Let’s be honest, the only thing you tend to look at when your energy bill arrives is the cost. You may glance over the KW and KWH numbers, but you don’t really understand what they mean so why bother analysing it?

The thing is, understanding what KW and KWH means can help you to better understand your bill and more importantly, how you can lower it.

What does KWH mean?

KWH is short for Kilowatt per hour, and it basically refers to how many kilowatts you’re using. However, despite its name, it isn’t actually referring to the number of kilowatts you use within an hour. Instead, it measures how much energy you’d be using if an appliance running at 1000w was left on for an hour.

So, as Ovo Energy Ltd expertly explains, a 2000 watt appliance would use 1 KWH within just 30 minutes, while a 100 watt lightbulb would use the same amount of energy in 10 hours. Understanding how much energy each of your electrical appliances use can really help you to see where cut-backs could potentially be made.

How to use your KWH reading to become more energy efficient 

While your energy bill won’t show you what appliances have contributed to which percentage of KWH, it will give you a rough idea of how much you’re using. You can then look at your appliances to see which ones you use more often and which are likely to be bringing up your bill.

An electric 10000-watt shower for example, takes just six minutes to use 1KWH. So, if you’re frequently having long showers, you can see how that bill would quickly add up! It isn’t just appliances you’re actively using you should be worried about either. Leaving appliances on standby uses more electricity than you might think.

The biggest standby energy drainers include mobile phone chargers, TVs and set top boxes. Simply remembering to switch these things off could save you a surprising amount of money and cut your energy use down significantly too.

Overall, it does help to understand what KWH means if you’re looking to become more energy efficient within the home. You’ll be able to better understand your bill, make wiser purchasing decisions when choosing new appliances and see just how much savings you can make when you stop leaving appliances on standby.