The kW determines the contracted power and the fixed term you pay for electricity, while the kWh will be the indicator of the energy consumed for electricity or gas and will determine the price you pay for your consumption.
What is a kW of electricity?
The kW (kilowatt) is a unit of measurement used to quantify the electrical power of light that supports the installation of the building. The unit used to measure is the watt (W), so one kilowatt is equivalent to 1,000 W (1,000 W = 1 kW).
In electrical supplies, the kW is used to indicate the maximum power that a household can support, just as household appliances indicate in their technical data sheet the amount of W they need to operate.
Therefore, the kW in the electrical supply of a home will indicate the speed at which energy is consumed, that is, the amount of energy that passes through the conductive elements at a given time, so it defines the number of appliances that can be connected at the same time.
For example, a domestic steam iron needs between 2,200 and 2,400 watts to work properly while a two-person house without electric heating needs an electrical power of 3.45 kW to support the electricity needed by the appliances in that home.
1 megawatt (MW) = 1,000 kilowatts (kW), or the power used by the average microwave oven
1 megawatt-hour (MWh) = 1 MW for one hour or 1,000 kW for one hour.
What is a kWh?
The kWh is a unit of measurement used to account for electricity consumption over a period of time. The kWh measures energy consumption in kilowatt-hours.
1 watt is equivalent to consuming 1 joule for 1 second. Therefore, 1 kW represents the consumption of 1,000 Joules for 1 second. For example, a device that consumes 1 kW and is on for 1 hour, will consume a total of 3,600,000 Joules. This is equivalent to saying that it has spent 1 kWh (kilowatt hour) of energy.
The kWh is currently used in the energy sector to invoice the electricity or gas consumption of consumers.
On the electricity bill, this value is indicated as a “variable term”, “consumption term” or “energy term”, depending on what the supplier with which the user has contracted the supply calls it.
How are the kWh consumed in a property measured?
The amount of kWh that has been spent on a property or premises are counted in the digital electricity meter by reading the meter. This measurement system registers the amount of electricity used and sends it automatically to the distributor company then that company proceeds to calculate the price established and sends it to the supplier company for subsequent billing.
On rare occasions, the company may not be able to read the meter. In these cases, the user himself will be in charge of resolving the misunderstanding, sending the reading of the electricity meter to the distributor.
Difference between kW and kWh
While kW is the amount of power that the property can demand at a given time, kWh is the amount of energy consumed over a period of time.