Tuesday, September 27, 2011

When an appliance is rated at 1500 watts, what does that mean?

I am curious as to how an appliance that is rated at 1500 watts uses electricity. Does it burn 1500 watts an hour? A minute? I posted this question because I live in an area where our local power company has hiked the rates by 50% and I'd like to understand more of how I'm being charged for my usage. Thanks in advance!!!|||Wattage is charged for by the hour. If you look at your bill, you will see how many Kilowatt hours you used. 1500 watts is a high wattage appliance. Hair dryers are one that I know of. Not something you want to use for long periods of time.|||Watts is the measure of the rate of electric POWER that the appliance uses. Your local power company sells you ENERGY that is in the form of (power) x (time), usually expressed in kWh (kilowatt-hours).





Your appliance uses 1500 watts (or 1.5 kW) of POWER. So if you use it for two hours, it will consume 3 kWh (1.5 kW x 2 hrs) of ENERGY. That's what will appear on your bill.





You can reduce the bill by either using an appliance that is rated lower (fewer than 1500 watts) or operating the appliance for less time.|||1500 watts is = to 12.5 amps if that helps

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