What is a kWh Worth?
December 10, 2005 by admin
Filed under Green Living
One of the most important steps in making the move to renewable energy resources or even just saving yourself some money by cutting back is to figure out what you’re using now. Once you know that, you’ll know what you can do without and the more you can do without, the less you’ll have to generate on your own (and the less you’ll have to spend to buy the gear).
One of the terms you’ll hear often in discussions electrical in nature is the kilowatt-hour (kWh). The kilowatt-hour is also commonly used in natural gas energy. Most domestic appliances will quote their power consumption in kilowatts and many electric utility companies use the kilowatt hour as a billing unit.
So what is a kWh in real terms? Here are some examples that I culled from the Sustainable Energy Blog…
- 1200 electric shaves
- Slice 100 breads
- Drying your hair 15 times
- 4 TV evenings
- Listening to 15 CD’s
- Using a (small) refrigerator for 24 hours
- 20 microwave meals
- Drill 250 holes
- 4 evenings of light with 60 W incandescent light
- 20 evenings of light with 11 W compact fluorescent light
The average household used 888 kw-hours last year according to the department of energy. That is a household, not a person.
This number: 888kwh / average household / year is not correct. Without a source, it’s hard to tell where the numbers got skewed, but that would mean 74kwh/month per household.
Check your last electricity bill. It’s more likely to be in the hundreds of kwh / mo. than 74kwh for last month. Unless you’re really careful with it…