-date.
Now that you’re familiar with how many watts in a kilowatt-hour, calculating your energy bill becomes easier. Consider using a calculator to get a bigger picture and plan accordingly.
It may not seem like a big deal knowing how many watts in a kilowatt, but this small fact can lead you to save hundreds on your electricity bills for years to come.
Also, keeping tabs on the biggest energy consumers in the house, such as large devices, are crucial to saving money in the long-run.
