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A typical personal computer uses approximately 70 watts. In addition, a 17" monitor uses another 80 watts. That comes to 150 watts in an hour, or .15 kWh. If you have the same computer on for only 4 minutes (say, to check your e-mail), that would come to .01 kWh. With an LCD monitor that uses only 35 watts, an hour of usage will come to .105 kWh. A unit of energy equivalent to one kilowatt (kW) of power expended for one hour of time. The amount of electricity you use each billing period is expressed in terms of a kilowatt-hour, and is noted on your bill. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit for measuring energy. It is, as its name suggests, one kilowatt of power used over a period of one hour. 1,000 Watts = 1 KW One kilowatt-hour is the amount of electrical energy expended by a one-kilowatt load drawing power for one hour. There is no conversion for Kwh to Kw for this would be comparing apples to oranges. The standard unit to measure how much electricity used in a time period, such as one month, is kilowatt-hours (kwh). The standard unit to measure how fast it is being used at any moment, or the highest rate of use in a month, is the kilowatt (kw). Kilowatt-hours is analogous to miles; kilowatts is analogous to miles per hour. To relate them, understand that to consume 1 kwh in 1 hour means the facility is using electricity at an average rate of 1 kw.
These units are not interchangeable and using the wrong term can sometimes create confusion and cost a lot of money. People sometimes use the term “kilowatts” when they should be saying “kilowatt-hours.”
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