What is Watt (W), Kilowatt (KW), Kilowatt hour (kWh) (unit) of electricity?To use the air conditioner power consumption calculator to calculate the power consumption of your AC and interpret the results correctly you should understand the following terms.
If you know these terms then feel free to scroll down to use the AC power consumption calculator.
- What is Watt (W) – Watt is a unit of power. It means the rate at which electricity is consumed or produced by a device. For example a 250 watt refrigerator consumes power at a rate of 150 watts per hour, it does not mean that the refrigerator consumed 250 units of electricity, it means it will consume power at a rate of 250 watts every hour.
- What is Kilowatt (kW) – Kilowatt is also a unit of power. Kilowatt (KW) is used for large devices that consume more power. For example a 1.5 kW air conditioner, 6 kW elevator. There are bigger units like Megawatt (MW), Gigawatt (GW) to describe large power consumption or generation. For example 100 Megawatt (MW) coal power plant.(1 kW = 1000 W)
- What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) – Units as described in electricity bill a.k.a kilowatt hour is the energy consumption of a device. For example a 1000 watt AC running for 5 hours will consume 1000 watt x 5 hours = 5000 watt hours = 5 kilowatt hours of electricity = 5 units of electricity.(1 kWh of electricity = 1 unit of electricity)
- Electricity Tariff – Electricity tariff is the amount the electricity provider charges you for one unit (kWh) of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 12/kWh. If you don’t know how to calculate your tariff then just divide your total bill by monthly power consumption and you will get your electricity tariff.
- What is operational hours – Operational hours of a device refers to how many hours the device is working. If you run your television for 3 hours then operational hours of your television is 3 hours.
To calculate the power consumption of your AC just input the rated power of your AC, operation hours of your AC and the electricity tariff in your place.
A a rule of thumb, to calculate energy consumption consider 1 ton of AC is equal to 1000 watts.
So if you have 1.5 ton AC type 1500 watts in rated power section.