Units of electricity:
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One of the most common units of electrical power for appliances is the watt (W). Other common units of power include kilowatts (kW), British thermal units (BTU), horsepower (hp), and tons.:
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Watts, kilowatts and kilowatt-hours::
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Watts (W) is a unit of power used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. It is defined as 1 joule per second. A kilowatt is a multiple of a watt. One kilowatt (kW) is equal to 1,000 watts. Both watts and kilowatts are SI units of power and are the most common units of power used. Kilowatt-hours (kWh) are a unit of energy. One kilowatt-hour is equal to the energy used to maintain one kilowatt of power for one hour. Generally, when discussing the cost of electricity, we talk in terms of energy. Energy (E) and power (P) are related to each other through time (t)::
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P = E/t:
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E = Pt:
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Electricity is most often measured and paid for based on the number of kilowatt-hours used. The reason that kilowatts-hours are typically used as a measurement of energy rather than watt-hours is simply because of scale: the amount of energy a typical household in the United States uses in a year is on the order of millions of watts, so it is easier to discuss in terms of kilowatt-hours instead.:
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BTU and BTU/h:
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British thermal units (BTU) are a measurement of heat used as part of the Imperial and US customary units of measurement. It is defined as the amount of heat that is required to increase the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Heat is a type of energy, so BTU can be directly compared to other measurements of energy such as joules (SI unit of energy), calories (metric unit), and kilowatt-hours (kWh).:
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1 BTU = 0.2931 watt-hours:
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1 BTU = 0.0002931 kWh:
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1 kWh ≈ 3412 BTU:
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BTU/h, BTU per hour, is a unit of power that represents the energy transfer rate of BTU per hour. BTU/h is often abbreviated to just BTU to represent the power of appliances. For example, an AC marked with a label of 12,000 BTU actually has a power requirement of 12,000 BTU per hour.:
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1 BTU/h = 0.2931 watt:
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