Convert watts to kilowatts and vice versa

Watt (W, watt, W) is a common unit of measure for power. In the SI international system of units, watts (abbreviation - W) refers to derived units. Very often, when calculating and in everyday life, it becomes necessary to convert kilowatts to watts and vice versa. In fact, the translation is not difficult, but some find it difficult to use simple calculations. That is why in this article we decided to describe in detail how many watts per kilowatt of electricity.

Power Unit Ratio

As we have already said, Watt refers to derived units, which implies that the value of this quantity can be expressed in terms of the basic units of the system. According to the basic definition, for 1 watt the power is taken that performs work of 1 joule for 1 second. Based on this, the representation of the power value 1 watt using the basic units of measurement has the following form:

1 watt = 1 kgm2/with3,

In addition, W can be expressed using other units:

  • 1 watt = 1 J / s, (1 joule per second);
  • 1 watt = 1 N · m / s, (1 Newton per meter per second).

For the convenience of practical use of units of measurement, in the international system it is customary to use prefixes that determine the decimal multiplicity with respect to the original value. One of these consoles is "kilo". This word is derived from the Greek "chilioi", which means "thousand" in translation. Thus, the use of this prefix means that the initial value should be increased by 103 time.

The formula for determining the ratio between power expressed in kilowatts (abbreviated designation is kW, kW) and W is as follows:

1 kW = 1·103 W(1)

In kilowatts, it is customary to denote the power of many machines and units that surround a person in everyday life and in production. Electric stoves, kitchen appliances, household air conditioners, washing machines, vacuum cleaners - this is an incomplete list of devices on which you can see the designation of the rated power in kW. This also applies to the internal combustion engines of modern cars. True, here, along with the value in kilowatts, there is often a designation for horsepower. The use of this extra-systemic unit is nothing but a tribute to the tradition originating from the time of the appearance of the first steam engines, which replaced horse-drawn traction. To make you understand the ratio, converting kilowatts to horsepower looks simple enough:

1 kW = 1.36 hp

Thus, the short answer to the question posed in the heading of the article can be formulated as follows: in 1 kW one thousand watts. The ratio inverse to formula (1) can be written as follows:

1 W = 1 · 10-3 = 1/1000 kW(2)

How to convert kilowatts to watts? To do this, multiply the number in watts by 10-3, that is, divided by 1000. In order to carry out the reverse conversion from kW to W, it is enough to multiply the number of kilowatts by 103, or multiply by 1000.

For convenience, we bring to your attention a table with which you can quickly convert watts to kilowatts and vice versa:

Tue kW
1 0,001
10 0,01
100 0,1
200 0,2
500 0,5
1000 1
1800 1,8
10000 10
100000 100

Translation Examples

To make it clear to you how to convert kilowatts to watts and vice versa, here are some simple life examples.

Example 1. On the nameplate of the electric motor, the rated power is 1.5 kW. It is required to determine how to convert the power of a given engine to watt. In accordance with the foregoing, multiply the number of kW by 1000:

Pnom = 1.5 (kW) 1000 = 1500 (W).

Example 2. The technical data table of the electric drill contains information: Pnom = 900 W. Calculate how many kW is the given power value:

Pnom = 900 (W) / 1000 = 0.9 (kW).

The name of the unit of measure of power (kW) is heard by everyone who at least once passed the meter readings to the power supply organization. For people far from electricity, some clarification should be made. The consumer pays for the electricity consumed, which is measured in kilowatt × hours, as can be seen in the photo below.

Electric meter front panel

One kilowatt * hour is the energy that is consumed from the electrical network when a load is included in it, with a power of 1 kW for an hour. For example, a powerful 500 W incandescent lamp, when turned on for one hour, consumes 500 W × h of electrical energy.

The principle of solving the problem is how to determine how much W × hour in 1 kilowatt × hour of electricity is the same as in the case of power. That is, in our example:

500 W × h = 500/1000 kW × h = 0.5 kW × h.

Similarly, you can convert 60 watts to kilowatts (it will be 0.06 kW), 200, 300 or 2000 watts. We hope that the provided formulas and the table helped you understand how many watts per kilowatt of electricity, and how to properly convert power units from one to another. If you have any questions, be sure to ask them in the comments below the post!

It will be useful to read:

(4 votes)
Loading...

Add a comment