What Are Watts (W) and Kilowatts (kW)? Solar Explanation
Simple definitions of watts and kilowatts. What they mean, examples, and how they differ.
What Is a Watt (W)?
A watt is a measurement of how much electricity something is using or producing.
Watt = 📏 ⚡
Electronics like TVs require a certain amount of electricity to run.
📺 🔌 ⚡
The amount of electricity required is the watts (or wattage). For example, say you have a small TV that requires 50 watts, and a big TV that requires 100 watts.
📺 50W
📺 100W
If you had a small solar panel that generates 100 watts of electricity, that’d be enough to power two small TVs of 50W each, or one large TV of 100W.
☀️ 100W ⚡
🔌
📺 📺 or 📺
What Is a Kilowatt (kW)?
A kilowatt is simply 1,000 watts.
1kW = 1,000W
So if a solar panel system generates 2,000 watts of power, that means it generates 2 kilowatts of power.
☀️ ⚡
2,000W = 2kW
Hope that was helpful! Now that you know the basics of watts and kilowatts, learn about kilowatt hours and watt hours.