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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A watt is a unit of power; something using 1W uses 1 joule of energy every second. 1 kW is then 1,000 watts or 1,000 J (1kJ) being consumed every second.
A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy; it’s the energy consumed by using 1,000 watts for a period of 1 hour. Thus 1 kWh is the equivalent of 1000*60*60 = 3.6 megajoules of energy.
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