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tinypanzer · #10 03-10-2009, 12:23 AM

"Why is your electric bill measured in KiloWATT hours instead of KiloAMP or KiloVOLT hours? Explain that one to me"

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, so here I go.....

Since your household service typically comes in on two phases, and gives you a choice of 120V or 220V, measuring just amps consumed would not be enough information. 10 amps consumed for one hour @ 220V would be 2.2 Kliowatt hours. Consuming 10 amps at 120V for an hour would only use 1.2 KWh.

If your entire service consisted of one voltage, than amp hours would be enough information since voltage is known and constant. But, that just means you're measuring Watts since voltage and current are known in this scenario.

Measuring kilovolt hours wouldn't tell you anything becuase your voltage is always present. You'd need to know how many amps are being consumed. Once you know that, you're now measuring Watts again....

Watts can be a measurement of consumption, and usually is used for that. However, you could describe the voltage and current traveling across a wire as Watts, and not be mistaken. Even though it is the device at the other end of the wire that is consuming the power, the power is still traveling across a wire on its way to consumption. So, Watts is a perfectly usable term to describe the amount of power being either consumed or transmitted.....

As such, watts can be directly converted to horsepower. If you use time as a factor as in KWh, you can directly convert to Joules.

So, KWh is a superfluous term and could be replaced with Joules..... Joules=Watts X Seconds........ So, the number would be much bigger but just as accurate.