A kilowatt-hour measures the energy an appliance uses in kilowatts per hour. For example, if you clean your floors with a 1,000-watt vacuum cleaner for one hour, you consume 1 kWh of energy.

Let’s go over a few examples of kW vs kWh in the context of low- and high-power appliances:

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Now that you have a better understanding of kW versus kWh, and the different uses of electricity, you can take a closer look at your bill and begin to analyze your energy consumption. For a more detailed...

A kilowatt is simply a measure of how much power an electric appliance consumes—it’s ­­1,000 watts to be exact. You can quickly convert watts (W) to kilowatts (kW) by diving your wattage by 1,000:

1,000W / 1,000 = 1 kW.

Let’s use a 1500W dishwasher you use for two hours per day as an example for calculating kW and kWh on a monthly basis:

1. Divide the wattage by 1,000 to calculate kW: 1500 watts / 1,000 = 1.5 kW
2. Multiply the kilo...

The main difference between kWh and kW is in what they measure:

• To put it simply, a kilowatt is a measure of power.
• A kilowatt-hour is a measure of energy; power is the rate at which something uses energy, and energy is the cap...