Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
u
The Words and
Numbers of Electricity
Today, fi ve power plants on the Niagara River generate
almost 5 million kilowatts of electricity.
Watts
are units
of measurement that are used to express the rate at
which electric energy is used. Kilo comes from the Latin
word for 1,000, so the Niagara plants create 5 billion,
or 5,000,0000,000, watts (5,000,000 x 1,000).
Electricity can also be measured in larger units,
such as megawatts (one million watts) or gigawatts
(one billion watts). In homes, electric use is measured in
kilowatt-hours (kWh). To fi gure out how much electricity
a house uses, you can multiply the watts used by the
hours of use. In
the United States,
the average home
uses almost 1,000
kWh every month.
In 2008, the entire
United States
used 4.18 million
gigawatt-hours
of electricity.
Part of one of the power
plants on the Niagara River.
