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Definition
One kilowatt hour is 3.6 megajoules. This is the amount of energy transferred if work is done at an average rate of one kilowatt for one hour.
Other units of energy
The kilowatt hour is a convenient size unit for electrical bills because the energy usage of a typical electrical customer in one month is several hundred kilowatt hours. Megawatt hours and terawatt hours are used for metering larger amounts of electrical energy.
Annual consumption or production of energy is sometimes given in units of kilowatt hours per year; for example, when comparing the energy efficiency of household appliances or the energy produced by a distributed power source.
The Board of Trade unit or B.O.T.U. is an obsolete UK synonym for kilowatt hour. The term derives from the name of the Board of Trade that regulated the electricity industry. The B.O.T.U. should not be confused with the British thermal unit or BTU, which is a much smaller quantity of thermal energy.
Burnup of nuclear fuel is normally quoted in megawatt days per ton (MWd/MTU), where ton refers to a metric ton of uranium metal or its equivalent, and megawatt refers to the entire thermal output, not the fraction which is recovered as electricity.
Multiples
| Submultiples | Multiples | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | Symbol | Name | Value | Symbol | Name | |
| 10–1 W·h | dW·h | deciwatt hour | 101 W·h | daW·h | decawatt hour | |
| 10–2 W·h | cW·h | centiwatt hour | 102 W·h | hW·h | hectowatt hour | |
| 10–3 W·h | mW·h | milliwatt hour | 103 W·h | kW·h | kilowatt hour | |
| 10–6 W·h | µW·h | microwatt hour | 106 W·h | MW·h | megawatt hour | |
| 10–9 W·h | nW·h | nanowatt hour | 109 W·h | GW·h | gigawatt hour | |
| 10–12 W·h | pW·h | picowatt hour | 1012 W·h | TW·h | terawatt hour | |
| 10–15 W·h | fW·h | femtowatt hour | 1015 W·h | PW·h | petawatt hour | |
| 10–18 W·h | aW·h | attowatt hour | 1018 W·h | EW·h | exawatt hour | |
| 10–21 W·h | zW·h | zeptowatt hour | 1021 W·h | ZW·h | zettawatt hour | |
| 10–24 W·h | yW·h | yoctowatt hour | 1024 W·h | YW·h | yottawatt hour | |
| Common multiples are in bold face | ||||||
Symbol and abbreviation for kilowatt hour
The brochure for SI[3] and a voluntary standard[4] issued jointly by an international (IEEE) and national (ASTM) organization state that when compound unit symbols are formed by multiplication, the individual symbols should be separated by a half-high dot or a space (for example, "kW·h" or "kW h"). However, at least one major usage guide[5] and the IEEE/ASTM standard allow kWh (but do not mention other multiples of the watt hour). One guide published by NIST specifically recommends avoiding "kWh" "to avoid possible confusion".[6] Nonetheless, it is commonly used in commercial, educational, scientific and media publications.[7]
Conversions
| from / to | joule | watt hour | electronvolt | calorie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 J = 1 kg m2 s-2 = | 1 | 0.278 × 10−3 | 6.241 × 1018 | 0.239 |
| 1 W·h = | 3600 | 1 | 2.247 × 1022 | 859.8 |
| 1 eV = | 1.602 × 10−19 | 4.45 × 10−23 | 1 | 3.827 × 10−20 |
| 1 cal = | 4.1868 | 1.163 × 10−3 | 2.613 × 1019 | 1 |
See also
References
- ^ Taylor, Barry N. (1995). Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) (Special publication 811). Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology. 31.
- ^ "Half-high dots or spaces are used to express a derived unit formed from two or more other units by multiplication." Barry N. Taylor. (2001 ed.) The International System of Units. (Special publication 330). Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology. 20.
- ^ The International System of Units (SI). (2006, 8th ed.) Paris: International Bureau of Weights and Measures. 130.
- ^ Standard for the Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modern Metric System. (1997). (IEEE/ASTM SI 10-1997). New York and West Conshohoken, PA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and ASTM. 15.
- ^ Chicago Manual of Style. (14th ed., 1993) University of Chicago Press. 482.
- ^ Taylor, Barry N. (1995). 13
- ^ See for example: Wind Energy Reference Manual Part 2: Energy and Power Definitions Danish Wind Energy Association. Retrieved 9 January 2008; "Kilowatt-Hour (kWh)" BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved 9 January 2008; "US Nuclear Power Industry" www.world-nuclear.org. Retrieved 9 January 2008; "Energy. A Beginners Guide: Making Sense of Units" Renew On Line (UK). The Open University. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
External links
- Power and Energy in the Home - The Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIP) group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed an applet which illustrates the consumption and cost of energy in the home, and allows the user to see the effects of manipulating the flow of electricity to various household appliances.
