What is a kilowatt-hour (kWh)?
Your lights and television work, and you get a bill from People's Cooperative Services every month, but do you really understand how your electricity is measured?
It's relatively simple. Electricity is measured in units of power called watts. Like pennies, watts are pretty small. Usually, electricity is measured in kilowatts, or 1,000 watt units. The watt or kilowatt rating on electrical devices such as light bulbs tells you how much electricity it requires for operation. The higher the rating, the more electricity it uses.
The number of kilowatts used is multiplied by the number of hours of use, and the result is a kilowatt hour, or kWh. It's similar to buying food at the grocery store: three oranges at $.25 each equals $.75. In the case of your electric bill, one 60-watt bulb used five hours per day for 30 days equals nine kilowatt hours (60 watts of power X 5 hours per day X 30 days divided by 1,000 = 9 kilowatt hours).
Other useful formulas:
AMPS times Volts = Watts
Watts divided by Volts = Amps
Watts divided by Amps = Volts
If you have questions about your bill, call the cooperative office at 507-288-4004 or email us. We are happy to explain anything that isn't clear.