Electronic – How do households get their power

currentvoltage

I'm a little confused about the whole kilowatt hour thing. I get its 1000 watts in 1 hour but I don't get how you figure out how much voltage and current is running through the house. I did a little research an found that houses are wired for 200 amps. This solves how much current can go through your house but not how much really is. Plus I don't think anyone will ever get close to 200 amps. Could anyone tell me how to figure out how much current and voltage is going through a house every second (or hour if it's easier). If it helps my house has an average of 600 kwh going through it. Thanks 🙂

Best Answer

Energy (measured in kWh) is simply the sum of power over time (measured in Watts, or Volts * Amps).

So, if you use 600 kWh in one month (I'm assuming that's what you meant), you can simply divide energy by time to get average power. Google is actually great for these type of conversions (you get 821 Watts): https://www.google.com/search?q=600%20kwh%20%2F%201%20month

Now, since Watts are Amps * Volts, you can just divide your average power by your voltage (120 Volts if you're in the US) to get your average current. Going to google again, it looks like 6.8 Amps: https://www.google.com/search?q=600%20kwh%20%2F%201%20month+%2F+120+volts

Of course, this ignores the fact that some of your power is probably used at 220 volts, such as washing machines and some furnaces and water heaters, but hopefully it is helpful anyway.