Update: I am actually searching for really simple, intuitive ways to explain it. I have a background in engineering, but am struggling to explain why we “pay for kwh”, and not kw (on our electricity bill) to someone who doesn’t. I have tried in many ways but maybe I’m not giving the right examples or making the right comparisons. I am really searchig for a way to ELI5.
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I always think of an electric kettle. It consumes 3 kW when on but it only runs for like 2 minutes. So boiling water costs 3 kWh * 2 mins = 0.1 kWh or about 1 cent. Compare this to a modern light bulb: it consumes just 0.01 kW but is on for 10 hours a day, so we get the same 0.1 kWh.
This example shows that two things matter for overall energy consumption (kWhs): power (watts) and time the appliance is on.
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