If you’ve always used kW and kWh interchangeably, you’re not alone. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two, sometimes even those who know a little about energy and electricity get confused. But it wouldn’t hurt to learn something new today, right?
Kilowatt (kW) is the measure of power, and power is “the rate at which energy is used or generated at any given time”. Kilowatt is used when talking about how much power an appliance needs to operate at any given time. In other words, it’s the electricity load.
Kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the “measure of energy” and energy pertains to the “measure of how much fuel something contains or uses over a definite period.” Kilowatt-hour then refers to the total amount of energy you can use over a given period.
Greencoast.org gives an example to make things clearer: If a given machine needs 1000 Watts to operate, and you run the machine for a whole hour, that means 1,000 Watts of 1kWh of energy was used.
Did that make sense? Greencoast.org offers a more comprehensive explanation so feel free to visit their website today. Also, learn other terms through their renewable energy dictionary available online.